Before anyone walked into Swedish American Hall, they walked into omfest.co. The website was the first part of OmFest most people experienced, so I wanted it to feel like the event itself.
A website with two lives
When I first briefed Automattic’s Special Projects Team (Team 51), I asked for a site that would serve two purposes.
- Before OmFest: Explain what we were creating, share the schedule and FAQs, and give people a way to register.
- After OmFest: Become an archive of the day, with photographs, recordings, and a digital home for things that had only existed in the room.
Thinking about both uses from the beginning meant we didn’t have to start over once the event ended. On October 2, we removed the registration button and began transforming the site into the archive we’d planned.
One thing I hadn’t planned was this series. After OmFest, I felt so inspired by Om and his writing that I wanted to document how we’d created the event and share what we’d learned along the way. That’s how Making OmFest began. And now, every post lives on the site’s Making OmFest page, alongside the photographs, talks, and OM/60 discoveries.
Finding the design
We started with Om’s world. The editorial feel of om.co inspired our black and warm cream palette. His photography gave us much of the visual richness. Blue, his favorite color, and lavender, which appeared throughout his inks, clothing, and photographs, became part of the exploration. And Avenir Next, a typeface Om once called his favorite, became our font, on the website and on the signage at the event.
The earliest designs leaned minimal and grayscale.
Matt encouraged us to go in a completely different direction: something more celebratory, more festival-like, and less reminiscent of a traditional memorial. He also pushed us to explore 5-10 genuinely different concepts, rather than small variations of one design.
Team 51 returned the same day with seven directions. We chose the one that introduced more color and a subtle watch motif.
The watch
This might be my favorite part of the site. In my original pitch, I’d described OmFest as a twelve-hour clock. The event would run from 9am to 9pm, one full revolution of the dial, divided into four movements.
Jesse Friedman took that concept and ran with it. His idea: “make the homepage a watch.”
The hands would sit at 9:00. The date would read September 29. And the hour markers around the dial would become the actual event schedule. It was such a clever way to bring Om’s love of watches into the experience without making the entire website about watches. I loved seeing an idea from the original event pitch become something interactive and unexpected.
Why .co?
Sometimes the simplest decisions have a nice story behind them.
OmFest.com wasn’t available, so we explored alternatives. Omfest.co stood out because it echoed Om’s own domain, om.co. Matt approved it, and the site went live the following day, September 9.
From the initial brief to launch, the entire process took roughly two weeks.
What I’d steal from this
- Design for what happens afterward. Your event website can have a much longer life than your registration page.
- Ask for different concepts, not different versions. Early creative exploration is the time to challenge the direction, not just refine it.
- Find inspiration in the details. A favorite typeface, a color, or a personal interest can become part of the design language.
- Let collaborators take ideas further. Some of the best creative work happens when someone sees a possibility you hadn’t imagined.
Thank you to Team 51, especially Michelle Langston, Allan Cole, Kim Clow, Mark McGrath, Christie Wright, and Jesse Friedman for creating something that felt like OmFest from the very first click.
Post 24 of 60 · Making OmFest
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