5 Personal Website Ideas for Designers and Illustrators

In order to become as successful as they can be, creatives are stepping up their game and enriching their tool arsenal any way they can. While this is great news for the industry, it also means that the competition among designers and illustrators is fierce! Which is why many turn to building their online brands, starting with showcasing their work on a personal website.

The challenge today is not only to master certain tools but also to find a way to make your skills stand out.

“Why a personal website?” you might ask…

Most of you are using social media platforms as a means to promote pieces of your work let your followers know what you’re up to. Great job! However, when it comes to prospective employers or clients, this is probably not sufficient. The best way to showcase your work, and land that project you are so excited about, is to gather the best of you in one place and build an impressive online portfolio.

These five successful designers realized that creating an online personal portfolio is a must. We are proud to call them “MErs” and believe they are someone you can learn a lot from. I certainly do hope they make you feel inspired!

Mariano Pascual from MarianoPascual.ME

Mariano Pascual is an illustrator, visual artist, and designer from Argentina. He describes his work as abstract and figurative, but with a dose of realism. While creating, he likes to play with colors, composition, and textures and uses visual language as a means of expressing his emotions. 

His website – colorful, abstract with interactive design – sure speaks volumes about Mariano’s devotion, aesthetic and artistic expression. Mariano is not a conventional graphic designer, and he managed to create an interactive online environment that speaks volumes about his work. To be honest, I can’t imagine his projects being featured in any other way.

Read more: Leveraging the Patreon Platform for Online Creators and Artists (ncase.ME use-case)

Such a creative portfolio features his work prominently and lets potential clients know exactly what they can expect. Moreover, you can check out the list of his exhibitions and press appearances, and even buy some of his artwork straight from the online shop. 

Julien from Julien.DreamDesign.ME

Julien is a designer and illustrator from France who uses his creativity mainly for creating illustrations, logos, and icons. He usually goes for pastels and neutrals in his creations and finds inspiration in space and nature. The composition is simple, yet slightly abstract and refined. As some of his illustrations are truly dream-like, it’s no wonder he opted for the term dreamdesign to be part of his brand name. 

Julien’s personal website is organized in a similar way as Instagram or Pinterest – a simple, familiar, and straightforward visual representation of his work. His homepage is like a gallery you can browse through and get a feel of what his artistic identity actually is. With just one click you get more information about a project. Such layout enables future clients to navigate the page with ease and find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. At the same time, it gathers projects found on different online locations in one place.

Nathan Sanders from NathanSanders.ME

Apart from being a die-hard fan of Star Wars (some of us can totally relate! :)), Nathan is a talented designer and illustrator from Chicago, focused mostly on branding, web and graphic design. His works are modern and contemporary, with a hint of quirkiness, a dash of humor, and a pop of color. 

This fella decided to feature both professional projects and personal work in his rich online portfolio. Illustrations, branding and web design concepts, together with some wedding artwork Nathan created when he was getting married, is what you will find when you go to his website. He even does t-shirt illustrations! It’s safe to say that he is a pretty versatile designer, don’t you think? Luckily, his website does him justice, so prospective clients are sure to notice his potential.

While Juian decided to provide just a short description of his projects, Nathan goes into more detail, allowing the website visitor to see key designs he worked on then and there. 

Mackenzie Child from MackenzieChild.ME

Mackenzie Child is an innovative designer and illustrator, with a strong passion for coding. As a result, he creates innovative, complex and sophisticated marketing designs, and at the same time makes it his priority to promote his work through his personal website featuring some of his best work. Besides this, Mackenzie happily shares his creative and learning process and tricks of the trade because he knows that acquiring new and perfecting existing skills is paramount in the world of code and design.

His portfolio is quite impressive and it clearly shows his willingness and desire to step out of his comfort zone. Over the years, he’s taken on many different projects, improved his knowledge and skillset, and pushed his boundaries many times. His efforts were clearly not in vain – with more than 73k social media followers, Mackenzie sure knows what he’s doing. And he’s doing it right. 

Josh Sullivan from JoshSullivan.ME

Josh Sullivan is an Illinois-based product designer, mostly interested in UI and UX design and branding. He takes pride in making sure he delivers top-notch, user-friendly and unique design solutions that will satisfy even the pickiest of clients. His style is sophisticated and intricate, and he tends to use darker shades and natural hues. 

He used his page as an opportunity to introduce himself to his online audience. If you decide to check his website you will find links to his Dribble and LinkedIn profiles which direct towards places where you can find more information about his experience and his work. In that way, Josh is giving people context to anything else they can find about him online, and pointing out the most relevant professional sources.

What about You?

No matter how talented and exquisite of a designer you are if you fail to feature your work you’ll miss out on so many great opportunities. Don’t make such a rookie mistake – create a personal website early on so that your work can speak for itself. 

Read more: When Illustration, Design, and Code Meet: An Enthusiast’s Ace Tips on Growing a Personal Brand

Here you have examples of five designers who fully understand the importance of creating a stunning personal website and making an effort to build a personal brand, while at the same time taking full advantage of their .ME domain name. (You must agree – one simply can’t get more personal than that!)You’re in charge of your brand – now go and make yourself heard!