Everyone has a personal brand now and yet I'm struggling to find the personalities. And I say this as someone who has content pillars, a posting strategy and probably a document somewhere explaining which version of myself is appropriate for socials (LinkedIn/IG) But GOD, we've gotten good at managing ourselves. We know our niche, three adjectives, signature framework and our carefully selected professional interests. Meanwhile, the people I actually remember online are usually the ones who occasionally go completely off-script. They'll randomly tell me about competitive shooting. Write something WAY too honest about their career. Have an oddly specific opinion about airport carpets. Post something that makes me wonder if I've accidentally switched apps. And suddenly I know something about THEM, not just their positioning. I understand why we're all doing it. When everyone is a brand, you naturally start managing yourself like one. I just hope we don't optimize ourselves so thoroughly that there's nothing surprising left. The internet probably doesn't need another perfectly positioned person. I'd happily take a few more weird ones.

[ 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙤 𝙎𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖 𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙖 ]

A custom web space for a Hollywood celebrity photographer.

Some projects light a fire under you.

I designed a portfolio site for Sasha Samsonova — an incredibly talented Hollywood photographer based in LA who shoots top-tier celebrities (and fun fact: she’s a fellow Ukrainian! 🇺🇦).

My main goal was to break away from generic, cookie-cutter templates. I wanted a space that feels like a natural extension of her iconic style, not something that fights for attention. Inspired by her work, I went with a raw, sleek palette of deep blacks and grays, paired with sharp, precise geometry.

[ 𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 ]

The workflow was super fast and intense:

💎 Figma Sketches — Quick wireframing and layout exploration

💎 Curating Visuals — Selecting the strongest shots to set the mood

💎 Building in Squarespace — Bringing the layout to life directly on the grid

[ 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚 ]

Honestly? The simplicity and clarity of the platform.

This was my very first time using Squarespace, and I had less than 24 hours to pull it off. It felt like a total wild-card challenge: Can I actually build a solid, functional site with a brand-new tool in just one day?

And guess what? I think I actually did it! 🎉

Sure, there’s still plenty to refine — more pages to add, smooth animations, extra custom sections — but I’m genuinely proud of this first draft. Huge credit to Squarespace for being so surprisingly intuitive once you get into the flow.

[ 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨 ]

Building under pressure means getting creative on the fly:

⭐️ Aligning Uneven Text — I needed to baseline-align words with totally different font heights. After testing a bunch of workarounds, I ended up solving it cleanly with custom CSS.

⭐️ Thicker Custom Lines — I needed an extra-bold divider line, so I turned a simple rectangle block into a divider and tweaked its scale. Worked like a charm! (Pro tip if you ever run into this!)

[ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 ]

🔗 Project link: https://tiger-hexaflexagon-tzen.squarespace.com/config/ Password: love

Built entirely in Squarespace in 24 hours.

If I could learn a new platform and launch a project in a single day — you definitely can too!

Huge thanks for the opportunity to bring this idea to life 🖤