Justin Skolnick lives and works in Chicago.

English and Modern Languages

Wartburg College

2001

The English and Modern Languages departmental site was, if memory serves, a work-study gig, arranged through my academic advisor. In retrospect, the product of our collaborative brainstorming was quite ambitious and demanded much more attention than the faculty had time for or interest in.

Like much of my web site work at Wartburg, the EML site pressed the limits of the school’s server technology (I think it was WebSTAR) and the web savvy of the college community. Semi-rural northeast Iowa was a few years behind my technical expertise at the time, with my grasp of what the web could be and do better in line with the norms of my suburban Chicago home. To the Iowans’ great credit, their patience was a decade ahead of mine. At times I miss living there.

The play of shadows in the English department’s wing of Luther Hall inspired the angular design, though later on someone pointed out how the negative space suggests an AT-AT. A happy accident. I had recently discovered Trade Gothic, and something about the face brought to mind, for reasons I remain at a loss to explain, 1950s University of Chicago.