The Website - A Personal Project

As an IT specialist and photographer, it had long been a dream of mine to develop my own website that presents both my professional skills and my creative work. After months of planning and development, it's finally online — and I want to tell you the story behind it.

Why My Own Website?

In a time when social media and professional networks dominate, your own website may seem old-fashioned. But for me it was important to create a space that is entirely under my control — a digital home that authentically reflects my personality and my work.

The website shouldn't just be a portfolio, but a platform that brings together different aspects of my life: my professional expertise in PLM and CAD, my passion for photography, my IT projects, and my personal interests.

The Technical Foundation

The decision fell on Next.js — a framework that gives me the flexibility I need while offering modern web standards and performance optimizations. Next.js's Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) features make it possible to create a fast and SEO-friendly website.

Design Philosophy

The design should be modern but not overloaded. I chose a glassmorphism style with subtle animations — a look that feels professional without being too intrusive. The color palette is oriented toward my brand: accents in blue, cyan, and orange that feel both technical and creative.

Content Management

Instead of a complex CMS, I use Markdown files for content. That gives me full control over the content while keeping it easy to maintain and versionable. All content is managed in Git, which enables clean version control.

Challenges and Solutions

Performance Optimization

One of the biggest challenges was image optimization. As a photographer, I have many high-resolution images that can quickly drive up load times. The Next.js Image component was the solution here — automatic image optimization, lazy loading, and responsive images ensure fast load times without loss of quality.

Responsive Design

The website has to look perfect on all devices — from smartphone to 4K monitor. With Tailwind CSS and a mobile-first approach, it was labor-intensive but doable. Every component was carefully tested to make sure it works on all screen sizes.

SEO and Accessibility

A beautiful website is useless if it can't be found. That's why I placed great value on SEO optimization: semantic HTML, meta tags, structured data, and clean URLs. Accessibility was also important to me — the website is optimized for screen readers and uses sufficient contrast.

What I Learned

Developing this website was an intensive learning journey. I not only deepened my React and Next.js knowledge, but also learned a lot about design, UX, and performance optimization. Particularly valuable was the experience of thinking through and implementing a project from start to finish.

The Future

The website is never truly "finished" — it's continuously developed further. Planned among other things:

A blog section for regular updates
Extended photography galleries
More interactive elements
Integration of additional projects

Conclusion

Developing my website was more than just a technical project — it was an opportunity to unite my various interests and skills in a digital space. It's a living project that grows with me and continues to evolve.

If you have questions about the technical implementation or are planning your own website, feel free to contact me. I'm happy to share my experiences and help where I can.

This website was developed with Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. The source code is available on GitHub (link to follow).

Image credits

Photo: Marvin Meyer via Unsplash