Bernstein Webdesign
Its Making and Unmaking
From 2005 to 2009 I conceived and organized with Emanuel Wenger at the Austrian Academy of Sciences the Bernstein Project, an international effort to bring about the integration of paper and watermarks databases into a single portal. During the project I developed a number of designs for the portal, the evolution of which is documented here.
Beta
This was an extension of the design of the website presenting the project. As the first page of the portal it didn't channel in an obvious way to the existing resources and was probably too verbose.
Transition
This is a transitional design alleviating the perceived drawbacks of the previous one, yet maintaining some graphical elements.
Splash screen
A new graphical design has been developed. It is constructed around essentials: name and description of project, resources available, logo and captivating illustration, language versions.
Folly
I wanted a more striking design, so I made one characterized by a very strong black-white-red contrast and seemingly broken layout. The graphical elements are however aligned in regard to each other and positioned so as to create approximate 2/3 proportions.
Template
While the previous designs where all the first page of the portal, this proposal introduced a comprehensive template for all the website's sections.
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Liberty
The template is perfected: reintroducing pictures makes it more happy, cutting the banner height more economical, while providing unlimited liberty how to design the body of the page. The visual trademarks of the project – the logo, the pictures and the red and white livery – are maintained.
By committee
In the end, the adopted design was made by committee. Here it is. Glups!
