Name: Interviews — FlowMapp
Brand: FlowMapp
Availability: OnlineOnly

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M.W. Leitzel is a visual storyteller, brand strategist and problem solver with a background in animation, motion design and illustration. He has previously worked with NASA, Nickelodeon, Frederator, Sony, GQ and Lionsgate.

Marc Leitzel, Senior Animator at NASA

<h2>Marc, please tell us about your professional journey as a designer&nbsp;</h2>I’m a visual storyteller. I’ve held a number of roles and worked a number of gigs, notably as a motion designer, multimedia artist, video editor, copywriter, voice actor, 2D and 3D animator and brand designer. However, these are just different skills I use to achieve my objective of telling stories. My education and early career were in the fine arts until I realized my true love was, as I mentioned, storytelling. I moved to New York and then, more recently, to Silicon Valley, working with clients in STEM, entertainment, education and advertising along the way.

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Screenshot from Marc’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youtu.be/B56kYcjqnzE">Motion Graphics Reel</a>

If you’re surrounded by motion designers, you may be looking at a melting pot of 2D or 3D animators, graphic designers and compositors — heck, my own educational background is in the fine arts!

<h2>How would you describe motion design for non-designers?&nbsp; &nbsp;</h2>Motion design is a discipline combining the principles of graphic design, animation and filmmaking. Motion design contributes to many different areas of work: from animated entertainment to bringing a motion to the user experience of apps and websites and designing the lower thirds for televised award shows and sports games. As video and animation continue to be used as preeminent tools in education, user interfaces, and storytelling, motion designers are increasingly becoming an essential part of many cross-functional teams. They also serve a variety of roles — from brand development to advertising and product design.

<h2>What are the main principles of motion design that you follow in your work?</h2>&nbsp;Let me start with a little backstory. If you’re surrounded by motion designers, you may be looking at a melting pot of 2D or 3D animators, graphic designers and compositors — heck, my own educational background is in the fine arts! The one thing we might have in common is that we are using the same suite of tools and are looking at the same pool of potential work and contemporary aesthetics. However, the overall direction of our careers may be different based on our goals and strengths.&nbsp;<ol><li>Motion design has its roots in animation, as they both rely on the observation of life and motion to create a deliberate and appealing visual experience. So, the 12 basic principles of animation established decades ago by renowned Disney animators serve as a necessary foundation for interpreting and executing motion.&nbsp;</li><li>Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann is a foundational book I would also recommend to all motion designers.</li></ol>

The animation itself is not a crutch and cannot overcome bad design

<h2>How can web products and services benefit from motion design?&nbsp;</h2>&nbsp;Video is the most abundantly produced and consumed medium of our time. And as such, it is very powerful in forming our experiences because we are already very open to them. The research into engagement, purchases and SEO through the inclusion of motion and video on a website speaks for itself. However, I’d like to speak to two functions animation can serve for a product or service:&nbsp;<ol><li>developing brand identity;</li><li>enriching the user experience.&nbsp;</li></ol>&nbsp;Animation can be a very proactive method of engaging users, both by providing an impactful experience and, through thoughtful design, facilitating and optimizing the use of the product or service. Attention to detail is important, as visual storytelling can enrich not only the conscious experience a customer receives but also provide very subtle hand-holding and reinforce more nuanced brand identifiers.&nbsp;That said, I cannot emphasize enough that animation must be used purposefully. The animation itself is not a crutch and cannot overcome bad design.

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<ol><li>Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann is a foundational book I would recommend to all motion designers</li><li>Damn Good Advice (For People With Talent) by George Lois is for&nbsp;those who want to work in branding may want to pick up</li><li>The Animator’s Survival Kit by&nbsp;Richard Williams will be useful if you are frequently working with character rigs</li></ol>

Marc recommends these books:

<h2>How did you land a job at NASA? &nbsp;</h2>As I mentioned, I am a visual storyteller, not specifically a motion designer, animator, or compositor. Like other businesses and institutions I’ve been hired by and contracted with, NASA was at a stage where they needed a storyteller.

Given the extremely expedited timeline, my resourcefulness was put to the test

Due to the pandemic, NASA’s annual TACP conference had to be an entirely remote experience. Vigorous security checks are necessary for any individual contracted to work for NASA, and so only a handful of creatives were brought into the internal media team to create an online conference experience with very limited time. This meant I was not only animating, but writing copy, providing voiceovers, developing storyboards, pitching concepts, providing art direction and perhaps most importantly, creating engaging narratives using talking points provided by NASA researchers.

