Live website
Iyyun
Visual identity & custom website
for a philosophy journal
Role: Brand, UX/UI, web development (end-to-end) · 2021—2023
Iyyun is a long-established bilingual philosophy journal published by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. When they approached me, they had no web presence — only a bi-yearly print edition. They were looking to bring the journal online for the first time.
I was selected through a competitive bid to design and build its first complete web platform: visual identity, information architecture, CMS structure, UX/UI, and web development.
The challenge
The core challenge was designing a system for a journal redefining itself in real time. Its scope was expanding from print to web, from a single academic article format to a growing range of editorial types: academic essays, interviews, video conversations, and formats that hadn't been defined yet.
The architecture could not be built around what the journal was – it had to be built around what the journal might become.
At the same time, the editorial team had no experience with web tools. Whatever I designed had to be intuitive enough for non-technical editors to manage on their own without compromising structural integrity.
Platform
I chose to build the site using Webflow. The editors needed a CMS they could use easily, and Webflow's interface made that realistic. Webflow provided a stable, self-contained system that reduced long-term maintenance overhead – an important consideration for a small academic team without in-house technical support.
Typography
I chose Fedra Sans, a typeface designed to function consistently across Hebrew, English, and Arabic (a potential future expansion). Its performance and tone at both small and large sizes made it appropriate for long-form academic reading, while maintaining visual continuity between print and digital formats.
Visual language
The visual identity is built around restraint and warmth. The color palette avoids pure black and white, using a warm off-white background, dark green body text, and an earthy red-ochre accent. The palette grounds the site in something natural and quiet, subtle but distinctive without being loud.
The layout is spacious by design. Article text is set to a calibrated reading width – aligned to the right or left depending on language direction – and doesn't fill the full page. The resulting openness is deliberate: for a philosophical journal, the space around the text matters as much as the text itself. It gives the content room to breathe.
Throughout the site, subtle line-work animations, like small arrows and geometric movements, add a sense of craft and intentionality without competing for attention. They're meant to be felt more than noticed.
The homepage opens with the Iyyun logo deconstructed into its geometric components: the rectangles and shapes that make up the letterforms. As the cursor moves across the page, these elements shift in and out of alignment, turning the logo into a small interactive space for contemplation before the reader enters the journal itself.
Content architecture
The bilingual structure had to handle three content scenarios gracefully: articles that exist only in Hebrew, only in English, or in both languages as translations. Each needed to function naturally within the same system without forcing a rigid template or requiring editorial workarounds.
Beyond language, the CMS had to support a growing range of editorial formats: journal issues with academic articles, but also dialogues, video pieces, and longer essay-form features, without requiring structural changes every time a new type was introduced. I designed the content model to auto-adjust across these variations, so editors could publish new formats without developer involvement.
Access and constraints
The journal sells print subscriptions through an external platform managed by the parent organization – a constraint I couldn't change. I designed an access model where some articles are available in full on the site while others show only a preview, encouraging print engagement without making the reading experience feel like a paywall. The balance mattered: I didn't want the site to feel like it existed just to sell something, but rather to have value on its own.
Working with the editors
Much of the process involved translating the editors' requests into the problems those requests were actually trying to solve, then proposing solutions they hadn't considered.
They often described needs in terms of layout or structure; my role was to understand the underlying intent and find a way to meet it that worked within the system's logic. I also created explicit content guidelines to ensure the team could confidently manage uploads after launch without relying on external support.
How it's held up
I maintained the site for the first year after launch, then transitioned it to another developer. The site is still live and largely unchanged, running on the architecture and content model I originally designed and built.
Since Issue 70 (the first published through the new system), the journal has published six issues (and counting) through the site, with editors managing content independently with minimal technical support, which was the goal from the start.
