01 / 04 — Solace Films
Giving the films a home
A dedicated portfolio for a film and media company.
The starting point
Solace Films’ two cofounders had been sharing their work through YouTube links and Instagram. They wanted a website that would bring those projects together and present them as a cohesive body of work.
The brief developed as we worked. Part of the challenge was responding to an evolving creative direction while learning and implementing features that were new to the project.
02 / 04 — Solace Films
A cinematic design language
A dark interface that gives the work the leading role.
Designing with the founders
Figma provided a shared place to review layouts, colours and copy. Streaming platforms helped inform the cinematic mood, while the actual page layouts and interactions were developed for Solace’s content.
The initial scope covered Home, Projects and Contact. An About page was added later, introducing another distinct template and a more personal view of the people behind the work.
Making the portfolio move
The design included oscillating homepage tiles, full-screen project sections with video covers, and an interactive personnel image on the About page. Each interaction had a different job: introduce the range of work, give individual films room to breathe, or introduce the team.
Later changes swapped content between the homepage and Works page, requiring the structure to adapt alongside the creative decisions.
03 / 04 — Solace Films
Building around heavy media
Custom WordPress templates with performance in mind.
Development and publishing
I developed the site in LocalWP using a Bootstrap 5 starter, with separate templates for the different page layouts. WordPress gave the team a manageable content platform for a portfolio rich in high-resolution media.
Video and image weight were a practical concern throughout. I worked on compression, removed redundant code and experimented with preview formats, including GIF and MP4, to balance presentation with loading behaviour.
04 / 04 — Solace Films
An MVP, then refinement
A soft launch followed by continued improvements.
Delivery
The project reached an MVP soft launch before further refinements. I deployed the files and database to GoDaddy, then continued improving the experience as the founders reviewed the live work.
The result was a dedicated home for the portfolio, with a visual identity and navigation beyond a collection of links. The process also reinforced the importance of allowing for evolving content and media requirements in a creative brief.
