Mockup of a Canadian poet website built on Squarespace on a white textured background

Barry McKinnon
Poet website | Prince George (BC), Canada

Half view of mockup of a poet Squarespace website on a white textured background

Squarespace Website Design

Barry McKinnon was a Canadian poet. In 1991, he won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award for his poem "Pulp Log". He also won the Bp Nichol Chapbook Award in 1994 for "Arrythmia" and again in 2004 for "Bolivia/Peru". In 1981, his first published collection of poetry, titled "The the.", was short-listed for the Governor General's Award for Poetry.

Location:
Prince George, BC (Canada)
Industry:
Poetry
Services:
Web branding, custom Squarespace website

The project

Barry McKinnon, a renowned Canadian poet, needed an online presence to archive his extensive work and highlight his achievements. The objective was to create a comprehensive digital archive that included texts, audio files, videos, PDFs, interviews, and media features, showcasing a long and illustrious career spanning decades.

The Squarespace website design process

The process began with a meticulous gathering of all available content. Given that much of Barry's work was not initially optimized for a website, this was an extensive task.

We prioritized creating a robust website structure and hierarchy that could accommodate the addition of more work over time. After establishing this structure with an initial batch of content, we prepared to add more as new documents were digitized. To truly represent McKinnon and his writing, I developed a web brand with an editorial and minimalistic feel, to ensure the focus remained on the text - the core element of the website. The design process was meticulous, with a strong emphasis on structure and best practices from the outset. Key elements included user-friendly navigation menus, high-quality presentation of texts, audio, video, and PDFs, and a dedicated section to highlight newly added content.

Update 2024
Since Barry’s passing last year, I continue to maintain his website and honor his work and legacy with the family. The website, built with him, will remain as he wanted it to be. Recently, we added a new page, “Tributes,” to publish all the tributes he has received since. The website is a fitting tribute to McKinnon's illustrious career and a valuable resource for those interested in his poetry.

It is truly an honor for me to contribute to sharing his legacy, which is essential in Canadian poetry.

“Audrey launched my literary work into the digital/website world with great design skill, attention, and creative accuracy. I can’t imagine my writing, and writing to come, in any better hands. ”