Where it all began
Typically, a designers portfolio is a place to showcase their best work, but a portfolio can also be used to tell a story.
My story in the world of design starts here, with Passport to Italy.
I know nothing
I was 18 years old, had just finished high-school and enrolled in university to study Electronic Engineering. I had no idea what user experience was, no concept of a CMS and no clue what I was doing. So obviously, I decided to start a little boutique agency called Kreatek to help pay for uni and drinks. Luckily, I already had a client.
My mates mother and auntie had started an Italian language school and needed a website and some ideas as to how best to market their new business. I offered to help where I could, which eventually led to me designing and developing their website.
At the time, I had a general understanding of HTML and CSS but didn't fully grasp the challenge I had ahead of me. I didn't realise I needed to learn about SEO, how to create hover effects on buttons and links, how to centre content on a screen, basically I needed to learn everything. My first step was to download Firebug, equivalent to todays DevTools in Chrome. I spent most of my time learning how other developers had created their websites and how they structured HTML and CSS.
I also never realised there were frameworks available similar to Bootstrap (which in hindsight would of made my job so much easier). Everything I developed I wrote by hand. It was buggy, it was inefficient but it worked. And I was so excited that I had created something of my own that people could interact with.
The website went on to do very well for the business. The ladies were incredibly happy and their business is doing exceptionally well. Amazingly, the site is still live and can be found at passporttoitaly.com, even after almost 10 years.
At the time, I think I was most proud of that repeating tuscan background image.
Why was this project the beginning of my career?
At 18, I was a bit of a lost cause. I wanted to get into engineering because I loved technology and thats what my dad did. He seemed pretty happy, so why shouldn't it work well for me also? Well, things don't always turn out the way you hope they do. I lost interest in university very quickly. I realised that I didn't truly enjoy all the complex mathematics that was needed and it didn't help that I found my lecturers and tutors uninspiring. I dropped out within six months, around the same time I started working on Passport to Italy.
Working on that site, I realised that I stilled loved technology, but the application of that technology and not the design or development of electronic hardware. I discovered that I could make a career from software and internet technologies. And then I watched Die Hard 4 and became obsessed with cyber security.
I signed up for a computer science degree at Deakin University and focused my major on security. I learning about how the Internet works and how the complexities of internet security, I would spend hours coding and developing little websites just for the fun of it. I even started working during the summer holidays doing odd IT jobs such as fixing computers and installing software.
Working in technology felt incredible. I wanted to learn as much as I could about everything, even if it wasn't related to my role. At this point I met Dean Attard, who gave me my first big break and probably taught me more about technology than I ever could learn at university.
When I graduated, I began to move through the industry between a few different companies, some I really enjoyed, others not so much. Each experience however helped me learn more about what I enjoyed and more importantly, more about what I didn't enjoy. I learned very quickly that I didn't want be a software developer, a management consultant or a system architect. I knew there were aspects about each of these roles that I enjoyed and I wanted to bring these experiences with me moving forward.
Over several years I discovered that there was a balance between the technical world of development and the high-level customer facing world of consulting. I discovered UX design. And I discovered that I could bring all of the previous experiences i've had to make me a better designer, one that had an appreciation and understanding of how technology works and how design can make these technologies work to create a better experience for customers.
If i could go back to being 18 years old again, knowing that I love product design, would I have studied it straight away without wasting time with engineering, computer science or any of the jobs I took in my early 20s? Absolutely not. My experience has made me a better designer and a better person.
I have only just rediscovered the Passport to Italy website and it reminds me of how incredibly proud I am of the journey I have taken to get to where I am now.