You may or may not have noticed the facelift over at Outbox Online. A while back I had created an online portfolio for myself that was really focused on letting the work speak for itself. So much so that I think I was afraid of having much, if any, visual design associated with the site. In a way, it’s similar to selling your house — you want to keep it as neutral as possible so that potential buyers can see themselves there. In recent memory, I’ve changed my mind about that decision. I really wanted to have a personal aesthetic associated with the site, but allow the work to show the variety of things I can do. Part of what I offer is consistently (hopefully) clean, fresh and unique, and I wanted to capture that in the design of my own site.

In a similar way, it was difficult to design my business cards. Because of an event, they needed to be designed in one evening, but I’m still fairly happy with them. And it’s important that they have a visual relationship to my site, so people who look from one to the other see a relationship between them.

Even one day later, I see things I may want to change about the site, but I’ll sit with it for a week or so before I make any decisions.

When something happens in life, like your kitty getting sick, you just phone into the office and tell your boss you’ve got a family emergency and you’ll be in as soon as you’re through with the vet. Your job will be there on the other side, after you’ve signed off on the iv fluids and x-rays. But when you work for yourself, it’s not so easy. So much of freelancing is availability. How responsive are you when a new client gets in touch? What about your on-going projects? When you’re a one-woman show, it’s hard to find the right balance, especially early on.

I suppose with existing clients it’s easier — you’ve developed a rapport with them already and a level of trust. But when you’re establishing new relationships, especially remotely, it’s hard to know the right way to be unavailable.

When I remember, and know my schedule ahead of time, I can change my outgoing message on my voicemail, or create an auto-response to emails letting people know my availability and when they can expect to hear back from me. But in a world where the expectation of email response is in the minutes, not hours or days, I’m not sure of the answer beyond making sure my iPhone is fully charged.

Last Christmas, my father-in-law passed away in Scotland, and alot of my time leading up to that event was spent waiting for hospitals and doctors, and sleeping odd hours. Because of that, I continued my online freelance work from there — it was good to have something I felt confident about when everything else was seemingly falling to pieces. A client at the time inquired as to why I was in the UK, and after telling her, she was astounded that I was so responsive given the circumstances. In a way, I completely agree that work should have been the last thing on my mind. But in another way, the familiarity of it, and the looking-towards-the-future that it entailed, was a positive thing.

I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t really enjoy it, but knowing when to start and stop is a challenge.

Ah, designing for yourself. Even if you follow the same process that you use with clients (ie: setting goals, mapping pages, drawing inspiration, etc..) it is infinitely more difficult than creating something for someone else.

My portfolio site is constantly evolving. Not only as I add new projects to it, but also as I strive to find the balance between enough design to create my own brand, but not so much that others can’t see their own projects executed by me. In some way, just having a good portfolio design in and of itself is enough — if people like what they see, they’ll have more confidence that they’ll like what you create for them. But in another way, you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into a particular aesthetic.

I know that people hire me because they’re looking for an uncomplicated design, and that thread runs across all of my projects. So, I start with that. I choose colors and fonts that express a friendliness and informality that’s important to me and my process. I try to make the site as easy to navigate as possible, and provide enough examples of recent work that someone can get an idea of my range, but not so many that someone gets lost in them. I give people a way to get in touch with me, and some idea as to what I’m like as a person.

While I continue to be both a full-time user experience designer and a moonlighting freelancer, I consider the goal of the site. It’s not to find another full-time user experience position, so I remove elements that would present me that way. It *is* to create more freelance business, so I highlight projects that I think will help with that goal. When I transition over, I’ll have to reassess given the change in my schedule. Do I need a 1-800 number? What about a business address?