Mia Bellandi | Case Study | Built by Denney

Overview

A weekly diary with recommendations and guides, written from Kingston upon Thames and ranging out to Napoli, Marrakech and Istanbul. It is laid out like a magazine: each week is a numbered issue, and the site runs in six sections, About, This Week, Talk, The Private Diary, The Vault and Guides. Editorial rather than bloggy: the typography carries it, the photography is given room, and the whole thing is built to be read on a phone on a train.

Status: Live, address not shared
Role: Design and build

What it proves

The design side is mine too: the type pairing, the measure and the way the photographs sit in the text, decided on purpose with no theme underneath making those choices.

OutcomeA personal site that reads like a magazine, not a template.

How It Went

Inside the Mia Bellandi build

3 parts

Where it started

Personal writing usually lands on a platform that owns the audience and flattens the design, or on a template that makes every diary look like every other diary. This one had to feel like hers rather than a normal template, and read as well on her phone as anywhere else.

How it was built

Built as a proper site rather than a theme. Cormorant Garamond sets the headings, captions, pull quotes and letters, Inter the reading text and the small uppercase labels, over a warm paper palette, and the sections are numbered in roman numerals like the parts of a magazine. The measure and the way photographs sit beside the text are all deliberate, and the layout reflows for a phone, because that is where it gets read.

What shipped

This Week carries the week's entries, each with its day, a place and a caption, and the recommendation links underneath. Talk answers the questions readers ask most as short letters you switch between with a tap. Around them sit About, The Private Diary, The Vault's photo sets and four Guides, with the photography treated as part of the writing rather than decoration around it.