Dive Club 🤿 — Episode Summary

Guest: Matt Sarah Sellers
Host: Ridd
Episode: What a top 1% design portfolio looks like
Date: January 21, 2026

Overview

This episode of Dive Club takes a deep dive into the craft and mindset behind designing a portfolio that stands out in the top 1%—especially for landing roles at the world’s most design-forward startups. Host Ridd interviews prolific designer Matt Sarah Sellers, whose recent portfolio impressed the head of design at Lovable. The conversation touches on intentional design choices, removing fluff, crafting memorable experiences, and practical advice for both seasoned and aspiring designers. Listeners are treated to specifics about process, mindset, tool usage, and the importance of ultra-refined details.

1. Redefining the Portfolio: Intentionality & Subtraction

• Intentional Shift:
  • Matt explains his move away from purely functional, catalog-style portfolios. Instead, he now sees the portfolio as an “experience” reflecting care, attention, and personal values.
    • “My previous portfolios have kind of always been stuff as many things as I can into those... with this new portfolio, it was really about how much can I remove?” (Matt, 01:25)
• Quality over Quantity:
  • By “subtracting,” Matt cut 75% of his previous content, then trimmed it again, showing only his proudest, most recent work—eventually displaying around 12–13% of what he could show.
    • “[It] was a strategy of, like, subtracting...the math is kind of brutal, but I feel like it's necessary.” (Matt, 01:25)
• Craft as the Core Signal:
  • Process explanations, impact metrics, and excess case studies were eliminated to keep the focus on pure design craft.
    • “If I can't show you, like, beautiful, thoughtful work, then no amount of process explanation is going to save me.” (Matt, 01:25)
• Surface Area for Disqualification:
  • Less content means fewer opportunities for viewers to notice something negative or question the designer’s judgment.
    • “Every extra thing that you add to your portfolio is like a chance for someone to think—yeah, not quite for me...” (Matt, 06:31)

2. Microcopy and Personality: Crafting the Bio (07:35–11:27)

• The Bio as Experience:
  • Matt’s homepage centers around a tightly crafted intro paragraph. He designed it to immediately resonate with a specific audience—designers and design hiring managers.
    • “I obsessed for nights over this...especially the line around, like, ‘12,800% zoom’...it’s like, if you know, you know.” (Matt, 07:42)
• Layered Meaning & Easter Eggs:
  • References like “layer style karma” and “safe for Web claw” are deeply specific to design tool users—deliberately present as inside jokes for experienced designers.
    • “It's specific enough to be meaningful, but not so inside baseball that it feels...exclusionary.” (Matt, 07:42)
• Intentional Formatting as Signal:
  • Techniques like strikethrough (using “passion” crossed out for “obsession”) become subtle signals, showing alignment with industry in-jokes about designer mentality.
    • “You can be passionate...but there's another level where you are, like, obsessed with something.” (Matt, 07:42)

Notable Quote:

• “The fact that someone can immediately visualize, like, the Adobe UI when they read [12,800% zoom] is like such a funny thing to me. But I think it's an example of what great microcopy does because it creates those connections.” (Matt, 07:42)

3. Designing for the Right Audience (11:27–15:06)

• Narrow Targeting:
  • The portfolio was made for design-centric companies like Linear and Vercel, not for general recruiters or HR.
    • “I was hoping that this would be something that I would share to people that care about craft and quality and attention to detail...design is a core value of our business.” (Matt, 11:47)
• Inspiration & Design Lineage:
  • Matt draws from the early 2010s design community as both influence and aspirational audience (Dribbble, Forest, early Twitter designers).
    • “I come from the early days of, like, design...late 2000s on Twitter...that’s, like, so much part of my design personality.” (Matt, 11:47)
• Experience over Case Studies:
  • Navigational choices (such as not overtly showcasing how to get to case studies) nudge visitors to explore and experience the design rather than just click through links.
    • “I don’t even really show how to get to the case studies necessarily. It’s more just like, I want you to explore.” (Matt, 11:47)

4. The Homepage as an Experience (15:06–16:10)

• No CTAs, All Vibes:
  • The homepage is a carefully curated experience—much more than a list of projects. The container itself expresses the designer’s identity and attention to detail.
    • “I love that there’s no CTAs. I love it. It’s one of my favorite parts because it is encouraging this exploration and really getting into the details of the experience that you’ve curated.” (Ridd, 14:11)
• Personal Expression:
  • For Matt, design is intertwined with identity: “Design isn’t what I do necessarily. It’s, like, who I am.” (Matt, 15:06)

