TheMITH.com: Designing a journalism outlet with specific technical requirements and a clean, historic vibe

When MMA Journalist Chuck Mindenhall (the “Man In The Hat” or the MITH) came to us for a website, he had very specific ideas in mind. Chuck had been writing for various sites including ESPN, MMA Fighting, The Athletic, and The Ringer, but he wanted his own site to post articles or columns that might fall outside of the MMA purview.

Chuck was a well-established voice in sports journalism, and he was coming to us with a long background in publication. He had tried building a website on Wix but had grown frustrated with the limitations of the website builder.

TheMITH.com became an interesting case study for us. Chuck arrived with his domain name, and a logo and a specific set of requirements.

The site would need to:

• Host podcast episodes
• Function as a searchable content site
• Sell and serve rotating advertising banners with specific start and end dates
• Contain an ecommerce shop
• Link up with Mailchimp for newsletters
• Offer places to serve highlighted articles from the site and ALSO links to articles on other platforms

Often clients come to us with only vague ideas of what they want and we help them develop their brand identity and content requirements. Chuck was the opposite. He liked his logo and he was very clear that he wanted a clean, uncluttered layout to create a visually peaceful space to read his writing.

Evoking a Sense of History Through Visuals

Because of Chuck’s background in newspapers and his sense of history. We chose to achieve this by using a black and white color scheme and photos put through a halftone filter to appear as if they were printed on newsprint. The design was simple, utilizing classic typography and whitespace.

We found Chuck the technology he needed for the podcast, and structured the website to have sections to feature past articles whether on his own site or for others. Although he no longer uses the rotating ad banners feature, we found him a workable solution for that angle as well.

Another important feature: Chuck needed to be able to update the site on his own. The WordPress environment and theme made it easy for him to do that while maintaining the visual integrity of the design.

Subtle Functional Details

Our favorite piece? The “sticky” menu that starts white on the homepage but turns black on article pages. This subtle change serves to further highlight Chuck’s writing while maintaining an elegant functionality.

Years later, Chuck still tells us, “I don’t get to do it enough, but I love writing for theMITH.com. The design really offers an uninterrupted oasis in the highly cluttered world we live in. I love the way writing reads on my site. The slick, clean look on the writing pieces is exactly how envisioned my pages.”

Knowing we provided a client with exactly what they were looking for is why we keep doing this! We love TheMITH.com and we hope it continues to bring Chuck happiness and success.