Justin Skolnick lives and works in Chicago.

KWAR

Wartburg College

1998–2001

The work found me. My freshman residence assistant Chris Thomas held the morning slot on student-run KWAR-FM. One night he and his cohost took a seat on my roommate’s futon and asked if I’d build a site for “Chris and the Tool.” I couldn’t refuse.

The staff took a liking to my work. Before long I was brought in to see “the Godfather,” station manager Jay Boeding. Jay sat me down, looked me in the eye, and asked if I would do for the station’s site what I did for Chris and Nate’s show. Yes sir, I said, I would.

My first attempt at a KWAR site was tuxedo slender, black-and-white, nav-left, with the existing (and pretty inventive) logo set in Wartburg orange. To link the site’s two narrow left columns, I wrapped the logo in an orange swoosh. They were thrilled by the swoosh. Could I animate it? Sure, I could animate it.

With the launch of the redesigned site, I had their full faith to design whatever thing looked cooler than the last thing. Summer brought a slim site to match their lighter schedule, then, the next fall, furniture clipped out of a Sears catalog formed a visual metaphor (still under David Siegel’s spell) to evoke dorm-style chillaxing. Faculty advisor Jeffrey Stein admitted later that he didn’t get the “lounge-1” concept at first, but in time it made sense to him, and in any case he trusted my judgment.

I met a lot of good people there.