Introduction
I had lost the spark of designing from a recent burnout, and hadn't taken stock of my life. This little project has changed my portfolio from a stale site to a dynamic expression of my brand, personality, and ambition with the help of coding agents.
My role
I continued my existing brand style, and infused life into it with a PSX style 3D scene. Coding agents unlocked the ability to express my ideas faster without getting stuck behind code or designers' block.
The challenge
I directed Claude to build what's worth showing. After building some fun interactive widgets, I realized they didn't represent me all that much. A flippable business card felt like an "I'm supposed to be networking" instead of being fully me. This site is about rediscovering what I want to do, so I cut them.
Being specific is a skill... I used DialKit to adjust things live. Interface Craft by Josh Puckett was super helpful in walking through how to describe what to change on the screen, while still letting Claude execute to the best of its ability.
The process
I wanted CI for my portfolio for a long time. This was my chance to try it. I used Claude Code and deployed on Vercel. First I had it copy my existing style from the WordPress site into a style guide page for me to review. Then it brought over the rest of the pages and media.
Colour
Type · Work Sans / Figtree
Work Sans
Figtree is the body text. It symbolizes how I need the Lord and must not let Him go.
Standard scale, text-xs to text-5xl.
Corners
Square everywhere. Rounded is rejected.
Motion · one shared reveal
basement.studio inspired me. It reminded me that my path into product design began with 3D modelling and emailing Valve designers about level design in high school. Three.js is much easier now with Claude Code, so I wanted to bring that back.
My long term dream is to open a community space, so I sketched it in Fusion, exported it to Blender to texture, do a quick UV map, and imported it to three.js. I found a Blender plugin for the retro look I wanted, because the PlayStation was one of the first consoles I spent a lot of time on. Claude took those terms and built its own shader process in three.js instead of Blender.
Outcome
The new site is more nimble now that it's connected to coding agents working for me, and automatic deployments. I learned to let go of "the backend has to be this way!!!" mindset.
Before this project I thought I would never enjoy putting my portfolio out there. Now I know I can use coding agents to achieve what I want quickly, shortening the work-reward loop that I often struggled with when digging into code.
If I had kept WordPress, development would be much slower. I did not need a big CMS with more overhead, especially for local development.
To my past self who felt intimidated by building: just start doing things, and don't look for permission. The fun you have creating is going to attract the right eyes.