Travel Filmmaker & Photographer Website
This project involved designing and building a cinematic portfolio site for a mid-career travel filmmaker and photographer. The goal was to establish a bold, editorial brand identity online, positioning Maren as a video-forward creative with a distinct point of view while creating an intuitive structure for showcasing destination work, attracting editorial and commercial clients, and converting visitors into inquiries.
Tools & Technologies
Platform: Squarespace
Technologies: HTML, CSS customization, Squarespace features
Other Tools: Image editing tools (e.g., Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator)
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Key Features
Looping Video Hero: Designed a full-bleed hero section around a cinematic nighttime aerial video, with minimal text overlay and brush stroke transition into the content below.
Featured Destination Section: Built a two-column story teaser linking to the Iceland collection, pairing landscape imagery with editorial copy.
Asymmetric Gallery Grid: Created a six-image destination grid on the homepage showcasing all four destination collections.
Press Logo Bar: Integrated a clean six-logo press mention row.
Destination Collection Pages: Structured individual gallery pages for each destination with intro copy and image collections.
Services Section: Designed three clearly differentiated service offerings.
Mobile-Friendly Design: Fully responsive layout optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
SEO Optimization: Wrote meta descriptions for every page and structured content to support search engine visibility.
My Role
As the designer and developer for this project:
Developed a complete brand identity including color palette, typography, and visual tone from the ground up.
Designed a cinematic, editorial aesthetic using a dark palette and Cormorant Garamond + Jost typography.
Built brush stroke section transitions to create an organic, tactile feel between content sections.
Designed and structured a six-page site architecture tailored to a dual filmmaker/photographer portfolio.
Wrote and structured all site copy aligned to the client's brand voice and target audience.
Challenges & Solutions
Challenge: Creating a site that felt cinematic and video-forward while remaining clean and navigable.
Solution: Used a dark editorial palette with full-bleed video and restrained typography to let the visual work lead, keeping navigation minimal and always accessible.
Challenge: Showcasing both film and photography work without one undermining the other.
Solution: Led with video in the hero and featured destination sections, and used the gallery grid to establish photography credibility, positioning stills as part of the same cinematic vision rather than a separate offering.
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