Andy Stone

Where do I start with this one? It is hard to explain how elated I am that the site is finally live. Just over three months and countless restarts in the making, I am happy to have a new place to call “home” during my hours online.

Since jumping headfirst into freelance this February, my portfolio has grown rather rapidly and I hope to feature the new projects—and the processes behind them—in a few upcoming articles. So far, the variety of projects coming through my door (see also: my inbox) have kept me entertained; I’ve been working on everything from Facebook pages for tech startups in Boulder to branding projects for breweries in Portland, OR.

The scope of projects that I have been taking on lately keeps changing, so this site was designed with that continuous growth in mind. You might notice that it is a lot more stripped down than most of my work as of late, and hopefully that is a good thing. I tried a litany of different versions with a lot of illustration and custom design, but it felt forced and really took away from showcasing what was important throughout the site. The current design acts as more of a frame for the articles and portfolio, and allows each of the projects’ art direction to shine through a bit more prominently.

In the creation of this site I learned about some invaluable processes for my design and production flow, which I am happy to employ on a variety of freelance projects right now. First bit to note: the entire website is aligned to a strict baseline grid for both the typography and the imagery throughout the pages—allowing for a semantic flow of information and a reduction of guesswork for where elements should be placed. The baseline grid was developed to work in conjunction with the 960 grid system, and helped to define the typographic relations throughout the site. Also, you may notice the custom type across the site is Skolar, served up via Typekit. I am in love with this typeface, from foundry TypeTogether, and think that it strikes a fine balance between elegance and personality in a contemporary face.

Another important aspect of this site will be the continuation and proliferation of the articles section. I  will continue writing on design theory—as I progress in my own education—in the coming weeks and months. For now, I am staying away from allowing comments on the articles, but will see how this plays out over the next few weeks. Mostly, I would like to keep this whole site as simple as possible to really just focus and on the words and pictures. And, if you enjoy any of the articles or downloads, feel free to share them in any manner that you see fit.

Thank you very much for your support. If you would like a few more updates, you can find me on Twitter from time to time.