blog & reflections
Redesigning My Website for 2026
As the new year approaches, I wanted to revisit my website both in how it looks and in what it represents. Updating it felt less like a visual refresh and more like a reflection of how my skills, perspective, and sense of self have evolved.
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In the previous version, the homepage leaned darker in tone. The background featured a night sky filled with stars and galaxies, with elements floating across the screen like small planets or meteorites. Each floating object referenced a piece of my work such as a GIS map of the Bronx from my pedestrian mobility research or a floor plan from an architectural project. The logo anexperimentalspace used a metallic font with subtle purple shadows, giving the site a slightly futuristic feel.
Previous Version:
home page
That version served me well. I used it as my online portfolio throughout my 2025 internship search and it helped me land one. I am genuinely proud of what that website did for me.
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With a new year coming, I felt ready for change. I wanted the site to better reflect my current aesthetic and the growth in my technical and design skills.
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I began with the logo. While I wanted to keep the metallic quality, I did not want to rely on a downloaded font this time. Instead, I created something entirely my own. I spent hours sketching letterforms by hand in Procreate on my iPad and then tracing and refining them in Illustrator. I also attempted to bring the logo into three dimensions by experimenting with Blender to create an inflated metallic form. This process was challenging. Starting from zero and learning through tutorials pushed me out of my comfort zone. Although I learned a lot, I ultimately did not use the Blender version on the current site. It is something I hope to return to in the future. For now, I used Illustrator effects similar to my previous approach but with more intention and control.
Design Sketches
Blender
I also redesigned the favicon for the website. The previous version was a simple acronym using the same downloaded font, showing the letters "aes" inside a dark circle. For this update, I created a favicon rooted in the new anexperimentalspace logo that I designed myself. It feels more intentional and more aligned with the identity of the site. While small, this change reflects a meaningful improvement in how I think about visual consistency and attention to detail across the entire experience.
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One of the biggest visual changes was removing the floating elements from the homepage entirely. I wanted the site to feel cleaner, more minimal, and more mature. I also shifted the background from a night sky to a daytime sky with clouds, making the overall atmosphere feel lighter in both color and emotional weight.
Previous Version:
Favicon
Current Version:
Favicon
Updated Version:
home page
Beyond visuals, I spent significant time refining the structure of the site. I adjusted templates, font sizes, layouts, and stylistic choices across all pages to ensure consistency. In the previous version, some text and images displayed well on laptops but were cropped or lost on tablets due to differences in screen size and rotation. In this version, I made responsiveness a priority. I wanted the experience to feel consistent whether someone views the site on a laptop or on a tablet in portrait or landscape mode. This kind of detail often goes unnoticed, but it matters deeply to me.
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Overall, I am really happy with where the website is now. Although I call it an online portfolio, I hope it communicates more than just my work or technical skills. I hope it reflects who I am as a person in a way that goes beyond what a résumé can capture.
To my Class of 2026 friends, I hope this year brings meaningful job searches, real opportunities, growth, and work you are proud of.