Project Description: Make myself a website capable of hosting my multifaceted portfolio of freelance writing and web design work.
Client: Myself, Peter Chordas—freelance writer and web designer by day, post-apocalyptic superhero by night.
Project Description: Make a website capable of hosting my multifaceted portfolio of freelance writing and web design work.
A Quote
I work for hire as a freelance writer, and I build websites—including the one you’re looking at right now.
The Inside Scoop
Copywriting
There were essentially only two major pieces of writing for this site:
- The “Home” page, and
- The “About” page
I opted to turn the Home page into a landing page, selling potential visitors on my services. That was straight forward and easy enough. (Note: the front page has since changed as part of a more recent update.)
As for the About page, I must admit—writing about myself is my least favorite kind of writing.
Writing your About page?
No problem!
Writing my About page?
Ugh… It’s just so hard to know what to say.
I mean…
How can you summarize everything you know about yourself in a few short paragraphs?
How can you even choose what’s relevant?
It’s like when you’re about to have your photo taken, so you try to arrange your face into your “good photo face.” But of course, most of us are really bad at determining what about ourselves looks good to others, so we often grin sheepishly and wind up looking silly.
On my first three or four About page drafts, I looked silly, too.
What you see now on my About page is, I believe, my fifth draft… And hopefully the last!
Website
The original design for www.peterchordas.com was as a simple four-page portfolio site to display my freelance writing and web design work. I figured I’d have to expand the site later on, but with a small starting portfolio it was adequate for my purposes at the time.
Logo
For my logo I wanted something a little rough around the edges. Something that could show my artistic style, writerly inclination, and design savvy—all while maintaining a reasonable level of business professionalism.
This was the result.
I dunno… It’s kinda gritty, but I think it works. I like it just fine.
For the site icon, I reduced it to just my initials.
Business Cards
I was having trouble coming up with a card design I liked, so I decided to use a picture I had taken earlier that day. As George Carlin once said, “I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It’s so f****n’ heroic.“
I felt the same, so I went with it, all the while kinda knowing that the design would be a placeholder. (See the updated version here.)
My Favorite Part
Being contacted by new clients like you. Give it a try by clicking here.
See the results:
I’ve since updated my business card and site design, the details of which you can read about here.