<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoCrmis6ixY"><div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UoCrmis6ixY" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0;" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></figure>Introduction video for NASA TACP 2021

<h2>Which part of this job are you most proud of?</h2>&nbsp;One of the videos was particularly successful. I had little more than a week to make a 7-minute video from scratch about a researcher and her efforts in developing safer batteries for modern and future aircraft.&nbsp;&nbsp;Given the extremely expedited timeline, my resourcefulness was put to the test. I developed an animated puppet to directly engage with the viewer and surrounded this character with a handmade and hand-painted aesthetic that is more akin to multimedia animation seen on children’s television. Although I wish I had more time to polish this project, the segment proved to be among the most popular during the conference.

<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnxDgFd5Row"><div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nnxDgFd5Row" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0;" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></figure>Video about SPARRCI (Sensor-based Prognostics to Avoid Runaway Reactions and Catastrophic Ignition)

<h2>Where do you find inspiration for your work?&nbsp; &nbsp;</h2>Overall, it’s important to remember to fuel the creative tank. We can improve by being very disciplined about our own growth and what kinds of projects we take on, but chances are when we bump into a lack of motivation, it’s sometimes necessary to rekindle our love for the medium with external inspiration.&nbsp;<ul><li>Youtube. For a motion designer, it’s important to be in touch with what you love about film and animation. Fortunately, we have resources such as YouTube where you can instantly load up countless animations and study them frame-by-frame.</li><li>Vimeo has become home to the portfolios and reels of countless motion designers. It’s worth exploring for inspiration.</li><li>Sakugabooru.com is another outstanding resource. It’s a collection of animations curated by and for animators and animation enthusiasts. Better yet, quite a big part of the collection is tagged based on the studios and primary animators involved.</li><li>School of Motion is a great resource specifically catering to motion designers.</li><li>Additionally, Instagram has become a popular platform for motion graphics artists, so it’s worth following those communities to learn about the latest trends, plugins and courses.</li><li>Finally, cartoonresearch.com is a vital blog run by animation producer, historian and professor Jerry Beck. There is a wealth of knowledge and inspiration on this site.</li></ul>

Marc's top-3 tools for a productive work as a motion designer

After Effects is just an incredibly versatile and powerful software package. From compositing for animation and video to creating motion graphics from scratch, I use this application with every project I work on.

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Adobe After Effects

As it’s a pleasure to work with and I can easily export files into PSDs for integration into After Effects, Procreate has become a vital tool for digital painting and frame-by-frame animation

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Procreate

A feature-rich and intuitive tool for project management and team collaboration

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Trello

<h2>How do you think motion design will evolve in the next 10 years? &nbsp; &nbsp;</h2>I can’t say whether it will be in 10 years or 50, but I see a lot of investment in VR that shows promise. As this technology becomes more commonplace, it will get more complicated for animators and motion designers, as they’ll have to adapt to so many more considerations specific to this medium.

Overall, it’s important to remember to fuel the creative tank

<h2>Any final tips for young designers who want to make a career in the design industry and, perhaps, become motion designers? &nbsp;</h2>When studios are hiring, they want to see a solid reel. If you’re not currently working in a relevant industry, this should by no means be a deterrent. For me personally, most of my showpieces and reel clips come from my side projects and gigs rather than my full-time employment. Even if you’re building a variety of short motion design experiments and exercises, these are just as valid as any showpieces you’re going to get from a workplace.&nbsp;Have faith in your skills. When you are hired, it’s important to remember you were brought in because your employer thinks that you can get the job done. The actual challenge of the job is making sure you pay attention to the needs of project stakeholders and how those needs are communicated. It will often be up to you to enable, facilitate and improve communication.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://i.giphy.com/media/KEG5UtvXUD7WPIhhuy/giphy.webp"></figure>&nbsp;If you want to tell a story about your career or share your expert opinion, send us a pitch at <a href="mailto:serafima@flowmapp.com">serafima@flowmapp.com</a>

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Working with Motion Design & Getting Hired by NASA

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Marc Leitzel

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Motion design is an intersection of graphic design, filmmaking, animation, and other creative disciplines, making it a valuable asset for modern storytellers and digital creators to tell stories more engagingly and creatively.&nbsp;This time we met with M.W Leitzel, an experienced artist and visual storyteller, to discuss the essence of motion design and what it takes to become good at it. We also talked about the bizarre experience of working with NASA, and in the end, Marc shared some tips for young designers on building relationships with clients.

