How to structure a site: Studio Last’s form-meets-function website for EMOP is a digital delight

Bringing together a wide-ranging curation of the world’s latest and greatest photography, European Month of Photography is an unbridled celebration of the art form. To mark its tenth outing, the photographic festival not only launched 100 exhibitions across German cities but collaborated with multidisciplinary creative practice Studio Last to translate their punchy, playful identity across a powerful website. Based in Berlin, Studio Last’s mission was to craft a space that channels the sense of creative expression at the heart of the festival whilst also acting as an ultimately functional tool – offering the festival’s audience a practical guide to navigating its 100 exhibitions, artists and images.

“We have developed a few things without changing the identity too much and thus adapted the existing design to our needs,” Founder Matthias Last tells us, discussing the studio’s potential amends to EMOP’s existing identity. “For web, you have to think about design on other levels in order to generate excitement,” he contextualises, kinetically setting the logo in a rotating cube, for instance. “The animated cube brings a focus onto the logo and enhances user interactivity,” Last adds, introducing additional variable features, such as type size adjustment and a dark mode switch to shape a truly interactive experience. 

Going on to additionally alter the festival’s signature yellow shade, opting for a lighter hue; Last details, “it fits perfectly with the festival and the photography we are showing,” expanding, “we utilised this yellow colour sparingly on the website, to create a strong contrast with the black and white palette;” a stark, structural vibe that Studio Last carried into the website’s structure. “We also utilised a rigid, Swiss structure for the website,” Last recalls, “which organises all the photographs and information in clearly defined boxes and spaces,” creating an accessible, striking editorial-meets-brutal space that champions the multitude of talent featured in the festival.

“The contrast between modernity and tradition is something that we love to work with,” he notes, utilising Colophon Foundry’s Basis Grotesque to achieve as much typographically. “We love the Basis Grotesque type and it has almost become the studio’s signature,” Last explains, “the typeface has a classic look about it but also has a contemporary touch,” reflecting not only Studio Last’s own visual output but also EMOP’s. Having used the sans serif across print and web-based projects, Last remarks, “it was only natural for us to utilise it for the European Month of Photography website,” concluding, “as EMOP Berlin festival showcases both contemporary and historic photography, we wanted the type to also reflect this contrast.”

Studio Last

European Month of Photography