What’s going on?

Wait. Has it been eight months already? Time flies by.

I launched this website in March, as a successor to version two. This is the first “commercial” iteration of Wolf’s Little Store. Whereas before Wolf’s Little Store has always been a blog, now it’s both a blog and my portfolio as a freelance designer.

You would think after 8 months of freelancing I would be able to show a lot of work. Unfortunately that’s not the case: sites are still under development, there’s logos I made but the companies that I made them for are not public yet, or I’m just not allowed to show what I made (*sad face*).

Let me just say the coolest projects are still under covers.

Fortunately, there’s still things I can actually talk about. In January I started with a focus on branding and identity: something I didn’t really do before. That resulted in a few sweet projects.

Here’s some samples of brand guides I made:

I have to say branding and identity is one of the most challenging areas of design. It’s also one of the most frustrating areas of design. You can debate interface design; you can hardly debate emotions.

Fortunately, when the puzzle clicks, it’s also one of the more rewarding things you can do.

My background is in web design so naturally I was asked for some web design projects. In fact, I do most of my freelance work for web development companies, but there’s a couple of smaller sites that are 100% Wolf’s Little Store.

Above is a screenshot of e-Zen.be. e-Zen is Béate Vervaecke, specialized in Google Analytics and Adwords. I revamped the previous website — which was the first commercial website I ever designed, back in 2006 — and implemented the design as a responsive WordPress theme. If you visit the site on a tablet or mobile phone the design adapts to the available screen width.

Some people asked me to write a followup to my original article (Dutch) about responsive webdesign. I didn’t get around to a full article yet, but my short opinion is: I believe responsive design is the way to go for small websites that can’t afford to have a dedicated mobile website and/or websites where it’s overkill to design a separate mobile site. The above site is a perfect example: it’s a company website with a relatively simple structure that is mostly text-based. These kind of sites are perfect candidates for a responsive design.

In February I designed the website of Jurgen Lust, a freelance developer specialized in SaaS using all kinds of funky technologies I didn’t know before. I think he did a splendid job in faithfully converting my designs to a fully functional website. Every page was carefully designed. Next to the design, I helped edit some of the copy. I particularly like the look of the contact form.

My philosophy for a small website is that every page should be handcrafted; the photography or illustrations have to be done by a pro; the copy has to be written together or by a professional copywriter.

I don’t believe in giving a non-technical person a CMS and some templates. That doesn’t work. I outlined these ideas a long time ago. I’m not saying all website pages should all be editorially designed.

(If the prime example of editorial design on the web reverts back to a simpler tumblog, that just seems like a bad idea!)

I’m saying the design has to be made in tandem with the content. Not just dumping in the content afterwards. I can only dream.

Now for another project story. In March a project fell through and I found myself without work for a couple of days. Instead of enjoying my free time I started a side project: Fantasticons. Inspired by other designers selling some of their designs as stock, and this 37Signals post I started designing an icon set. This is a project I work on when I don’t have client work, which doesn’t really happens anymore these days. When the project does get released, you’ll first hear it through @fantasticons.

The main thing this project did so far is make me a lot more proficient in Illustrator, which has proven very handy so far.

What’s next?

My current focus in mainly on mobile applications (both web and native). I’m specializing in interface design and information architecture. Basically I’m more interested in making things work than making things pretty. I love user flows and designing products. I still like prettifying and sweating the details, but it’s not my main focus: I’m not an advertising agency.

I bought an Android phone to experiment with the platform. I got a new camera and I’m going to try taking my photography to the next level.

I’ve been busy designing two iPhone apps for two awesome companies — which I can’t shut up about — because I absolutely love designing for iOS. Tweaking the details and seeing that result come alive: love it.

Do you like what you read? I’m taking new projects starting October 2011. Get in touch.

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