Elanor

Elanor is a single-screen portfolio for a designer and developer, and it puts all of its energy into one dramatic hero. A dark portrait of a woman against a black curtain fills the page, and the name Elanor scrolls endlessly across her face as a marquee in tall, high-contrast Gambarino capitals, separated by soft lilac asterisks. Underneath, "I am a digital Designer & Developer based in London" sits in the same serif at a smaller size, and a cream Selected Works button with a tiny star waits near the center. The palette is just warm off-white, near-black and that one lilac accent.

Jacob Nielsen frames the hero with small, all-caps Aspekta labels in each corner rather than a traditional header. Home, Work, About and Contact stack vertically on the top left, a name and job title sit near the top center, a copyright year sits on the right, and links to a style guide, licenses and a changelog line the bottom edge. The Work page carries the same corner labels, sets a large serif Work heading on the right with a date range and a Scroll to explore cue, and then opens into full-width project panels, the first one a bright electric blue block.

On a phone, the portrait gets even closer, the marquee crops to a few letters at a time, and the Selected Works button moves to the left above the intro line.

We'd pick Elanor for designers, developers and art directors with a short name and a portrait they love. A long name will break the rhythm of the marquee, and everything rests on one moody, well-lit photo. Since the homepage shows no work at all, we'd make sure the Work page is well stocked before launch.