Range Setter

A range setter is the portfolio project you place directly after the flagship to slam home that you are not a one-trick designer. It sits in the top third of the homepage so any hiring manager who spends their usual 90 seconds scanning immediately registers a completely different visual register. If the flagship is a tight 2023 SaaS dashboard for Ramp with precise data tables keyboard shortcuts and conversion rate obsession your range setter becomes the loud 2022 brand overhaul for Supreme complete with chaotic graphic systems hand rendered type and street level attitude. The contrast does the work before they even click. Senior roles demand this proof because real product teams swing between consumer apps enterprise tools brand campaigns and systems work in the same quarter. The range setter tells them you will adapt instead of complaining that the new brief does not match your aesthetic. It forms one of the five projects that actually matter in a portfolio that converts. Pick it for maximum visual distance from the flagship so the homepage itself becomes a demonstration of range rather than a museum of similar looking case studies.

A range setter is not your second most polished SaaS project. It is not the same clean grids with a new color palette slapped on top. It is not the branding project from 2021 that looks like it was designed by the same hand on the same Tuesday as your flagship. It is not a personal side project unless that project carries real commercial constraints and stakeholder feedback. It is not filler to hit some imaginary project count and it is not the place to hide work you half heartedly contributed to. If a hiring manager cannot tell the difference between your flagship and range setter at first glance the project has failed its only job. Do not use it to show minor variations in the same visual family. That teaches nothing about adaptability and wastes one of your five precious slots. The range setter must feel like a different designer stepped in to own the work.

Take Aisha Patel who rebuilt her portfolio in October 2023. Her flagship was the end to end redesign of Shopify checkout flows in 2022. She led research synthesized findings from 2.4 million monthly users ran experiments with the growth team and shipped changes that cut cart abandonment 31 percent. The aesthetic was pure functional minimalism with generous whitespace clear hierarchy and systematic components built in Figma. For the range setter she picked her 2021 visual identity and campaign work for Glossier. She pushed the brand from its signature millennial pink into maximalist territory with custom illustrations limited edition packaging that used foil stamping and tactile finishes plus a campaign site built in Webflow that exploded with layered textures handwritten copy and motion that felt alive. On her homepage the flagship loaded first with its crisp interface and metric bars. Scroll once and the Glossier hero image hit like a different universe with its riot of color and imperfection. The shift registered in under four seconds. In the case study she walked through constraints like rigid brand guardrails she successfully negotiated research sessions that proved Gen Z buyers craved authenticity over polish and process artifacts from 1990s zine mood boards to After Effects prototypes. Another example is Tom Reynolds in March 2024. His flagship was the design systems architecture at Figma in 2023 that scaled tokens across 40 products and lifted designer velocity 45 percent per their internal survey. Clean documentation heavy grids zero chaos. His range setter was the UI brand and website for the game Hades II with Supergiant Games in 2022. Dark fantasy illustrations reactive UI components that responded to gameplay states and a marketing site styled like an ancient blood soaked scroll. The homepage contrast did the talking. Recruiters from both enterprise product teams and creative agencies contacted him within 48 hours.

Use a range setter when you are gunning for senior or staff roles at companies that ship across multiple visual contexts like IDEO frog design or modern product teams at Figma and Notion. Deploy it when your flagship lives deep in one lane such as enterprise SaaS and you need to prove you can also deliver expressive consumer brand work or environmental design. Refresh it every job search so it still creates maximum distance from whatever project you now lead with. Do not use it when targeting hyper specialized roles that reward narrow expertise such as accessibility lead at a government SaaS company or pure motion designer at a studio like Buck. Skip it if every strong project in your career shares the same visual language because a forced or weak example will hurt your credibility more than leaving the slot for a second depth piece. Early career designers can sometimes merge range into their personal project but at senior level it must stand alone as commercial work with real stakes real constraints and real outcomes. Re evaluate the choice quarterly when you update the site. If the two projects start to feel too similar retire one and find a better contrast.

A range setter does not expand what hiring managers think you are capable of. It explodes it.