Society for Perception Studies

The Society for Perception Studies began as a Harvard speaker series and became a community before it had anywhere to be one. It organizes itself around a single proposition, that how we see shapes how we live, which makes it an institution rather than a calendar of events.

A Harvard speaker series had already grown a community around it and had nowhere for that community to exist between events. A university event page would have made it look like programming rather than an institution, which is the opposite of what it had become. The brief was to give a society its building.

Designed the front door to hold one line, perception precedes knowledge, with the crest beside it and everything else one click in, so the site opens as a proposition instead of a schedule. Structured the society as six named expressions, conversations, calendar, editorial, rooms, research, and library, numbered so the institution reads as a whole rather than a menu. Set the type as an old-world institution would, a Didot roman for voice with a grotesque for reading and a blackletter reserved for the header mark alone. Built in code with member authentication behind it, so the room stays a room.

Homepage holds one line and the crest, everything else one click in. Six numbered expressions carry the institution: conversations, calendar, editorial, rooms, research, library. GFS Didot roman for voice, DM Sans for reading, blackletter for the header mark only. Numerals set in a separate face so data never borrows the voice. Member authentication built in, so the society has a threshold.