Off The Road

Off The Road is a research portal and public-facing website for an ERC (European Research Council) funded project exploring the environmental aesthetics and cultural experience of early American automobility — specifically how the open road was experienced, imagined, and narrated in the United States during the 1920s.

The site serves a dual mandate that is characteristic of ERC-funded projects: it must fulfil the EU grant's open-access dissemination requirements while also being genuinely useful and engaging as a scholarly resource. The architecture balances a public research portal, project team information, publications repository, and news section — structured to serve both academic specialists and curious general visitors.

The design draws on the visual language of early twentieth century Americana — open roads, documentary photography, and period aesthetics — translating these references into a contemporary, accessible digital experience. The result is one of the most visually distinctive academic sites in the portfolio, demonstrating how good design can communicate scholarly content in a compelling and memorable way.

Full website design & build from scratch, ERC grant dissemination architecture, and research portal structure.