Remember MLK

Overview

In the wake of recent cultural events, I found myself revisiting some of MLK’s famous speeches. I was moved by how relevant and powerful his word’s still felt for our time, yet humbled at how few of them I had truly internalized. This site was built with the hope that it might help spread his prophetic voice in our day and remind us of the wisdom found in the past.

A timeline of MLK's life severed by a bullet hole

Design Direction

The design direction is heavily typographic, hoping to draw attention to the compelling language MLK used. I wanted to create a feeling of turmoil and chaos, but still with a clear voice.

Founders Grotesk was used as the workhorse typeface. I felt that this helped place the design back into it’s historic context, and the wide variety of weights gave the design language some flexibility and contrast. The color palette was selected largely from vintage, weathered photographs. I also created some illustrations to help bridge gaps in the story and communicate key ideas.

A type specimen demonstrating the fonts used in this project

A mobile view of a typographic quote from MLK

The american flag with the stars falling off around a bullet hole

Animation

I wanted this page to have a compelling, cinematic feel—perhaps like a movie title sequence. My goal for the animation was to help draw attention to specific elements and to help pace the narrative. These were concepted in After Effects and brought to life through Lottie animations in Webflow.

An illustration of prison bars over the Birmingham Jail text

An illustration of a map following the march in Selma

An animation of a flag being split and stars falling off

Built In Webflow

Once the design was set, I was able to build and launch the site in Webflow. This was a challenging experience as I stretched the tool beyond a standard marketing site, but it was very empowering to be able to “close the loop” and bring my ideas fully to life. The site was awarded an honorable mention on Awwwards.

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