Project Blue Space
Website design, development, and identity design commissioned by multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Shikeith.
Project Blue Space is a public-facing digital humanities initiative, supported by The Mellon Foundation. Project Blue Space maps the cultural, spiritual, and political connections between Black communities and bodies of water, beginning with Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers.
The website required a complex interactive system centered on a map-based interface that structures relationships between locations, historical narratives, and media in a way that feels both intuitive and meaningful for users. For the interactive map experience, a customized implementation of the Leaflet library was used to mark and navigate historical sites throughout Pittsburgh.
The website was designed and developed to adapt seamlessly across smaller screen sizes, including mobile experiences.
The logotype was developed from Freight, designed by Joshua Darden, and customized for the identity system. Incorporating a typeface by a Black designer was an important part of representing the project’s cultural legacy with care and intention. A symbol mark was also developed for applications where the full logotype could not be used.
Black-and-white archival imagery was treated in a brown monotone drawn from the brand palette to maintain a cohesive visual language across the identity and interface.