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Luis is a designer, writer and meme generator. He has been creating side projects since university days, and for the past few years has focused on his newsletter, podcast and Medium publication

Luis Ouriach, Design Advocate at Figma

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Paco is an experienced designer with a digital background and a strong standpoint on Visual Design

Paco Fernández, Head of the Product Design team at Fjord

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Denis is an experienced designer here at FlowMapp who is also passionate about composing music and mindfulness &nbsp;

Denis Bolshakov, Design Lead at FlowMapp

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Pete sees his mission in supporting visionary leaders and brands in their creativity and curiosity

Pete Sena, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Digital Surgeons

<h3>Which event/performance of 2021 influenced the design industry the most?</h3><figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_952_1_1_443bb84d4b.jpg"></figure>Luis Ouriach Design Advocate at Figma&nbsp;It's hard to argue with Figma's Config having a significant impact on the design industry. There was a new product launch, features that effectively replaced other tools and two days of programming from designers from the world's largest companies.&nbsp;It was fantastic to be involved in this as a host, and the talent on the show was amazing. The main reason I've picked this conference over any other (other than the fact I work for Figma) is that it had many first-time speakers which is rare for something of that scale.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_956_7a8348c36a.jpg"></figure>Paco Fernández Head of the Product Design team at Fjord&nbsp;Apple’s year keynote is always a great source of inspiration because it evolves our way of designing digital products. They are still leading the design innovation on the hardware and software. But this year, I would like to highlight Config by Figma, an event that drives us purely into the craft. Well done, Figma!&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Group_730_3135ce6ed3.jpg"></figure>Denis Bolshakov Design Lead at FlowMapp&nbsp;I think it’s the pandemic rather than any event that continues to affect the design industry the most. Our working process, instruments and communication methods are constantly changing under its influence.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_955_d9190573c9.jpg"></figure>Pete Sena Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Digital Surgeons&nbsp;Given that the word NFT was coined as the word of the year by Collins dictionary for 2021 and has permeated so many different industries, I think it’s safe to say the surge of NFTs influenced the design industry the most this year.&nbsp;Enabling artists and brands with full ownership of these digital art pieces with the ability to create a new sense of value and profit has transformed design forever. Art drives culture, and culture drives art. NFTs are a tipping point to finally give makers their due.

Luis outlines Dropbox Paper this year: "I'm a huge Dropbox Paper fan. I use it practically for everything! The fact that it's free is almost outrageous for how nice an experience it is.”

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Dropbox Paper

Paco is a huge music fan: "Spotify for sure! I’m a music addict. It’s part of my life, for designing, for working out, or even for reading."

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Denis was very surprised by Loom: "I’ve used Loom this year more often than I would have ever thought. It facilitates the design-review process making the usual checklist with fixes also demonstrative and “alive” using screencasts.”

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Pete mostly works in Notion: "Notion is not only like the second extension of my mind, but I feel like it’s increased my organization tenfold. The platform’s ability to customize pages and nest information is incredible."