5. Sweating the Details: Microinteractions and Tool Choice (16:10–25:25)

• Microinteractions:
  • Minute visual elements in navigation (magnetic effect, icons that subtly animate or change color upon hover, gradients and shadows that correspond to branding) communicate quality and care.
    • “There’s a lot of detail in here that you immediately wouldn’t notice...the icons...changing...the stroke around them is the brand color, and there’s a really subtle gradient...” (Matt, 16:31)
• Showcasing Animation:
  • A document scanner animation mimics real-life scanning and data processing.
    • “This scanner alone, like, took me a super long time to draw in Figma.” (Matt, 16:31)
• Learning via Portfolio Projects:
  • Matt traditionally uses portfolio overhauls to learn a new tool or technique: this time, he dove deep into Framer, including using code overrides, components, and even ChatGPT to push boundaries.
    • “This time around, I wanted to flex my framer muscle...Everything’s been created natively in Framer...painful to say the least.” (Matt, 19:03)
• “Tool Bending”:
  • Matt embraces pushing tools beyond their “intended” use, confidently hacking and layering functionality for bespoke interactions.
    • “There’s always like something that you’re like, oh, I wish it did this...it turns out like usually you can find a way to have back the system.” (Matt, 25:25)

6. Acknowledging Limitations: Mobile Experience (26:10–28:57)

• Desktop-First Approach:
  • Matt admits mobile was not prioritized—hover-based interactions don’t fully translate, and breaking points exist on small screens.
    • “The experience is kind of different if you’re hitting it from a mobile because it’s very like hovering based.” (Matt, 26:10)
• Contextual Justification:
  • Ridd and team argue this is perfectly valid for portfolios aimed at tech/design leaders, who overwhelmingly visit such sites on desktop.
    • “Within tech, you have to know who you are designing for...this is definitely a desktop first experience and that, like, over 80% of the people are on their computers.” (Ridd, 27:46)

7. Practical Advice for Designers (29:51–32:08)

• Don’t Fake It:
  • If unable to execute with high craft, don’t embellish—focus on what you can do exceptionally, and be honest about your current skills.
    • “Don’t dress up mediocre work with verbose process explanations...instead, go deep on something that you can do exceptionally well.” (Matt, 29:51)
• “Zoom in” to Learn:
  • Build taste by reverse engineering portfolios you admire—study every decision, from spacing to color.
    • “Find portfolios that you admire and try and replicate them in some way, shape or form...get really into the weeds, you know...zoom in, like, 12,800%...” (Matt, 29:51)
• Taste as Signal:
  • Even if skills aren’t there yet, show that you can recognize quality—self-awareness and honesty matter more than inflating mediocrity.
    • “If you can demonstrate that you can see quality even if you can’t necessarily produce it, that signal...show that hiring manager, show that recruiter, like, that you have taste.” (Matt, 29:51)
• Self-Awareness, Not Inflated Mediocrity:
  • “Hiring managers respect that self-awareness way more than inflated mediocrity.” (Matt, 29:51)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Subtraction:

  • “I cut probably 75% of my work before I even thought about what was going to exist in the portfolio...the math is kind of brutal, but I feel like it’s necessary.” (Matt, 01:25)

• On Microcopy:

  • “Every word that you see in this bio, it’s embarrassing how long I spent tweaking it.” (Matt, 07:42)

• On Craft as Identity:

  • “Design isn’t what I do necessarily. It’s, like, who I am.” (Matt, 15:06)

• On Obsession Over Details:

  • “I spent, you know, 90% of my time...on details people might not even notice, but I just can’t help myself.” (Matt, 15:06)

• On Tool Bending:

  • “There’s always, like, something that you’re like, oh, I wish it did this and I wish it did that. It turns out like usually you can find a way to have back the system.” (Matt, 25:25)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00–01:25: Why and how Matt redefined his portfolio strategy
• 07:35–11:27: Crafting the signature bio and targeting with microcopy
• 11:47–15:06: Designing for a select, design-centric audience
• 16:31–19:03: Deep dive on interactive details, Framer, and tool exploration
• 26:10–28:57: Discussion on mobile vs. desktop prioritization
• 29:51–32:08: Practical advice for building portfolios and developing taste

Final Takeaways

• Focus on extreme quality and ruthless editing—the average piece of work shown is more important than showing your entire body of work.
• Let your portfolio express not just projects, but who you are—through bio, details, and experiential design.
• Obsess over details and microcopy, especially when targeting other designers or design-led companies.
• Don’t be afraid to push tools, learn on the job, and experiment in your personal projects.
• Above all, authenticity, self-awareness, and demonstrated taste trump effort spent masking mediocrity.

Listeners come away with a clear understanding of what makes a portfolio truly stand out: intentionality, obsessive craft, a bold sense of self, and a willingness to sweat every pixel and word. This episode is a must-listen for designers eager to elevate their work and mindset.