What’s inside

One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:

Hairline Grid Portfolio

When to use

• Your portfolio has grown into a pile of mismatched case studies and needs one unifying system
• You are a designer, photographer, illustrator, or architect whose work gets lost behind loud templates
• You want a portfolio that loads fast, reads well on a phone, and still feels designed
• A client or hiring manager will judge your taste in the first five seconds of landing on your site
• You are rebuilding a portfolio from scratch and want structure before decoration

Workflow

1. Audit the work (input: your projects and files → output: shortlisted portfolio set)
   Gather every project you might show, then cut hard: keep only work you would be happy to be hired to repeat. Aim for 6–12 projects. For each keeper, collect the best 3–6 images, one sentence on what it is, and one sentence on what you did. Anything without a strong image gets cut — a hairline-grid portfolio lives or dies on its images, and a weak image with a lot of white space around it looks weaker, not stronger.
2. Set the grid and type rules (input: shortlisted set → output: layout system)
   Fix the system before laying out a single page: a 12-column grid with 1px hairline rules separating sections and cards, one display typeface and one body typeface, three type sizes (large title, medium heading, small body), and two colors plus one accent at most. Every page in the portfolio must obey the same rules. The grid is the brand — consistency is what makes the site feel expensive.
3. Design the index (input: layout system + shortlist → output: portfolio index page)
   Build the index as a strict grid of project cards: one image, one title, one line of context, hairline dividers, nothing else. No carousels, no hover tricks that hide essential information, no animated entrances that delay the work. Order projects by the story you want to tell — strongest first, then a rhythm of different project types so the grid never looks monotonous. A visitor should understand your range in one screenful of scrolling.
4. Design the project page (input: one project + its images → output: project page template)
   Each project page follows the same skeleton: full-width hero image, a short intro block (what, for whom, your role, year), then images in a repeating rhythm — one large, two side by side, one large — with short captions that say what the viewer should notice. End with a next-project link. Keep text tight: captions of one or two sentences, no process essays. If a project needs a long explanation, the work probably is not carrying itself yet.

Template preview

Hairline Grid Portfolio — Build Template

One system, every page. Fill in the system rules first, then slot projects in.

System rules

Grid: {12 columns, gutter: Xpx, max width: Xpx} | Hairlines: {1px, color: #___}

Type: Display: {typeface} | Body: {typeface} | Sizes: Title {X}px / Heading {X}px / Body {X}px

Colors: Background {hex} | Text {hex} | Accent {hex, used for links + one detail per page only}

Image ratio (index cards): {e.g. 4:3} | Retina export: {display size × 2}

Shortlist (6–12 projects, cut the rest)

Order on index: {strongest first, then alternate project types for rhythm}

Index page

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