Portfolio as a Blog/CMS

cb — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:14:16 +0000

For quite some time, my portfolio site has been nothing more than my resume (as a simple HTML page) posted online with links to images and SWFs from previous projects – the quintessential ‘mechanics car’. “I’m too busy building stuff for other people to worry about polishing my own site,” I would say to myself. But, I cringed with embarrassment every time I sent it out to potential employers, particularly for design related work. Sure, I have plenty of relevant experience, but my skills weren’t adequately reflected in what was essentially my business card. Not exactly the best first impression.

Lately, I have been focusing much of my attention on RSS applications, weblogs in particular, and have created a few for myself and others. At some point between setting up a Joomla CMS and yet another WordPress blog, it occurred to me that a hybrid of the two would make an excellent platform for a new and improved portfolio site. Of course, using a blog as a CMS is not a new concept. In fact, it makes quite a bit of sense. Blogs are generally easier to install, customize and maintain than a CMS and are generally well supported. WordPress, for example, has a very active community of users and developers continually improving an already mature product. As with other blogging software, WP offers a variety plugins and themes to work with and if you have questions or need something specific, there are plenty of resources to call upon.

So, after 2-3 days of tinkering, I have taken what was perhaps the weakest link in my professional image, and have reworked it into something I can proudly refer to potential clients and employers. Not to mention, the time spent under the hood has given me a better understanding of PHP, CSS and the WordPress architecture.