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Honest question for the designers and devs here: do you ever build a free concept before the client hires you?
Last week I built a full animated one-pager for a lead before we'd even had a call. It took an afternoon.
Some people say never work for free. Others say a live link beats any proposal.
Where do you land?
1. Never, my time is the product
2. Only for dream clients
3. Always, it's my best closer
Drop a number 👇
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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Designers, which direction would you go with: photography or illustration?
83 voted
69%
37 voted
31%
120 votes
Closed
I'll prefer photos, specially talking about organizations in your page, human faces and real scenarios can have a better effect in this case.
1 designer + base44 + 3 days without proper sleep = Overdrive🤍
A job tracking system for a car repair shop.
✱ One board showing every car on the floor, where each one stands and what’s holding it up.
Add a car, assign the work, and from there it tracks itself- what’s late, which parts have landed, who’s in today. Visit history, receipts, and a widget that tells you the next free slot you can offer someone.
Three days. Not smooth ones. But it’s live❗️
✱ Now the why, because none of those features were my idea.
My client owns the shop. Four mechanics, up to seven cars a day, no front desk. For months he’d complain about the same stuff whenever we talked: parts he ordered and forgot about, mechanics starting one car and getting pulled onto another, people asking when they can bring a car in and him not knowing what to say.
It was never a brief, of course, he was just talking. But one day I asked him properly: what do you need to see the moment you walk in?
✱ He said four things. And those four made sense as widgets, naturally.
Nothing on the job board gets typed in by a person. For example, a car shows as blocked because the mechanic who has it is off today- the board works that out and writes the reason on the card. He doesn’t walk around the shop asking anyone, he can just see it now.
✱ And the part nobody puts in these posts😅
→ It is my first time ever (!) using Base44 and I started without a paid plan, so I had a hard limit on how many prompts I got.
You can’t iterate your way to something like that. Every prompt had to arrive already correct, which meant almost all of the work happened before I typed anything. I designed every screen and every state in Figma first, then worked out exactly what to ask for and in what order.
I spent hours with Claude and Google figuring out how to phrase things, what would break, what to check before changing anything. I’d write a prompt and then throw it away and write a better one, because a wasted prompt cost more than the time did 🤷🏻♀️
Honestly, the constraint made it better. No aimless tinkering. Every change had a reason before it was made, and I still got every core feature I wanted in there.
✸Research: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVEWOXy9k=/?share_link_id=813311021448
✸Walkthrough: https://www.loom.com/share/69ffa2d58ca24e7bb10676be5173cdc2
✸Overdrive live demo: https://overdrive-shop-flow.base44.app
✸X thread: https://x.com/gurvchler/status/2114517480152740121?s=20
✸LinkedIn post: https://lnkd.in/p/dysRmrNw
Well done!
And love the "no proper sleep" detail - sounds so familiar 😂
I bet you’ve NEVER seen button hover effects quite like these. And honestly, this time, I COOKED!
I went into this wanting to build a portfolio website. Somewhere along the way, it became so good that I’m genuinely considering making it my MAIN portfolio.
The scroll. The transitions. The interactions. But especially the button hover effects. Every little detail makes the experience feel alive, and I’ve probably spent more time hovering over these buttons than I’d like to admit.
But this wasn't just about making something that looks good. I wanted to build something that actually works for me.
THE BRANDING: I built the entire experience around my existing Sup* identity, keeping the personality intact while giving it a website that feels distinctly mine. From the visual language to the interactions, I wanted every part of the experience to feel intentional rather than like another template with a name slapped on it.
THE EXPERIENCE: As a designer, I obsess over the little things. The way an element responds when you hover over it. How scrolling feels. How one section transitions into the next. And how all of it comes together into an experience that feels cohesive.
The button interactions were easily one of my favourite parts to work on. But don't just take my word for it. Go try them yourself.
And yes, I designed a mobile-specific menu experience too. Please don't skip that part!
THE AUTOMATION: A portfolio shouldn't just display your work. It should help you get work.
One of my biggest goals was to turn this website into a funnel that brings potential clients directly to my Contra profile. I wanted to make it easier for people to discover my work, get in touch, and take the next step.
So, I built in form automation that delivers incoming submissions straight to my email and the website's admin side. No manually checking submissions across different places. The enquiries come to me, giving me a more direct way to keep track of potential opportunities.
It's a small but meaningful workflow that makes the website more than just a pretty front end.
THE STORY BEHIND THE BUILD - I've always wanted a portfolio website that properly showcases my work, personality, and approach to design. And once I found Contra, I realised I had the perfect opportunity to do more than just build a portfolio.
I could create a funnel that showcases my work and helps bring potential clients directly to my Contra profile.
When the @Base44 x @Contra HQ contest came along, it felt like the perfect excuse to bring that idea to life finally.
And the best part? This was my FIRST time trying @Base44. (Process video in the comments)
I've never had to type so little to get something this good. The recommendations were surprisingly on point, and instead of constantly fighting the tool to get what I had in mind, I could focus on what matters most to me: the experience, the details, and making the final product feel right.
As someone who genuinely enjoys pushing interfaces beyond the expected, that was a pretty exciting experience.
Because building something that looks good is one thing. Building something that looks good, feels good, works behind the scenes, and has an actual purpose? That's where the fun begins.
And Base44 made getting there ridiculously enjoyable.
This one's for the Base44 x Contra contest, and I might've accidentally built my new favourite portfolio in the process.
A couple of things I want you to try:
1. Hover over the buttons. Like Seriously.
2. Experience the mobile-specific menu.
3. Check out the custom favicon. Yes, that's me. 😉
Live website: https://supreet.base44.app/
Built around my Sup* identity. Designed to showcase my work. Automated to capture enquiries. Created to turn visitors into potential clients.
Now, please go hover over those buttons. You'll understand.
Base 44 Usage Proof: