Zullum's Professional Portfolio transforms a domestic scapegoat into a fully realized brand. Since 2022, a couple has blamed their household poltergeist "Zullum" for every mysterious incident—missing socks, fallen curtains, relocated objects. The brief: What if Zullum went professional?
The Challenge: Create a portfolio website that treats absurdist premise with unwavering professional sincerity. The design needed to balance deadpan comedy with genuine craft—deploying real advertising clichés to maximize the gap between corporate language and household chaos.
Success criteria: Make people laugh while demonstrating that humor requires as much precision as any "serious" design work.
Strategic Approach
Brand Voice: Zullum communicates like someone who Googled "how to write professionally" and took every result literally. Headlines weaponize genuine advertising festival clichés—"Peak Market Disruption," "We Didn't Stop There," "Results Speak Volumes"—applying Silicon Valley optimism to sock theft and fork redistribution.
The voice walks a tightrope: too knowing and the joke collapses; too sincere and it reads as bad copywriting. The sweet spot is awkward earnestness—Zullum genuinely believes this is how professionals communicate.
Visual Identity: The character design solved a tonal problem: how to make a chaos agent sympathetic. Solution: a small, fluffy black creature with oversized eyes—cute enough to be funny, ambiguous enough to actually blame for structural damage. The illustration style supports deadpan delivery without telegraphing punchlines.
Information Architecture: The site follows traditional portfolio structure religiously: hero section, values, experience, case studies, contact form. This familiar framework is the setup—audiences recognize the format, which makes the absurdist content land harder. Comedic timing through information design.
Case Study Methodology: Six case studies document real household incidents as professional achievements. Each written in authentic advertising case study format (Brief/Task/Solution/Result), complete with metrics ("47 socks relocated over 6-month period," "0% recovery rate"). The comedy derives from format rigor—treating domestic incidents with the same analytical framework typically reserved for brand launches. Headlines reference cultural touchstones for an additional layer: funny if caught, transparent if missed.
Outcome: Zullum is now accepting clients. The household remains in chaos.
The project proves that personal work and professional skill demonstration aren't mutually exclusive. Sometimes the best way to show what you can do is to make yourself—and hopefully others—laugh.
Design doesn't always have to solve problems. Sometimes it can create better ones.
