ClarkRasmussen.comAugust 2004

Project Overview

After the O6 Development site was built, I no longer needed to host my portfolio on ClarkRasmussen.com. Because that site was entirely built around my portfolio, I redesigned it as more of a portal leading to my other sites.

The lack of content on the site allowed me to design around an idea that came as a joke from a designer I worked with at the time.

I was in a design meeting for one of the sites that University Relations at Michigan State University was going to be building. Three designers were being asked to submit mock-ups for the site. They were told that whoever had their design chosen would have to spend more time later on working with me to get the design converted from a Photoshop file to an actual web page.

One of the designers, acting as though he didn't want to do the extra work, then joked, "Yeah, I think you need a design in black and white based largely on the font 'Courier.'"

Everyone laughed, as everyone "knows" you can't make a good design using those elements. I thought I'd give it a try anyway and ClarkRasmussen.com became that attempt.

With the site redesigned, I needed to create a new logo/wordmark that matched the new style.

Not having much to work with, I kept the design simple. The wordmark was simply my name in 'Courier' inside a box with a black outline. My first name appeared in white text on a black background while my last name was in black on white.

The logo had a retro feel but that was unintentional. By using the Courier font, it was also a bit of a throwback to my junior high school days, when I was an aspiring novelist.

Images