Welcome to my new portfolio
Written 20th of February 2009, in News
It's with great pleasure I welcome you to my new portfolio! It's taken me a lot of time and (I wish I could say coffee, but I'm not too fond of it) Coca Cola. In this post I've written about some of the choices and changes I've made through this process which has taken quite some time! 
With this version, I decided to re-structure, re-design and re-code everything. When I looked over my old portfolio I discovered several flaws – flaws that I couldn't fix by just simply adjusting the design or code. The content was displayed poorly and I couldn't present my projects with the depth that I wanted to. I was limited to 1-2 pictures and a tiny bit of text. The new version has room for more content and it's more structured.
Changes
While my old portfolio was driven by Wordpress, this one is riding a hand built CMS in Django that my friend Henrik Lied has been so kind to develop. It's no longer a typical "one page portfolio", but split into several pages to create both a broader presentation of myself as a designer and person, and a more lasting solution that can survive plenty of updates in both content and design.
It has taken me a really long time, and a lot of thinking, to get this new design to a level I´m truly satisfied with. You see, originally I wanted to create a more playful portfolio, with keywords such as “illustrations”, “colors” and “personality” in focus. However, I soon realized something that made me change my mind - “playful” simply didn’t fit with the rest of my work. The old design is interesting, sure enough, but that was the crux of it - it competed with my work, rather than underlining and accentuating it.
The header from the first version. A more personal touch with illustrations and more colours.
This decision to change the design however, was not taken until right before the site was about to be launched. I was quite content with it, and the feedback I´d gotten from my peers was generally good. They liked the personal feel of it and the fact that my illustrations got some attention. I feel confident that it could have worked out to be a decent portfolio. Nevertheless, I’m glad I decided to dump it – to me, it was more important to give the rest of my work the justice it deserves.
The content was displayed on a white background with Palatino as the main typeface.
I’m very proud to present this new version, and I do hope you enjoy it. It’s been one of the more challenging designs I’ve ever done. I guess that’s to be expected when you are designing for yourself though. Anyway, I’ve learned a lot, perhaps even things I wouldn’t have learned while working with regular clients? I am my own hardest critic, after all.
Enjoy my portfolio and please leave a comment if you'd like!
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Feb. 21, 2009
Hein Haraldson Berg
Congratulations!
Great design, great typography, great focus on what's important in any context on this site. Be proud of yourself! ;)
Feb. 21, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
Thank you for those kind words, Hein. And thanks for being so incredibly helpful with everything!
Feb. 21, 2009
Jesper Haug Karsrud
Wow, this is awesome Ole Martin! Not that I in any way doubted that the new design would be awesome. You have outdone yourself again, and you will probably continue to do so for a long, long, long time! Congratulations! :)
Feb. 21, 2009
Måns Wikström
Great great work with your portfolio, the structure is excellent with the short presentation that really sums it all up and you managed to get the internship request in there as well. The testimonial section makes the whole site and your self so much more trustworthy. Visually I'm sold as well, great color scheme and typography. You should eat a cake and be proud mate.
Feb. 21, 2009
Robin Isakson
Liked your previous portfolio but this is even better. Easy and structured navigation. Great color scheme and overall look. Congratulations!
Feb. 21, 2009
Tine Saxegaard
Looking through your portfolio is a wonderful and inspiring experience! Congratulations!
Feb. 22, 2009
Anders-Meyer Eldøy
Great site! I have waited for this site since I first saw your HI.-blog on Styleboost. And the result has me convinced, you are really talented!
Btw. Added your portfolio on http://www.webdesignmagasinet.no/2009/02/ole-martin-kristiansen/
Feb. 22, 2009
Anders-Meyer Eldøy
Oh, I spotted a "bug" URLs in your comment texts doesnt convert to links. Or should I have used HTML / BBCODE? (didn't see any information on this)
Feb. 22, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
Thank you for those kind words Anders! There's no bug, but rather lacking information from my part! The comments can be formatted with Markdown, check out the link-syntax here.
Feb. 22, 2009
Daus
Nice colors, nice typography. Congratz!
