New website, who dis?

End of the last year was marked by me being let go from the project I was working on for the whole year. Normally, that brings a lot of existential questions now when I have a small baby.

Once the panic settled, I started thinking about my next steps. I was tired of being benched, not being able to plan any future and more important, not being able to relax, work and enjoy life.

I had my agency’s web site running, but I never got around to properly setting it up with portfolio and everything. I redesigned it couple of years ago, thinking I could use it for a blog but I didn’t had the time to do even that. Scratch that, I had the time, it wasn’t a priority because I always had a constant stream of work coming in.

After a couple of nights of deep conversations and endless discussions with myself and more than a couple of beers, I decided to restart my agency to get the work I want to do.

Then I thought about how everything should work. I couldn’t use the last few years of work because of NDAs. “Okay”, I said to myself. “New personal project time”. Since I’m restarting the agency and with no work I could showcase I decided to start fresh. Separate my personal site from the agency, brainstorm projects I could build for show and... start creating.

The plan was to build zlokapa.com first, then refreshd.net as part of the new portfolio. I even held a sprint planning with myself. Yeah I know Scrum.

While working on the design of this site, I kept thinking “No, this is too much, I have to remove it”. I ended up scraping all design, removing all graphics, icons and almost all animations. “This site is supposed to be focused on the content and I have to design around it”. Which is what I did.

You get a sense of true freedom when you’re working on a personal project, especially the one without design. You can do what ever you want, no limitations. Combine that with a sense of direction you want to take and there is no end to what you can create.

I’m figuring out the direction part but almost everything is here.

Have something to add or comment? Feel free to email me or write me on Bluesky.