The portfolio website that will get you dancing
WeFail's Martin Hughes summons the spirit of the Hacienda for his Flash-based portfolio website.
There's lots to take into account when building a killer portfolio website. In an industry as competitive as design, you have to do all that you can to stand out from the crowd. Martin Hughes of We Fail has done something a little different for his site and channels the unlikely inspiration of Michael Jackson. We spoke to him about the process.
"The animations are all put together by hand in Flash, then exported out using Toolkit to JavaScript and the CreateJS library. From there I could add more JS and build the UI. So Flash is still really relevant in making animations like these, they couldn't be put together by hand," he explains.
"The style came about from wanting to base the site in Manchester, where I'm from and where I've probably found the most inspiration for my work. So, I decided to build the Hacienda around me as the narrator, the rest of it then trickled in as new ideas building on that foundation, but also trying to keep in mind that it should be entertaining enough to get people to share it."
"Beyond that, lots of debugging and testing across all platforms and devices. It took a long time to iron out any bugs that each operating system brings along as baggage. I worked alongside Sebastian DeRossi, a good friend who knows CreateJS inside out, so his help was invaluable in making the site run as it should do for as many users as possible."
"The site took around four months to put together, lots of learning along the way and a ton of time spent getting all those dance moves in, which were mostly based on Michael Jackson videos!" Be sure to take a look at the site in full and let us know what you think!
What do you think of Hughes' new portfolio website? Let us know in the comments box below!
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Sammy Maine was a founding member of the Creative Bloq team way back in the early 2010s, working as a Commissioning Editor. Her interests cover graphic design in music and film, illustration and animation. Since departing, Sammy has written for The Guardian, VICE, The Independent & Metro, and currently co-edits the quarterly music journal Gold Flake Paint.
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