The latest cohort of the Wix Playground Academy has just come to its exciting end, with nine fresh graduates proudly sharing their personal portfolios with the world.
We’ve spoken and written many times in the past about the many challenges that designing your own portfolio entails. The curation, the writing, the building, the ongoing back-and-forth of it all, being your own client, project manager and designer at the same time, all the while dealing with the most sensitive subject matter there is - yourself. The dramatic moment when everything finally comes together and presents itself as the final product never ceases to amaze us and make us proud.
With Creative Intuition as our monthly theme, it’s reassuring—and not at all surprising—to discover that the innate knowledge and creativity that us designers carry within us, played a huge role in our graduates' experience while planning, designing, and building their websites.
So without further ado, please check out the nine new portfolios and the designers that created them, sharing their work and a few words on the process and intuition that brought them here:
Eshed Shalev
Describe your website in 3 words
Classy, trashy, typographic.
Favorite detail in your website
It's really hard to say but it's a toss between the works gallery that's represented like flyers, and the hero section of the home-page with the big bilingual lettering I designed. I think both of them really represent something from my work and style.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
Finding the right balance between designing a unique portfolio that highlights my style that at the same time users won’t find confusing.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
The decision to design a bilingual lettering, that will hold the hero section. On the one hand I've got some experience with lettering in Hebrew and English, but on the other hand this decision really was the first in a row of decisions that dictated the tone and style of the site. Creating this balance between traditional looking letters to an overall "punk" or "grunge" feeling was pretty tough and took a few rounds before I got it right.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
Designing the first page as a long scroll. While sketching wireframes I also had a sketch of a dashboard that did not include any scrolling that I was really into. I think it's pretty trendy at the moment to go this way with your portfolio, but something in my gut told me that a scrolled homepage presenting the content of the site will suit me better and will make a greater impression. So that’s what I ended up doing.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
"I’ve Just spent 20 minutes on your site, it's amazing" - From a school mate. It’s really flattering knowing that someone spent this amount of time visiting my site. We live in a hyper-ADHD-reality and knowing that my site caught someone for this long got me feeling good about it.
Noa Raz
Describe your website in 3 words
Colorful, bold, fun
Favorite detail in your website
The preview animation that opens up whenever a sticker is hovered in the homepage (in desktop view).
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
Characterization of the stickers and finding the right balance in the composition of the homepage.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
I wanted to have a "window" - a major white space, surrounded by the typography, which will be used to present the projects and images from the projects in full screen.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling When I decided to create a mini logo for each project. It was the turning point that established the entire concept of the website, as they all ended up turning into the stickers which are the main design element of the site.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
When people hover over a sticker and see the animation preview, and they immediately smile, I feel like I achieved something with the website.
Dolphin Hayat
Describe your website in 3 words
Spacious, playful, detailed.
Favorite detail in your website
The ‘Dive Deeper’ icon.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
Creating the right balance between print-inspired design and digital interactions.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
The use of graphic representations for each project.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
I think the choice to reference my name humorously and create the entire underwater world was intuitive, and all the decisions that followed for it were also instinctive.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
To see a smile on someone’s face.
Shira Wiesenberg
Describe your website in 3 words
Informative, playful, craft-tech-combo
Favorite detail in your website
There’s a separate section in the site dedicated to textile projects which are a hobby of mine. I especially like it since it reveals a part of my creativity which doesn’t always get to shine, and it highlights my passion for craft, color, shapes and texture.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
The main challenge I dealt with was the ambition to create a website with a distinct identity on its own, that at the same time will be able to showcase my works in a flattering way without overshadowing them. It required an ongoing balance act between the need to create a powerful design experience and the practical needs of the portfolio - to show my works in the best possible way.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
The first design decision I took for my website was to create a grid system of individually scrolled columns. This represented my desire to have a detailed website which allows for each project to show its own information simultaneously.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
Choosing a craft-style visual language was quite intuitive for me. It was made visible in the columns and rows grid system which reminded me of weaving, as well as the dotted lines and certain typographic elements in the site which are inspired by textile and sewing.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
When I presented my website to the Wix design team, I felt that the textile section in my website was the thing that caught their attention, which felt very good, as it was a validation that I needed to include that part - something I wasn’t sure of to begin with..
