For his 40th birthday, Leslie Williams decided to give himself something rather unusual: an entire website about his life. Not a portfolio, a party invitation, or a collection of professional achievements, but an interactive account of four decades, from growing up in Ajegunle to finding his way through school, building a career, falling in love, and learning to appreciate the people around him. Titled Forty, the project combines family photographs, personal reflections, expressive typography, and web animation into an experience that visitors explore by scrolling. It is funny, sentimental, visually engaging, and occasionally vulnerable, offering an unusually personal introduction to the man behind the design work.
The website begins in 1986, when Leslie was born in Ajegunle, Lagos. His mother was a Fine Arts teacher who also sewed, practised tie-dye, and sold clothes to make ends meet. From there, the story moves through his childhood in the 1990s, with photographs of schoolmates, family gatherings, and the friendships that shaped his early years. Leslie recalls being particularly good at mathematics, regularly winning academic prizes and eventually becoming Head Boy. Yet he also remembers the less structured parts of growing up: discovering music, spending weekends with friends, and enjoying the freedom of being a teenager. These ordinary details give the project much of its character. Rather than presenting an idealised childhood, he allows humour, nostalgia, and personal memories to establish who he was before design became his profession.
In 2002, Leslie entered the University of Benin with the confidence; but University, however, proved more complicated than he expected. It was also during this period that he began teaching himself design and earned his first payment for a creative job, an experience he remembers with considerable pride. His journey later took him to Covenant University in 2007, where he had to begin again. There, he found a community of people interested in technology and making things, friendships that helped him develop his skills and ambitions. By 2015, his career was progressing, but his personal life had become more difficult. In the website, he discusses a period of uncertainty that challenged his confidence and forced him to reconsider his relationships, responsibilities, and well-being. Including these experiences gives Forty a depth that a conventional career retrospective might have avoided.
The design of Forty is as considered as the story it carries. Built as a scrolling, WebGL-powered experience, the website uses large typography, animated transitions, photographs, and changes in pacing to distinguish the different periods of Leslie's life. One of the most memorable chapters begins in 2018, when Leslie met the woman who would become his wife. He recounts how their relationship developed through conversations, visits, and the challenges of long distance. Their photographs sit alongside those of friends, relatives, and colleagues throughout the website, reinforcing an important part of the narrative: this is not simply a record of what Leslie has accomplished, but of the relationships that have shaped his life. His mother, sisters, wife, and friends are central to the story, and the affection with which he writes about them makes the experience feel distinctly human.
Although Forty began as a personal project, its design attracted attention beyond Leslie's immediate circle. The website was featured on Muzli, where it received a Muzli Picks selection. Leslie could choose the subject, the format, and the details he wanted to share, allowing his personality to influence every part of the experience. The result is a piece of independent creative work that illustrates the possibilities of combining interactive technology with an honest, carefully written personal narrative.
The final chapter brings visitors to 2026. Leslie is forty, married, surrounded by people he loves, and still working things out. He looks back at the boy who once stood in front of a school computer imagining what he might create, recognising that the curiosity remains even as his life has changed. There is no attempt to present forty as an age at which every question has been answered. Instead, he expresses gratitude for his family and friends, acknowledges his continuing personal growth, and looks forward to making more time for the people and activities he values. That perspective gives Forty its strongest quality. Beneath the animation and technical execution is a designer using his craft to preserve his memories, acknowledge difficult experiences, and celebrate the people who helped him get here. It is an impressive piece of web design, but more importantly, it is a thoughtful birthday gift to himself and a story worth sharing.
Explore Forty by Leslie Williams on https://forty.lesliewilliams.design/
