MTFarley

This forum is one of two blogs that I maintain, the other being www.mtfarley.blogspot.com. The reason for the separation is to control, or more accurately, to keep digital examples of my work in a centralized place, on my own server. This space doubles as a project tracking/reference resource, and a compendium encompassing my work to augment my digital portfolio (located at www.mtfarley.com/portfolio).

I first started working with the WordPress software to learn more intimately how a blog-site was constructed. I found the controls for my blog provided freely through Google (Blogger) limiting. In addition, I am a little concerned about digital reproduction, ownership issues and copyright concerning my work when it comes to the ever fluctuating whims of Google. As a result, I have expanded this blog from a simple learning exercise into a space I can post my entire Farley catalog of art and design.

Since I design and build web sites, this idea has been a while in development. I have always been conflicted as to how much of my design and artwork I should show or post, and how to tailor a digital portfolio to the client or individual I am pitching or interviewing with. With the assets available to me on the internet, it seemed logical to me to make everything available, and then customize the experience by pulling from that digital cache. But how to do it?

Until now I have built portfolio after portfolio, changing and customizing the projects showcased there, depending on the client or employer need for photography, illustration, animation or design. It’s always been a time-consuming and fairly non-rewarding experience – to put so much effort into something so transitory. The working concept I have developed as of this post, is to dump everything here – past, present and future – then use the created database like a digital asset resource, or to pull desired projects into my portfolio template. This should allow me to easily add or delete projects in my digital portfolio as they become more or less relevant.

To that end I have stripped out all the additional plug-ins and themes I had been using on my WordPress blog, leaving only the default items. I am not trying to design or manage the brand of this space (yet), but create a highly useful resource as my digital assets grow, my portfolio expands and my skill set and experiences increase.