Upperquad – Website
At Home
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Client
Internal project
Role
Creative Direction, Art Direction, Visual Design, Production
Year
2020, Produced at Upperquad
Awards
The Webby Awards Best Navigation/Structure Nominee, Awwwards SOTD, DEV, Mobile, SOTM Nominee, CommArts WebPick, FWA Of The Day, CSS Design Award, Typewolf SOTD, EditorX: The Best Web Design of 2020
Team
Kailie Parrish, David Kirschberg, Danielle LaRoy, Lily Zhou, Louis Amiot, Wyatt Barry
In the wake of Covid-19, the world has changed in ways that no one could have expected. From months spent in quarantine grew a global movement for justice and equality. Each of us has processed and adapted to the events of the last few months in our own way. In an effort to stay connected and support one another through these unprecedented times, we created At Home: a series of stories documenting the experience.
Over the course of twelve weeks, we conducted more than 60 interviews with makers in four cities. In this effort, we broadly defined a maker as anyone who creates and takes pride in their craft: painters, nail artists, business artists, mixologists, beekeepers, musicians and creators, among others. We started at home in Berlin and expanded to San Francisco, London and New York City in subsequent editions.
Bold, intentional features
The gravity of the situation had a large impact on the design. The grand scale and placement of the name, “At Home,” is meant to feel grounded—almost ominously or overwhelmingly so. The landing page is intentionally stripped back of everything, allowing our core question “How are makers experiencing the effects of the global pandemic?” to linger with a pause.
Smooth, editorial design
As a storytelling platform, we knew we wanted to take an editorial approach to the site. You’ll notice that the site scrolls horizontally, an intentional break from the normal vertical scroll that serves to reinforce the unique moment we’re in. We stack each city horizontally on the right like the spines of a book, each offering a new chapter of this pandemic story. Scrolling or clicking opens the chapter to reveal seven featured makers in that city with animations taking you seamlessly from one to the next.
The Interviews
The heartfelt, human stories are really the magic of this site. We feel very proud to have created a space where people felt safe enough to share their stories and express themselves fully. There’s a lot to discover: humor and sadness, hope and despair, and creativity and stillness. Individually, each story offers a new perspective, told through a distinct voice and lived experience. Together, they create a beautiful time capsule effect, a portrait of a moment in time.
Support Makers
Prior to reaching out to makers, the team put together a resource list to help support one another. This was the first step in the journey of what became At Home and we felt it belonged on the site as a way for readers to make a difference.
Photography
We were lucky to work with talented photographer Helge Mundt to capture portraits of the Berlin interviewees. With his help, this allowed us to provide a real, visual look at the situation in Berlin. Each maker was photographed from a distance either from the balcony or window, at home or in their private workspace.
