Bring the 150th anniversary of the French-speaking Swiss daily "made in" Fribourg to the web. It's not every year that a Swiss media outlet reaches such a fine age! Two special print editions, a book, an event… Something online was obviously still missing. Our mission: produce two websites in record time to mark the milestone. One on the history of the newspaper, the other on a day behind the scenes. Ready, set, go!
Exploring the archives
The pleasure of diving into the newspaper's digitised archives. Exploring old articles. Savouring the ads that punctuate 150 years of journalism. Rediscovering historic events. A sociological and graphic journey. A goldmine that let us propose a design reflecting a hundred and fifty years of human adventures. Excerpts from our (re)discoveries.
Visual design with a typographic focus
After so much typographic richness in the archives, it was obvious that our design work had to give pride of place to type design. We therefore built our work around a combination of several typefaces. They bring variety and nod to the newspaper's history: from hot metal to phototypesetting, from phototypesetting to offset, and from offset to digital.
An interface that rolls
A tribute to the rotary presses and the ribbon of paper running through them. The bustle that comes with making a daily newspaper deserved a small place in the interface. Our "ribbon" unrolls as you scroll down the page, creating a sense of continuity and flow.
One canvas, two sites
We built a versatile interface with two flavours: one for the historical supplement and one for the behind-the-scenes supplement. It also has a day and a night mode, depending on your device settings. 🦉 💡
A project run smoothly
The project came to life in record time thanks to everyone's motivation. La Liberté's web team arrived determined, with a clear vision of the goal. We completed the picture with a rational action plan to secure both quality and deadlines.
The paradox we had to handle first was content availability. A newspaper runs on just-in-time writing. Preparing two special editions on top of the daily paper meant the final content would arrive at the last minute. No problem: we adapted and made sure the editing experience would be fast and smooth.
In the end, everything went perfectly and both sites were published right on time.
An efficient tech stack
Two sites built to celebrate exceptional longevity. The technical strategy had to be resilient. We chose a static site generator to improve performance and avoid having to deal with the security of a CMS. We went with HUGO for its speed and robustness.
Content editing was still needed so the articles could be set up in record time (two days before publication). We chose Forestry for the job: a headless CMS (SaaS) that we enabled for a set period, then disconnected once the content was entered, without affecting how the site runs in the future.
Respecting privacy
We thought carefully about which data to collect in order to measure whether the two sites met their goals. We set up Plausible instead of Google Analytics to protect visitors' privacy.
We're proud of this project
Two complete websites with a custom design. A technical strategy carried through from start to finish. The La Liberté project was built and published in just a few weeks. A success we're proud to share in this portfolio. The last word on this partnership goes to our client.
“ Working with the Antistatique team guaranteed us two high-quality websites for our 150th anniversary. After several enriching discussions, they quickly understood our intentions. Their expertise brought our content into an innovative editorial format, with a UX/UI that refreshes our brand. A big thank you! ”
