HexvorPortfolios
A portfolio site that gets out of the way of the work
In a portfolio, the work leads and everything else gets quieter — including the navigation. The most common way one fails is a design so busy that nobody sees what it was built to show.
Describe your siteTry something like this
A portfolio for a documentary photographer. Six projects with a page each, a short about, and contact. Editorial, generous margins, no interface competing with the pictures.
The more of it that is true of your business, the less of the result you will have to change. Hexvor never invents a phone number, an address, a price or a review — anything you leave out comes back as an obvious placeholder rather than as a plausible lie.
20 rules the engine applies to this kind of site
Not a feature list. These are the actual instructions sent with your request when Hexvor recognises the trade, on top of the 647 that apply to every site.
Work dominates
The strongest work is the first and largest thing. Nobody hires from an about page.
A portfolio has a voice
It should look like the person who made it, not like a portfolio template.
Case studies explain
Process, decisions and outcome — not three pictures and a title.
Curate, do not archive
Selected work beats everything ever made, presented equally.
Give important work room
Large, generous presentation for the projects that matter.
Say what you did
Name the role and the contribution on every project.
Navigation stays simple
A portfolio needs few links and no cleverness.
Typography is identity
Let type carry a large part of the personality.
An about with a purpose
Say the relevant expertise and something true about the person.
Contact is easy
One obvious way to get in touch, present on every page.
Move between projects
Let somebody go to the next project without returning to a grid.
Outcomes when they exist
Show measurable results where they were given.
Process where it adds
Sketches and iterations only when they explain something.
Never a plain three-column grid
The default portfolio grid is the fastest way to look like everybody else.
Vary the rhythm
Alternate image scale and density deliberately down the page.
Motion with a reason
Animation to make work feel alive, never to demonstrate that animation is possible.
Impact survives a phone
A project that only works at full width does not work.
Fast enough to browse
Heavy imagery makes a portfolio feel slow, which reads as unprofessional.
Credibility only if given
Clients, roles and publications only where they were provided.
End with a next step
Finish on contact or on the next project, never on nothing.
Describe yours
Free to start, no card. Publish when it looks right.
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