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<h3>What trends do you expect to see in digital design in 2022?</h3><figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_952_1_1_443bb84d4b.jpg"></figure>Luis Ouriach Design Advocate at Figma&nbsp;<ol><li>I see a general trend towards highly impactful, highly detailed and highly documented design systems.</li><li>On top of this, there's a very big and positive trend towards involving developers in the design process at a much earlier stage. &nbsp;</li></ol>These two points are related because with a great design system comes great collaboration. I'm excited to see more technical discussions becoming the norm when designing digital products.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_956_7a8348c36a.jpg"></figure>Paco Fernández Head of the Product Design team at Fjord&nbsp;I would like to see more of the relationship between digital and physical. We, as a society, are obsessed with digital, but I think it's time to rethink how we live our spaces and enjoy a digital detox.&nbsp;Apart from that, I also expect more differentiation between brands. Nowadays, they all look the same.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Group_730_3135ce6ed3.jpg"></figure>Denis Bolshakov Design Lead at FlowMapp&nbsp;We see a new reality in the ways of communication between people. More and more companies integrate real-time collaboration into their products. I think this trend will grow, evolve and become a standard in no time. Have you seen the Loom integration in the commentary system of Figma? Or AR experience during brainstorming on the Miro-board?&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Frame_955_d9190573c9.jpg"></figure>Pete Sena Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Digital Surgeons&nbsp;I expect to see more examples of continued improvement in accessibility and design storytelling centered around personifying brands to make them human. I’m confident the creator economy will boom and put these two things at the forefront of design.&nbsp;Also, I think platforms like TikTok and new forms of currency and collectibles like NFTs give people new ways to express themselves and connect with brands in more authentic ways. The focus will continue to shift towards further connecting with consumers as humans to humans and designing communities that control more of our time, attention and engagement.&nbsp;&nbsp;I'm excited for the role that <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://flowmapp.com">FlowMapp</a> will play in our daily toolkit for planning and managing user flows, sitemaps and customer journeys.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;If you want to tell a story about your career or share your expert opinion in 2022, send us a pitch at <a href="mailto:serafima@flowmapp.com">serafima@flowmapp.com</a>.

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Experienced designers talk about 2021 top apps and 2022 design trends

Envisioning design trends in 2022

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This year was pretty eventful, and now it’s time to plan the next one. We invited four art directors and experienced designers to talk about global trends in 2022 that we’ll see in design. Their answers were varied, and some were even controversial and surprised us. Now we want to share them with you so you could learn something useful too!

Four art directors sum up this year’s events and predict top-8 digital design trends

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Top-8 Design Trends for 2022

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Andrey is an experienced entrepreneur with more than 10 years of experience in design. In 2012 he started a web design agency which became one of Top-100 agencies in Russia. After that, in 2017, he became the CEO of FlowMapp. He plays bass guitar and even traveled with his band to numerous festivals in Poland and Russia. He enjoys being in nature with his wife and son, hiking and kayaking

Andrey Severin, CEO and Founder of FlowMapp

<h3>How did you come up with the idea for FlowMapp in the first place?</h3>I had an initial idea for this project back in 2014. At that time, my team created numerous websites as an agency, and even then, the idea of ​​a visual sitemap was in the back of my mind. I wanted to simplify work processes and improve communication with our clients. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough experience to create a high-quality product at that time. But three years later, everything changed. This time we were ready to build and share a valuable tool for UX designers and other professionals. With new team members on board, we started developing a tool that would eventually have 200.000+ users worldwide, known as FlowMapp. The rest, as they say, is history.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/img_1_de53caf716.jpg"><figcaption>Andrey Severin and Paul Mit, FlowMapp founders</figcaption></figure>

<h3>How many people were in the team at the beginning of this journey?</h3>At the start, we had a small team consisting of only two developers, two design specialists, one project manager, my co-founder Paul and myself.&nbsp;The development process was challenging since we had to work on client sites in parallel with the development of the FlowMapp tool. In addition to that, FlowMapp is a bootstrap company, and we did not attract external funding. So we had to pay salaries regularly as well as all our other basic operational expenses. I won’t lie; it was a tough couple of years. But, hey! Now we are here, doing this interview. So, everything turned out great after all.

<h3>What did the first version of FlowMapp look like?</h3>As simple as it could be! The main features were designing a sitemap using a collection of covers and writing page descriptions. Then users were able to share a link with colleagues and export the data to PDF. That’s it! Even with such a shortlist of features, we got a lot of positive feedback, which helped us a lot and encouraged us to continue working on the product.

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From FlowMapp’s official <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/flowmapp">Twitter page</a>

<h3>What about first customers? How did you find them?</h3>Believe it or not, we never actively looked for new clients.&nbsp;All we did was announce the launch of FlowMapp on specialized platforms, such as Designer News and Quora. We wrote posts, such as: “Hey, we launched a cool UX tool. Check it out and let us know what you think."&nbsp;After that, word-of-mouth worked for us, which was awesome to see. As ever-evolving specialists, designers are very active online and constantly search for new tools to share with each other. They also often publish reviews on their blogs and post a lot on social media.&nbsp;&nbsp;We still get a massive percentage of new users through word-of-mouth marketing practices.

