HA! Historia/Arte

The site Historia/Arte (HA!) tries to make art and its history accessible to more people. Initiated by Miguel Calvo, the project aims to provide easy to read articles that approach art from a different perspective. The contents are available in Spanish.

The design of the site includes several layouts for different situations. The composition and the colors adapt to the piece of art the article talks about. A dynamic design system that adapts to the contents without being obtrusive.

HA! previously combined two typefaces, a geometric sans serif (Geomanist) and a serif (PT Serif). The latter served for long texts and main entries, while the sans was used for everything else: titles, subtitles, navigation elements, etc. In his redesign, Óscar Otero wanted to keep this duality of serif and sans, but with new typeface families. For the serif, he was looking for something a little less classic, with a large x-height for good screen performance, and somewhat geometric proportions, so that it pairs well with the sans. It also needed a contrasting bold style, so that it was no longer necessary to use the sans for emphasis within the serif body text. Otero eventually settled on Solitas Serif. Being able to use the regular version for free allowed him to try it for a few days before licensing the other required styles. For the sans, the initial idea was to continue using Geomanist, but while reviewing the Atipo catalog, the designer discovered Archia, which was still geometric, but in a more architectural way, with much more personality.

Otero has documented the design process in a series of articles, available in Galician and Spanish. Read more about the modular typographic scale based on the golden ratio, as well as other aspects such as layout and color.