Why Eleventy?

After years of working with complex content management systems, I wanted something simpler for my personal site. Eleventy (11ty) offered the perfect balance:

  • Speed: Static sites are inherently fast
  • Flexibility: Multiple template languages supported
  • Simplicity: No database, no server-side complexity
  • Control: Complete ownership of the output

Design Philosophy

I wanted a site that reflected my professional approach: clean, direct, and focused on substance over flash. The design principles were:

Typography First

Good typography is the foundation of readable content. I chose:

  • Playfair Display for headings - elegant and professional
  • Inter for body text - highly readable on screens

Artistic Touches

Rather than relying on heavy JavaScript or complex animations, I used CSS to create subtle "hand-drawn" effects:

  • Pencil-sketch borders using box-shadow
  • Slightly imperfect lines using transforms
  • Charcoal filter effects on images
  • Robin blue accent color for visual interest

Mobile Responsive

The layout adapts seamlessly from desktop to mobile, with a single-column layout on small screens that maintains the artistic aesthetic.

Technical Implementation

The site uses:

  • Nunjucks templates for layouts
  • Markdown for content
  • Pure CSS (no frameworks except Google Fonts)
  • Minimal JavaScript (just tab switching on homepage)

Lessons Learned

Building from scratch taught me:

  1. CSS is powerful - Modern CSS can handle complex layouts without frameworks
  2. Static sites scale - No server means no scaling concerns
  3. Content focus matters - Simple designs put the focus on writing
  4. Iteration is key - Starting simple and adding features beats starting complex

Next Steps

Future improvements I'm considering:

  • Dark mode toggle
  • Search functionality
  • RSS feed for blog posts
  • Integration with external services (GitHub, LinkedIn)

The full source code will be available on GitHub once I finalize the design.