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"Rework" by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson &nbsp;"Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't"&nbsp;by Jim Collins &nbsp;"Screw It, Let's Do It" by Sir Richard Branson

Andrey recommends these books:

<h3>What was the moment you realized the potential demand for FlowMapp?</h3>We received the first few reviews and had a couple of sales even before the official launch, so I had a gut feeling that everything was going to work out early on.&nbsp;As we were getting ready for a product launch, I wrote tons of tweets on our official Twitter account because I didn't want to launch with blank social media pages. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/jydesign">James Young,</a> a famous design expert, saw one of the posts and retweeted it to his feed. After that, we saw a rapid growth in our user base and made our first sales.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://fm-blog-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/img_4_1_f3cc8237ac.jpg"><figcaption>From Paul’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/pmitu/status/1349713168596148224">Twitter page</a></figcaption></figure>

It took some time before we realized where people were coming from. So even with a far-from-perfect product, we recognized a great demand for such tools.&nbsp;I think this trend is even more noticeable now because, after FlowMapp’s release, many similar services have appeared that copy our fundamental ideas and features. Some of them even look identical to us, but I won’t mention any names.

<h3>FlowMapp users often ask this question on social media, so I have to ask: why haven't we seen a product update this year?&nbsp;</h3>This is a difficult question for me and the whole team, to be honest. For the first three years, the product has developed rapidly and expanded with new functionality. The team grew consistently. At the same time, we had a backlog of technical tasks so big that they simply had to be dealt with.&nbsp;&nbsp;When the pandemic began, we realized that we needed to improve the platform’s collaborative features for remote teams. Furthermore, our old technology stack restrained us from implementing new ideas, so we made it a priority to improve this situation. We approached the challenge head-on and started rewriting the platform practically from scratch.

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<h3>During the development stage of FlowMapp 2.0, the team implemented a lot of new updates on the platform. Could you specify the fundamental changes in FlowMapp 2.0 from its last version?&nbsp;</h3>You’re right; we’ve made a lot of improvements to the platform. I’m not sure if the technical side will be interesting for our readers, so let me tell you about the changes that users will notice while working with the platform.&nbsp;<ol><li>FlowMapp will become more intuitive and easy-to-use;</li><li>We’ve improved UX and debugged it;</li><li>We’ve also significantly improved collaboration features;</li><li>We have completely modernized the design so that it meets current trends in the industry and, most importantly, the expectations of our users. FlowMapp 2.0 looks organic among trendsetters and market leaders.</li><li>And, of course, we laid the foundation for the next set of significant changes in the future (spoiler: we’ve started working on one of the most anticipated features - Wireframes).</li></ol>

What are your favorite tools for a productive work?

I know, I'm not too creative with this one, but I use standard Notes on iOS for short notes

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Notion helps me structure important information about product and processes in the company

FlowMapp

<h3>Wow! I’m excited for users who will try it out very soon! Could you share more details about the collaborative features that were anticipated by FlowMapp users?</h3>I can’t give out everything, as you know. But I can share this:&nbsp;<ul><li>First, we replaced Teams with Workspaces. Workspaces will straighten the project management system in the product.</li><li>A Personal workspace is automatically created for each user by default regardless of their plan. For project teams starting from the Team plan, we’ve added the option to create a Team Workspace, invite other users, and manage their permissions. This feature will help teams organize workflows and demonstrate intermediate outcomes to clients.</li></ul>

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FlowMapp 2.0. Personal workspace page

<ul><li>Collaboration will become more effective. For example, users will be able to see their colleagues in the project online and see what they are working on. It will allow people to work more productively by swiftly joining forces and adding necessary changes. They will also be able to leave comments almost anywhere in the project, which will help teams stay on the same page.</li></ul>

<h3>Which new feature are you proudest of in the FlowMapp 2.0 release?</h3>Text editor! I think our team has created one of the best editors in the design tool market. It is not perfect yet, but give us a couple of months to get there.&nbsp;Also, many people asked us to make it possible to create several different Sitemaps within one project. And we listened! From FlowMapp 2.0, our users will be able to do this and speed up their work processes by working with several sitemaps within one project.

