Graphic smiley face with black oval eyes and a curved stroke for a smile with accentuated cheeks

expozine web design

2021
Expozine website redesign

Art direction and design by Lauren McCarthy

Intro

Our goal for the expozine website was to improve its UX and UI. Their website was really lacking in functionality, accessibility, and all in all, its design in general.  I started by doing a bunch of research and asking many questions to try and get to know everything I could about the event and what they are needing on their website.

Expozine website on phone mockups with green background

Project

The content of the website was pretty straightforward and actually there wasn’t a lot needed, whereas their original design seemed to include a lot of unnecessary space fillers.I simplified the content in half and created a system to view the events archives that date back to 2002.

Once that was done I started designing moodboard and went with some tamer colors, and decided to make the website typographic rather than image based, which is what they originally had. as an exposition to buy written works, it just made sense to go very clean and typography based. the header is built completely with all different variations of the typeface knockout. which can easily allow any new pages being made to be replicated

Mockup of Exposing website on a computer and a phone
Exposing website. Home page. green backgroundExposing website. Vendor Archives, green backgroundExposing website. Become A vendor application form. green background

Process

I  really wanted to bring the roots of the events at the forefront of the website, and to us that means displaying the work of independent publishing houses, writers and artists. The website is less about the event “expozine” and more about what you can find at the expozine event. Who will be there ? What goes on ? etcI chose to go with sage green, and charcoal, these are not only colors that are very in style, but they are a calming color combination. using these  Ican appeal to expozine full audience, people aged 16-90

Wire frame of Exposing website. Home page. blue background with white type and strokesWire frame of Exposing website. Past vendor archives. blue background with white type and strokesWire frame of Exposing website. Become A vendor application form. blue background with white type and strokes

Outcome

The outcome of the website was successful. I was able to simplify everything and make it easier to find out about vendors and how to get in touch. everything is functional