Welcome to the new NickHaynes.dev!

So, welcome!

After a couple of hard months at work designing, rebuilding, and refining, I'm thrilled to finally launch the brand-new version of my portfolio! This version is more than just a facelift. It is a complete redesign and rebuild from the ground up, using a modern tech stack to give a retro feel. This entire site is premised around telling you, the reader, more about who I am as a developer, a designer, and a person.

The Tech

This portfolio site runs on a React, TypeScript, and Next.js front end, and consumes its data from a custom-built API. It's deployed across Vercel and Railway, allowing it to be incredibly performant. To allow easier access for updating the portfolio on the content side, the content management system is powered by Laravel Filament. This stack allows the site to not just look incredible, but it allows it to work incredibly well.

The Design

From the start of this revamping, I wanted a site that balanced my love of retro--be it retro gaming, retro tech, or retro entertainment in general--with my love of the modern. So I went about doing everything I could to make this an incredibly seamless merging of the two, balancing clean layouts and modern tech with nods to the past in terms of typography and color scheme. It uses retro typography for headings while using clean modern typography for the majority of content. It matches up on color schemes to be accessibility compliant, but doesn't sacrifice the nod to what got me started on my journey.

The Purpose

My old portfolio was a nod to minimalism, in every single aspect. However, it lacked the touch that has since come to define my own style of development and design. It looked good, but it didn't perform good or feel good.

It was about presentation.

This one is about connection.

Here, you're not just going to see a glossy finish of some of what I've done. You'll find a much wider variety, from case studies to blog posts and my writing on topics I'm passionate about. It won't just be tech stuff, either. As a man of faith, I plan on writing about topics of faith that interest me. As a politically-minded person, you might find some of that. And, you'll definitely come to see what I love around the world of entertainment, be it sports, music, or just whatever interests me.

Because while code and design are my craft, storytelling is my language.

If you've made it this far, thank you. Your support means the world to me. Now, look around a little bit, drop a line, and let me know what you think!