Travel Ink Media

Filip Plaskowski, a professional photographer and videographer, had built an impressive portfolio working with global brands like Rolex, Sony, Lyle & Scott, and Deichmann. His creative talent attracted high-profile clients, but his website — built independently on Squarespace — was holding him back rather than supporting his growth.

The site was outdated, slow, cluttered and unintuitive. Potential clients would quickly lose interest and abandon it before discovering the full scope of Filip's portfolio. The website had a linear three-page structure with limited navigation, making it nearly impossible for visitors to find what they were looking for. There was minimal text content and zero SEO optimisation, rendering the site virtually invisible on Google.

Loading times were painfully slow, images and videos were uncompressed, and the site lacked any mobile optimisation — a critical failing given that most users browse on their phones. There were no clear calls to action, no defined target audience, no case studies, no client testimonials, and no legal pages. The design felt cheap and overcrowded, completely inconsistent with the premium brand Filip had built through his work.

We started with a comprehensive audit of Filip's existing Squarespace site and several strategic workshops to define clear business objectives. Together, we identified target audiences — production companies, fashion brands, and corporate clients — and documented both technical and visual requirements for the new site.

Matt designed the new website in Figma, using Filip's established black and gold logo as the visual anchor. The colour palette and typography stayed true to the brand's premium aesthetic while introducing a clean, cinematic look with gradients, glow effects, and lighting details that add depth and modernity. Every layout decision was made mobile-first, ensuring full responsiveness across all devices.

The content strategy phase involved restructuring Filip's extensive portfolio into logical segments — photography and videography — with each project living in its own dedicated section complete with SEO-optimised descriptions. A dynamic showreel was positioned at the top of the homepage as the first touchpoint, immediately demonstrating Filip's production quality.

The build was executed on Framer CMS, giving Filip complete control over content updates without touching code. Technical improvements included lossless image compression, migrating video content from YouTube to Vimeo with clean overlays, implementing a logical heading hierarchy, writing custom meta descriptions and alt text, and integrating Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console.

Strategic CTA buttons were placed throughout to guide users toward Contact and Services pages. We delivered the site with full documentation and trained Filip on content management within the CMS.

The biggest surprise with Travel Ink Media was how much site speed affected enquiry rates. We expected the visual redesign to do the heavy lifting, but the single biggest driver of new leads was cutting load time from over six seconds to under two. Creative professionals often think their work speaks for itself — it does, but only if the website loads fast enough for people to actually see it.

This project taught us that portfolio websites for creative businesses need to be built business-first, not portfolio-first. The temptation is to create a visual showcase, but what actually converts visitors into clients is clear service descriptions, obvious contact paths, and social proof. The portfolio supports the pitch — it doesn't replace it.

For any creative professional building a website: resist the urge to make it an art piece. Your site's job is to generate enquiries, not win design awards. Lead with what you do and who you do it for, show proof it works, and make it absurdly easy to get in touch. Save the creative flair for the portfolio section.