karanb.dev
This portfolio site. Built with Hugo, custom SCSS, and deployed on Vercel. Designed to be fast, clean, and easy to maintain.
Personal
The Brief
Every freelancer needs a portfolio site, but most of them end up as either over-designed showcases that prioritize flash over function, or bland templates that look like everyone else’s. The goal here was to build something that sits in the middle — a site that’s visually clean and professional enough for clients to take seriously, while also reflecting the technical capability behind it. It needed to work for two very different audiences: potential clients who want to see what I can build, and recruiters or collaborators who care about the technical depth.
The Approach
The design direction went through several iterations before landing on the current form: light theme, top navigation, separate pages rather than a single long scroll. The focus was on readability and clarity — no particle backgrounds, no scroll-jacking, no animations for the sake of animations. Content is structured so that a first-time visitor can understand what I do within seconds, and those who want more detail can dig into individual case studies and project pages. The monospace font (Fira Code) is a deliberate branding choice — a subtle nod to the dev background without making the whole site feel like a terminal.
Tech and Implementation
The site is built with Hugo, using custom SCSS piped through Hugo’s built-in asset pipeline — no Tailwind, no CSS frameworks. This keeps the build fast and the styling fully under control. Data is separated into JSON files so content updates don’t require touching templates. Deployment runs through Vercel with automatic builds on push, so publishing a change is as simple as a git commit. The contact form uses Formspree to avoid maintaining a backend. Every page is server-rendered static HTML, which means near-instant load times and strong SEO fundamentals out of the box.
Results
The site serves as a living portfolio that I actually use and maintain — not a one-time build that collects dust. It loads fast, ranks well, and presents work in a way that makes sense to both technical and non-technical visitors. More importantly, it’s built in a way that makes updates painless, which means it stays current rather than falling behind. The architecture is simple enough that any change — adding a new project, updating copy, tweaking styles — takes minutes, not hours.