Featured Work
Implicit Bias & Philosophy Project: Logo & Website
The Implicit Bias & Philosophy International Research Network is a multidisciplinary academic organisation researching the effect of unconscious biases in the gender & ethnic composition of student & academic populations in philosophy. Since its members are scattered across the globe & periodically meet for workshops, it was important that members could present information publicly where appropriate, share information with one another in a private space & access all of this easily, on the go. Accordingly, there are three requirements to the design: a public-facing site, a private forum & the ability to easily use the site on a variety of handheld devices such as the iPhone or iPad.
Creating Confrontation: Logo & Layout
ardes chose to create a confrontational look for the project: to create a logo that looks like a smudgy stamp that one might use on a form to reject something, for example, a paper, as unacceptable. To make it as confrontational as possible, the logo variants use stark colours—red, black & white—to heighten the emotional impact.
We carried through the basic, alarmist colour scheme on the website. To heighten the emotional impact, we employed arresting imagery to make the viewer feel negatively judged—much as marginalised people feel judged daily, with little recourse to appeal.
Simple Content Management
ardes supplied the Implicit Bias Project with our bespoke simple CMS (sCMS), which makes the editing of content very easy: without any knowledge of HTML, the site’s admins can concentrate upon what they want to say & know that it will render appropriately in all browsers. Admins have full access to all sorts of search-engine-friendly metadata, along with extensive, inline help. And that inline help provides assistance precisely where the site’s admins need it.
The Private Face
The second “face” of the Implicit Bias Project’s website is a private face, which is a forum for the members. Available only to those invited to access it, the forum allows the Project’s participants to share ongoing research and receive information & guidance from one another. The forum collects all posted information & creates a “library” of posted documents in one location, so the participants can always keep up-to-date on each other’s research.
Responsive Design
The site is designed to be responsive, meaning that its look is fully optimised whether viewing it on a desktop with a huge monitor or the small screen of an iPhone. The layout changes depending upon the device: for example, on an iPad, the eyes flow over two “lines”, making the viewers’ judgments against you feel that more weighty.
On smaller, handheld devices such as iPhones or Android handsets, the images aren’t used at all, to ensure that people on the go can access the site as efficiently as possible. Given that the members of the Network are located around the world & meet up periodically, it was crucial for them to be able to view the latest information—whether paper abstracts, venue locations or anything else— easily & efficiently.
Permanent URL: Bias Project
See more examples of our web design & corporate identity design.