This website has existed in various forms since I was 17. Over the years, it's come to be an important part of how I express myself online. I wrote a reflection on this called "The life and times of a personal website". Laurel Schwulst also has a fabulous essay on why making (and constantly remaking) a personal website is a very meaningful process.

I've redone this site too many times to count, so I thought I'd jot some notes on the design process for my fellow aesthetes:

Aesthetic – words & metaphors
Collage
Merging worlds
A clean, well kept home
Always a work in progress
Earthy, grounded
Sincere but not serious
African, Xhosa
Textiles
Feminine

Aesthetic – definitely not
Sterile
White, tech bro-y
An island

Design "principles" applied
Intimacy gradients
Form follows function

How I want you to feel
Welcome
Seen
Invited

Function
I approach my website first and foremost as a site for personal meaning making. But if there were one "utilitarian" value, it would be sharing a mirror of myself to the world that attracts like minded people. Some of my best friends first found me through words I wrote on the internet. 

Imagery

Inspiration
See the Figma moodboard that started it all. Notable shoutouts: Gabrielle Ione Hickmon (for general aesthetic and layout), Erin Wylie (for cute personal landing page), Sean Thielen-Esparza (for much needed simplicity).