No Replica

Challenge

For their twentieth anniversary, Design Observer launched an awards ceremony celebrating their legacy and continuing impact on the design industry. The organization wanted a standalone site that served as a portal for their anniversary initiative, as well as a way to celebrate their rich archive of articles.

Solution

No Replica created the website for Design Observer’s anniversary, featuring a fixed layout inspired by print mastheads. Each page is anchored by a header highlighting the various contributors to the initiative, as well as a marquee of recent articles. As the user browses the site, the background smoothly shifts between colors, providing a fluid aesthetic that complements the editorial style of the header.

The site’s main feature is the “Awards” page featuring random selections from the publication’s full twenty-year archive. The page assembles these selections into a gridded collage of images that sits in the background. Users can hover over each image to reveal the associated article and click to read the original text. Through this design, the site fulfills a dual role as a hub for Design Observer’s awards and future ambitions, as well as a celebration of its rich past.

The site’s design pairs a fixed layout with fluid gradients and dynamic typography. The overall page structure is strict and consistent across the site, while the backgrounds flow smoothly between colors at random.

Pages transition seamlessly into each other, with elements fading out and back in followed by a burst of color.

The “Awards” page features an interactive background that selects links to random articles from the publication’s entire 20-year archive. This is a fully interactive experience in which visitors can hover to learn more information about each article, as well as click to read the original publication.