Feb. 23, 2009
Seline
Å, jeg ble så glad når jeg fant websiden din, Ole Martin! Du er ordentlig flink, så flink skal jeg også bli en dag. He he. Nå skal jeg ta en titt innom arbeidet ditt, måtte bare slenge ut en kommentar først. Snakkes:)
Feb. 23, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
Nå ble jeg alvorlig talt sjokkert Seline! Ante ikke at du drev med hverken blogging eller design! Så gøy – fin blogg med fiffig innhold har du og!
Feb. 23, 2009
Bjørn Endre
Well done, Ole! You've created a clean and simplistic website and you surely do have a keen eye for design. The quote in the footer says it all :D
Feb. 24, 2009
Ivan Vasilev
You did a great job man! I am still wondering about my portfolio and surprisingly yours looks like my dreamed one! :D hahaha Well not exactly but very close ... great job! I don't know exactly what Hyper Island is but as I see some designers who study there they ALWAYS do well with their design tasks. Keep it up!!! kabooom! :D
Feb. 25, 2009
Rohan
Great site dude keep up the clean work!
Feb. 25, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
@bjørn & @rohan: Thank you so much! @ivan: Hyper Island is a school in Sweden (though international) that teaches creative communication through design, technology and management! You work very close to the industry and the last 7 months are spent in an internship :)
Feb. 27, 2009
Chuck Green
Nice stuff. Like the use of transparency.
March 3, 2009
Alberto Villalobos
Great job, lover your site and the design of your personal blog, both are very clean,, i have to praise the way that you show the information inyour portfolio, because i think is quite logical and estetical.
please continue with your efforts
March 12, 2009
Jonas
yo Ole, sjukt grym sida. genomtänkt och väldesignad, kreativt identity-arbete också.
kul att se bra digital design! lycka till med studierna på HI
March 12, 2009
Magnus Jepson
Fantastic design! Clean grid, simple and lovely typography everywhere!
Let me know if you ever want to do any WordPress themes
March 12, 2009
Christian Alexander Dalsvaag
Hi,
I am really impressed with your site, and the functionality of it. The way you present your portfolio, and the navigation with it is both innovative and simple to use – congratulations.
Loved your work aswell!
March 12, 2009
Johann Dizon
Just saw your site on BWG. Very simple clean and good use of white space!
March 14, 2009
Will
Great job with this design. It really stood out for me from the sites I've seen recently. Lovely typography.
You're very talented - keep it up!
Will
March 15, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
Thank you so much for your very kind comments! I'll do my very best to keep this journal updated with some hopefully interesting posts.
RSS coming!
June 1, 2009
Andrew
One think i don't like is that when i scroll down your project list and pick a project, i have to scroll down again. Otherwise everything is great.
June 5, 2009
eric
Hey Ole,
beautiful site you have here. Just curious, what fonts are you susing for the images in the nav bar up top and the yellow subheadings?
July 7, 2009
Jonas Duri
Really good job, i like the typography and the color scheme. just cool...
July 22, 2009
svenhutchinson
very very very nice work!!
I have the same question as eric, whats the yellow/orange ish font that you are using. I have seen it on a few site but still don't know what it is
July 23, 2009
vijay nemade
Very NIce......
Aug. 16, 2009
Ole Martin Kristiansen
@eric & sven – The font is called Soho!
Aug. 25, 2009
Adnan
i appreciate your design and i want to learn like u dear
Sept. 2, 2009
Bill Bartmann
This site rocks!
Sept. 24, 2009
FrankieB
Hey very nice blog!!....I'm an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I'll be checking back on a regular....See ya
Oct. 7, 2009
PatShelby
Hey, I found your blog while searching on Google your post looks very interesting for me. I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work! :)
Oct. 9, 2009
Veboows
Ага, теперь ясно... А то я не сразу поняла где тут связь с названием...
Oct. 16, 2009
Paras G.
I like how easy it is to navigate your website and the way you've structured everything. Great hierarchy, clean layout and typography and really creative work! Have added you under the 'Links' section of my site at http://parasg.com/links.
Good job, Ole!
Nov. 4, 2009
web development company
That was inspiring,
Great portfolio!
Keep up the good work,
Thanks for writing, most people don't bother.
Dec. 13, 2009
lv
nice post .
Feb. 5, 2010
Artur
great design, i like it greetings from Poland :)
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Feb. 24, 2010
Riley@LasVegasWebDesign
Congrats Ole Martin! Your new website is really, really nice looking! I've never heard of Django -- is it a new CMS?
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