Shai Blau
Describe your website in 3 words
Container, functional, minimalistic
Favorite detail in your website
The toggle view of the homepage, which can be viewed in two different modes - the first is random and experimental, and the second is indexed and functional. They both represent the two aspects of my identity as a designer.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
My main challenge was to figure out how to best display print projects in a digital environment. I focused on the interactive experience that replaces page-turning.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
The first creative decision I made was to let my work shine and put the projects I choose to present in the center. That led me to create a low-volume design and use a consistent grid system throughout the site.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
Choosing to use a single typeface and only two weights in order to create as much less ‘noise’ as possible. This minimalistic approach then also trickled to the textual minimalism and using a color palette that’s derived only from the projects presented.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
In our portfolio review with Talia Cotton, the first thing she was drawn to and commented on were the projects in the portfolio, so I felt that I really achieved my goal.
Hagar Segev
Describe your website in 3 words
Dimensional, creative, order
Favorite detail in your website
The observing eye in the corner of the page, assisting in various functions in the Home page and the About page.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
Showcasing projects that are so different in style, scope and format, and yet needing to display them under the same set of guidelines.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
Using the axial lines as an organizational element as well as a way to deliver additional information about my works, and which also aligns with my background and interests.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
Translating the experience to a mobile screen and using sidebars as an organizational element in the project pages.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
From a non-designer friend who looked at the site and said “That is so you!”.
Mazal Shira Lami
Describe your website in 3 words
Bold, colorful, balance
Favorite detail in your website
The scroll animation in my hero section that makes the card grow to full screen.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
The biggest challenge was editing the video to fit the format and design I chose for the hero section.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
Using bold typography and white space to create balance.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling Neutralizing the colors in the website using monochromatic black-and-white in order to let the works themselves act the color palette.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
It was from my friend Amit: “That’s your portfolio? Omg I need to build a new one!”.
Omer Sussman
Describe your website in 3 words
Bold, Balanced, Expressive
Favorite detail in your website
My favorite part of the website are the animated cards that pop open and provide an informative peek into each project.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
The biggest challenge was finding the right balance and harmony between creativity and usability. Being able to have a clear layout as a ground to work from with a design that is essentially quite bold in its esthetics, while maintaining clear navigation and accessibility.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
The first decision I made was to embrace the "Soft Hardness" concept to create space for bold, unapologetic design alongside a clean layout. This contrast sets the foundation for a design that's both impactful and refined, guiding attention without distraction.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
The choice to go with a juxtaposition of bold and oversized imagery against areas of calm white space. Trying to capture the user’s attention without overwhelming them - which is my design approach in a nutshell. It was my instinct to represent the dual nature of my work: vibrant yet grounded; soft yet edgy.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
The best response I received was from my mother who said: “It feels just like you, but on screen.” As usual, she’s right.
Hassan Kettany
Describe your website in 3 words
Mechanical, experimental, grounded
Favorite detail in your website
Dev Mode - the little toggle switch at the bottom.
The biggest challenge in designing and building the website
Making sure it had the perfect balance between being funky, experimental, and unique but still having a well-balanced ground of high quality design that would appeal to a wider audience.
What was the first creative decision you made in the process of working on your portfolio?
From the beginning I knew I wanted something that paid homage to the nostalgic websites of the Old Web.
Describe a design choice you made for the website using your intuition or gut feeling
The ‘More about me’ component: I never thought about it too much, I just knew it had to look like a little card that pops up from the bottom of the screen.
What was the best reaction you received about your portfolio, and from whom?
The best reaction I received was when people saw ‘The Great Archive’ - a feature I planned on having from the get-go but kept delaying it over and over. The last day before the presentation I scanned my sketchbooks, pulled an all-nighter of editing and implemented it into my website. When I arrived at work the next morning and showed it, everyone was blown away- from the other students to the staff to the mentors - because of the simple fact that the whole page didn't even exist the day before.
