I envision my website to be clean and linear but able to hold different kinds of media. I’m leaning towards a simpler set-up, which is what I tend to respond to personally, however I’m not sure if that’s the right way to go.
Either way I’ve started thinking about the following, and included some questions that the process has brought up for me.
1) 5-10 possible page types: contact, about (should they be together, rather than separate?) portfolio, blog, pictures, videos, resume
2) clips of current or past work: I have pdfs scanned from the past, what’s the best way to display that?
3) plug-ins: stats,audio player, social media (twitter, fb), tumblr?, contact form
4) Themes:woothemes: efolio, (fresh)folio
Graph paper press: base (I don’t understand why all the diff menu options…maybe want something where everything is together?) gridline
5) sketch out potential layout with requirements: able to display large-format photos, video, photo slide shows, audio, tumblr
Good start on your thinking. You may be able to incorporate a contact form (meant to allow people to reach you without having to share your email address) onto your about page. But why not have it separate, so each remains distinct. I’ll try to track down more info on displaying PDFs, but for now, consider a thumbnail version on some kind of clip index page, which when clicked go to the full-sized version. Theme choices seem good, especially if you’re planning a good deal of strong visual material.