Steph Morris

Bauhausian paradise housing the effervescent eclecticism of the writer, artist, translator and gardener

Website
The homepage of Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a desktop screen. Below the logo and menu is a grid made up of many white squares. Most of the squares are empty, but some contain letters which spell out 'Writing', 'Visual' and 'Translation'. The background of the squares containing the first letters of each of these words is coloured, first green, then red, then blue. Occasional squares have white backgrounds. The overall impression is of a strange yet intriguing board game.
The homepage of Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a smartphone screen. Below the logo and menu is a grid made up of many white squares. Most of the squares are empty but some contain letters which spell out 'Writing', 'Visual' and 'Translation'. The background of the squares containing the first letters of each of these words is coloured, first green, then red, then blue. Occasional squares have white backgrounds. The overall impression is of a strange yet intriguing board game.

Our visual and structural overhaul of Steph’s previous digital abode needed to order the breadth of his output into a vivid, playful and informative experience.

Visit Steph's site
The Translation page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a smartphone screen. The background of the top half of the page is a deep royal blue, and the text is white. Below the logo, in large bold sans-serif text is the word 'Translation', the 'T' of which sits within a white box. Text in a smaller, thinner text reads 'Decades in the business. I was interviewed about my career for New Books in German. You might find the unedited version interesting too. I'm currently working on two books by Austrian legend Ilsa Aichinger for Seagull Press. This brochure about her features her most iconic short story in my translation.' Below a dashed white line encroaches on the blue, and leads to the top of a white panel which contains a photograph of dead leaves and grass just about visible.
The Translation page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a desktop screen. The background of the banner, which contains the logo and menu, is a rich royal blue. Below are four white partially visible panels, slightly vertically offset from each other, each joined by a blue dashed line, atop a misty, calm light blue background. All that's visible of the top-left panel is the text 'It all tastes of farewell—Brigitte Reiman, non-fiction, 2020', followed by a small paragraph of text. The top-right panel has the bottom of what looks like a book cover, with the text 'Martin Suter, translated by Steph Morris' in handwritten uppercase text. Below the cover is the text 'The Last Weynfeldt—Martin Suter, Fiction, 2016, followed by a small paragraph of text. The two bottom panels only show the tops of two images, both of which look like they could be book covers. The left-hand cover has the text 'mpT Dream Colours Focus on Japan', and the right-hand one the text 'Allmen'.

Insert Bauhaus Pun

Steph wanted to avoid a prevalence of large white spaces, and—already eager to retain his previous site’s keen nod to Bauhaus and Mondrian—we saw this as a perfect opportunity to devise a vibrant aesthetic of bright geometric colour. For the homepage, we took inspiration from some of Steph’s collage and visual poetry work to fashion a Bauhausian board game journey, complete with oscillating hover effects!

The bold palette differentiated the sections of the site, with a uniform grid acting as a “wall” in which projects were “pinned”, resulting in a subtly three-dimensional feel—fitting for the often tactile and assemblage nature of Steph’s work.

The Diary page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a desktop screen. The background of the top half of the page is a rich orange, and the text is white. Below the logo, in large bold sans-serif text is the word 'Diary', the 'D' of which is within a white box. Text in a smaller, thinner text reads 'Its all online at the moment, but these are few things I'm either running, appearing at, attending or recommend. Maybe see you there.' Below this, the words 'What?', 'When?' and 'Where?' appear in a row as headers for the event listing table below.
Probably our favourite portion of the site is the Diary, which lies somewhere between physical noticeboard and digital calendar.
The Visual page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a desktop screen. The background of the top half of the page is a vibrant red, and the text is white. Below the logo, in large bold sans-serif text is the word 'Visual', the 'V of which sits within a white box. Text in a smaller, thinner text reads 'I was mainly a visual artist till I shifted to literature in my twenties. Recently I've been working on visual poetry and visual ways to present page poetry beyond the conventions of books, magazines or readings.' Below the top of a white panel containing a photograph of a piece of paper held up by cable tags and bamboo in front of roped-off foliage, encroaches on the red background.
The Visual page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a smartphone screen. The background of the banner, which contains the logo, is a vibrant red. Below the banner, a white panel sits atop a misty pink background, and contains an abstract collaged artwork followed by the text 'Visual pantoums in Mercurius Magazine—collage poem, 2022.'

Typographically speaking

We wanted something both aptly modernist and eminently characterful. We’d been itching to find a home for Henderson Sans for a while, and we combined it with the similar but significantly more legible Fenwick, for the body text.

The Workshops page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a smartphone screen. The background of the page is a juicy orange colour, and the text is white. Below the logo, in large bold sans-serif text is the word 'Workshops', the 'W' of which sits within a white box. Several paragraphs of smaller text sit below.
The Writing page from Steph Morris's website, as viewed on a desktop screen. The background of the banner, which contains the logo and menu, is a lush forest green. Below are two white panels, slightly vertically offset from each other, atop a misty, calm light green background. The left hand panel contains a detailed illustration of forest vegetation, and the text 'What to take on flight—Poetry, 2016. Poem featured in Rialto, No. 86.' The right-hand panel contains the text 'AMBIT' above a photo of two people engaged in some unknown performance under an eerie pink light, in front of an audience. Text below reads 'Snails—poetry, 2020'.