The Mars Society Collection

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Client: The Mars Society, as volunteer web designer.

Challenge: Work with organizations sole web designer and create entire new site design. We were limited by our own free-time and individual scope of abilities using Wordpress as the platform.

Goals:

• Create a flexible structure that will grow as the organization does.
• Design a bank of components that work across parent and child sites, with their varying assets.

• Keep the design simple so the developer can build it quickly.

• Make image formatting and content uploading easy for less tech-savvy volunteers.

• Design a site that is still visually interesting, despite being copy heavy.

• Update the look and feel of the organization.

Solutions:
• All images on the entire site (minus the homepage header) are the same ratio. This ratio is the same as most video thumbnails as well. This will make it easier for volunteers to upload images and manage the site.
• We used the same general layout for the parent and child sites, but changed the color palettes so at a glance, you can tell which project site you are on.

James L Burk, the developer, won outstanding volunteer award for the new website! :D

Client: The Mars Society, contest entry for new Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) patch and shirt.

Challenge: Represent what MDRS stands for - advocating and preparing for human exploration and settlement of Mars - but must be obvious and self-explanatory to all, including members of the general public.