Jonathan Grado

I'm excited to announce the complete redesign and launch of my new site: jonathangrado.com. I don’t often feel totally content, but this is the closest I’ve come to that sweet, sweet "yes, this is good" feeling.

For a more comprehensive look at the development, see Maël's story: Jonathan Grado: A Cinematic Photography Portfolio.

A Site Redesign from the Ground Up

The new site has been nominated for top Portfolio Honors and received an Honorable Mention from awwwards, which recognizes the most creative and innovative work in web design. It's been awarded Site of the Day from GSAP by Webflow, as well as being featured on SiteInspire, codrops, Admire the Web, Muzli, @iamcollaps design feed, and more.

Back in May, I realized I needed to refocus the purpose of my photography site. What started as a simple homepage refresh quickly spiraled into a full-on overhaul. Everything was rebuilt from the ground up on a completely new platform.

I couldn't do this alone. I worked with designer Gaétan Pautler of Concrete Club and developer Maël Ruffini of También, both of which were extremely kind and creative. About halfway through the project, we realized (I was convinced) we needed to switch platforms to something that gave us more freedom. So now, this is a photography site built entirely in Webflow.

Design Goals and Cinematic Details

There were two main ideas we wanted to focus on. First, the photography needed to feel big. The layout is designed for extra-large images, so you feel like you're viewing a large print up close in a gallery. Second, we wanted to thread a cinematic feeling throughout the entire UI/UX experience. A design language that ties together every page, interaction, and detail, no matter where a visitor lands.

Some of my favorite highlights blend motion and interaction with a hint of the cinematic:

— Overlapping slides bring a bit of motion and dynamism to the scroll
— Titles fade in like opening credits
— On the Information / About page, my name is redesigned with each reload to be reminiscent of old movie titles
— Photo series pages feature a VIEW INDEX button to give a quick overview of all the thumbnails
— Select series include a titles page where the photo names scroll like the end credits of a film

It was a pleasure working with Gaétan and Mäel. I genuinely couldn't be happier with this redesigned site. I'm so happy with it I guess I don't need to end this with any jokes. Interesting.