How I Created My Portfolio After 6 Years Away from Design (+ day in the life)

After 6 years as a software engineer, I had absolutely no design portfolio. Not even old files to update. Here's the exact process I used to build one from scratch while working full-time, including all the late nights, mistakes, and lessons learned along the way. In this video, I'm sharing: 🌱 How I researched 20-30 portfolios to understand what works 🌱 Why I chose Framer over coding (even though I could code it) 🌱 My exact case study structure that landed clients 🌱 The technical challenges of responsive design in Framer 🌱 What I'd change 6 months later 📱 View my portfolio: https://www.ceciliakimdesign.com Resources & Tools Mentioned: Portfolio Building: Framer Figma (wireframing & design) Figma Community (free mockups & resources) Icons8 Figma Plugin (illustrations) Porkbun (domain registrar) Animation Tools I Want to Learn: Rive (animations) Jitter (animations) AI Coding Tools: Claude Code Cursor Windsurf Research & Inspiration: YouTube tutorials on Framer Framer.com education resources ❤️ Mobbin (my design tool, 20% off): https://mobbin.com/cecilia ❤️ Anything.com (prototyping tool, 20% off): https://anything.link/cecilia-kim ❤️ Framer (no-code website building tool, 30% off annual Framer Pro Plan): https://framer.link/cecilia1 code: CECILIA2 ✨Instagram:   / ceciliakimdesign   ✨TikTok:   / ceciliakimdesign   ✨Twitter/X: https://x.com/ceciliakdesign ✨Portfolio: https://www.ceciliakimdesign.com 📣 My husband and I are working on some projects. Check out our apps! 📱 https://www.amyfoodjournal.com/ 📱 https://ellieplanner.com/ 📱 https://lunabudgeting.com/ 0:00 catching up 0:53 the plan 1:35 the starting point 3:29 the research phase 6:14 choosing my no-code tool 9:03 case studies and designing 12:00 putting it together 12:53 the final product 16:15 lessons learned 17.55 advice and next steps #ProductDesign #DesignPortfolio #Framer #CareerChange #UIUXDesign #FreelanceDesigner #PortfolioTips #DesignProcess #DayInTheLife #ProductDesigner #CaseStudy #DesignCareer