Hey quick question, what do you use to code your websites and before you code them do you lay them out specifically beforehand or just kind of work as you go?? I'm trying to build my own portfolio site and I'm just trying to figure out how to get started. Would you recommend programs like dremweaver or programs that are more "codey" like sublime text or something like that?
Excellent Question! It really depends on how dirty you want to get your hands with code. If you're looking to publish a portfolio site quickly for a job interview or college admissions, then I strongly recommend Behance. It's an online portfolio tool and network that links you and your work to the creative industry. Not mention its tied into Adobe's Creative Cloud package so that you can publish artworks directly from Photoshop to the web. I actually recommend having a Behance account even if you decide to build your own portfolio site. Behance gives exposure and allows you to build your professional network. Also look into Behance ProSite as well.
If you want to build a portfolio site from scratch, you have many options. Dreamweaver is a very powerful web design/development tool. You can both handwrite code or use the drag and drop features. It's a WYSIWYG editor and an FTP program in two. Not to mention the new version of Dreamweaver CC comes with awesome plugins that allow you to design for mobile, tablets, and desktops. It also comes with AngularJs, NodeJS, and Bootstrap packages built it.
Sublime is for a developer/programmer/computer scientist. It costs $70 USD. Sublime is a powerful text editor but it does not have the drag and drop features like Dreamweaver. I recommend using sublime if you know how to code HTML/CSS/JS and are comfortable working with command prompt for the back-end.
Personally, I'm in the middle ground. I am both a designer and web developer, so I look for tools that cater to both occupancies. When I build websites, I quickly mockup the grid layouts, user workflow, navigation, etc. on pen and paper. I like to first map out what the website is going to contain and to design the user experience. Next I'll design the layouts, graphics, buttons, etc. in Photoshop. After I like the way the website design looks in Photoshop, I'll move on to implementing the layout in Brackets. Brackets is a great alternative to Sublime. It's an open source project by Adobe that caters to designer-developers. It lets you extract assets from a Photoshop file, renders psd/svg/jpeg/etc files directly in the application; has live preview of the website you are work so you can see all of your code changes live in the browser; color schemes are built; great library of plugins.
Dropr and PortfolioBox are a couple of web services you could look into if you don't want to build your portfolio site from scratch. I've used Dropr before. It's a pretty neat portfolio site tool that hosts your portfolio and gives you analytics on it. I don't know too much about PortfolioBox.
Heck, even Tumblr can be used as a portfolio site. To add a little more credibility, you could buy a domain and link it to your Tumblr URL.
There's many options, it just depends on how much time you have and if you know or are up to learning how to code.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions or want to talk more just email me on Tumblr! :)
Good luck and you'll do great!!!!
