The making of my portfolio website started as a personal challenge: build a portfolio that felt current, intentional, and like me—not another boring, basic template. I wanted the look and tone to reflect my personality with a subtle nod to my Chicago roots, using modern, bold, and clean design choices that still felt warm and approachable. The goal was straightforward: showcase my case studies clearly, make it easy to learn about me, and keep contact options obvious.

To get there, I created wireframes using Adobe Illustrator, starting with some base visual imagery in Adobe Photoshop and then transferring those elements into Illustrator to complete the wireframe designs. I moved from lo-fi to hi-fi concepts over the course of a week, using Chicago-inspired energy, my favorite color blue, and trendy neutral palettes, balanced with a clean, faith-aligned aesthetic. I also designed with motion and modern interaction in mind, planning for elements like an animated horizontal scroller, fade-in overlays, and a layout that feels polished without becoming busy.

This page highlights my lo-fi, mid-fi, and desktop wireframes for the Home, Case Study, and About pages, showing how the structure and hierarchy came together early and how I refined the experience while building in Webflow. While the final site stayed true to the original wireframes, I made focused adjustments along the way by modernizing case study imagery, removing unnecessary elements, and simplifying sections to keep everything clean, direct, and easy to navigate.