Why is the website designed this way?

In case you were wondering…
Here is the rationale for the design choices:

 

Header: The top banner image is a street map of Detroit with blocks colored in red, yellow, blue, and green in the style of 1930s redlining maps that segregated Detroit by income and race. Since the long-term effects of redlining are still visible in Detroit, it is only appropriate that a website about racializing space graphically reference the aesthetics of redlining maps.

Font: Title fonts are all in Futura. This sans-serif font was chosen because it is based on geometric shapes and sharp angles in the 1920s and 1930s spirit of Art Deco. Detroit came of age in the 1920s, and most of the city’s iconic landmarks are in the Art Deco style. The Futura font thus evokes the spirit of Detroit.

Body texts are all in Verdana. This sans-serif font has more playful curves. Verdana is less formal than fonts like Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman that are commonly used in heavy academic writing. Because this is an exhibit for the general public, the writing style is casual and journalist with a font to match.

Background: For ease of reading across ages and abilities, the website is black text on white page.

Favicon and logo: The logo of this site is in the four colors of redlining maps with the letters R and S for Racializing Space.

Web hosting chosen for affordability: This website is hosted on the edublogs.org server with HTTPS encryption provided through cloudflare.com and the domain name rented through Google Domains. This configuration brings the total cost of managing this site to $35 per year.

Content management designed for durability: This website was created in WordPress. While WordPress has fewer customization options than other platforms, the code is free and open source. WordPress is less likely to go out of business in the next few decades than competing content management systems.

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