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<h3>What advice would you give to young designers?</h3>Learn about new technologies and be more observant. Watch what top designers are doing and try to do the same. Practice. Practice that an infinite number of times. At some point, you will realize that you are creating many cool things automatically, and you will be able to add your own style to it.

<h3>There’s only one question left. What are you planning to do next?</h3>Celebrate the release of FlowMapp 2.0 with the team, of course! Relax for a couple of days with my family. After that, we will focus on releasing wireframes.&nbsp;&nbsp;We plan to release new features much faster than before, so <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://flowmapp.com">stay tuned</a>!

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An interview with CEO of FlowMapp about FlowMapp 2.0

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Andrey Severin

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FlowMapp 2.0 is almost here! For this interview, we invited a special guest, Andrey Severin, a CEO of FlowMapp, to take a look behind a curtain of the development process, spill the tea on Sitemap and Teams updates, and reveal (several) new and exciting FlowMapp’s features

The Road to FlowMapp 2.0

#172132

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Jens is a 40-year-old Digital Designer with 15 years of experience designing unique content for screens. He is currently employed as a Senior Digital Product Designer at the LEGO Group. He has been working on various projects, such as LEGO Ideas, LEGO Kids Website and LEGO Life Magazine. Jens lives and breathes Digital Design, and he is really into UI animations and micro-interactions

Jens Nielsen, a Senior Digital Product Designer at the LEGO Group

<h3>Jens, do you remember your first design portfolio? How much time and energy did it take you to create it?</h3>I graduated from Køge Business school as a multimedia designer in 2002. Back then, no one knew what a multimedia designer was. So in the last 20 years, I created a ton of portfolios. It was my thing in the beginning. The first time I put some elbow grease into it was in 2014 when I was about to leave Kathart: I wanted to present my work in the best way possible. Back then I still used Photoshop, so exploration for me wasn’t as easy as it is today. I settled on the look and layout pretty quickly so I could get started on coding and made adjustments on the fly if I ran into problems with the code.

<h3>Do you remember why you decided to create a portfolio at the time?</h3>Kathart was my first real workplace, where I created projects I was proud of. After 7 years there, I thought it was about time to try something new. I wanted to create something cool to show off my work and to supplement my job applications. That was pretty much the main reason.

With 2346+ sites rated, I have learned to scan a page to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. If I stay and explore this page/site a little bit beyond 1–2 minutes, that’s a good sign

<h3>After 15 years in the design industry, do you think having a portfolio is still crucial for a designer's professional success? Why?</h3>I think it's vital to have something to show, even if it's just a Dribbble profile. I think most employers want to see examples of your work. It should be able to speak for itself, while the platform should be secondary.   However, having a personal website that can showcase you as a person, as well as your unique style/brand more clearly is at least, in my opinion, a better way to go. It makes you stand out more and gives you a place to explore your creative side without any interference. You might also learn to appreciate yourself more once you start working with clients :)

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<h3>What benefits can designers get from having a portfolio?&nbsp;</h3>A portfolio gives you several benefits.&nbsp;&nbsp;<ol><li>A personal playground .</li><li>An additional exposure .</li><li>Online presence.</li><li>New skills. If you build it yourself, it's a great way to learn a little bit of code and get a better understanding of what it takes to implement a design.</li></ol>

<h3>If you don't mind sharing, how did the portfolio help you get a job at LEGO if it did?</h3>To be honest, it wasn’t the deciding factor. The LEGO Group still has its corporate office in Billund, a small town in Jutland. So when a digital designer from the agency world with 15 years of experience applies, he automatically ends on top of the pile!&nbsp;&nbsp;However, not many people provide a portfolio when they apply, so you will stand out way more if you have one, especially a creative PDF or a web page.   Having a big wall of LEGO boxes behind you during a remote interview also helps :)

Showcasing your work in a portfolio is a great way to find a new gig and remind yourself of your accomplishments. In this interview, we highlight the benefits of portfolio and share platforms to create one.

Jens Nielsen

Having a portfolio is crucial for any creative digital specialist who wants to showcase their work, build a personal brand and land a prestigious job. But making it is not as simple as it might seem because you need to choose a platform, find your authentic style and develop a document, webpage, video, etc. We invited Jens Nielsen, a Senior Digital Product Designer at the LEGO Group, who has been CSS Design Awards Judge, to talk about design competitions and share tips on building an eye-catching portfolio

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