Situation
Robin Siegel has worked in television, film, and red carpet—including nine seasons as Department Head of Makeup on Friends. She had an enormous backlog of creative materials in personal files and needed a web showcase. The jobs to be done were simple and high-stakes: present work history, and make it easy for clients to get in touch.
Constraint
The site had to sound like Robin, not like a studio template. Taxonomy and tone were the product; the CMS was the delivery vehicle.
Decision
I ran project management, organizational strategy, brand development, UI design and development, and blog content strategy and copywriting. The unglamorous work was taxonomizing the archive so the portfolio could be browsed instead of dumped.
Outcome
The finished site matches her aesthetic and brand tone. The client-attracting goal was met, and the timeline beat her expectations. The site is still at robinsiegelbeauty.com (opens in a new tab).
What I would do again
Start with the archive, not the homepage. If the materials are not organized, no amount of visual design will make the portfolio usable.
What I would change
I would have defined a lightweight content model (show, campaign, editorial) as a written spec before touching WordPress, the same way I now specify objects before screens.