Why The Forge looks the way it does
The Forge is a men's ministry site with condensed uppercase headlines, a rust orange accent and a full-bleed photo of two colleagues. It is direct and practical, like a tradesman's workshop sign.
- Built for
- Men who want accountability, early-morning meetings and service projects, including those who find traditional church uncomfortable.
- Navigation
- Sticky frosted bar with the full menu and a Give button. On phones, a bottom tab bar plus a quick-links launcher.
- Pages
- Home, About, Visit, Crews, Talks, Events, Give, Contact
- Hero
- Full-bleed photograph with the headline set over a dark scrim.
Typography
Oswald Bold in capitals sets the headline at about 100 pixels. It is a tall, condensed face that looks like stamped metal. Source Sans 3 handles body text and is calm and legible beside the heavy headline.
Colour
The light theme uses warm grey (#EFEBE6) and charcoal (#1E1D1B), with rust orange (#A9501F) for buttons and moss green (#3F4B3C) as an accent. The dark theme is first, with near-black (#151413) and a brighter ember orange (#E08A55). The colours come from iron, brick and wood, and they feel earned rather than glossy.
Layout and navigation
A light bar has a round rust monogram, the name in condensed capitals, six links and a rust Give button. Below the hero a four-cell strip gives meeting times and place. Cards have thin outlines and square corners, in keeping with the hard-edged type.
The hero
A full-bleed photo of two colleagues sharing a high five fills the screen under a dark overlay. 'BUILD SOMETHING THAT LASTS.' is set in white capitals across two lines. The eyebrow gives the time, 'Fridays at 6 AM. Show up.', which is both the schedule and the tone.
Calls to action
'Join a crew' is a solid rust button and 'Next meetup' is outlined. The language of crews fits the work-and-build identity. The chip below shows how soon the next Friday breakfast starts.
Photography
The photo is a bright office scene with warm light and a visible laugh. It shows friendship and humour rather than gloom. A real ministry should use its own men at work on a service project, with sleeves rolled up.
Accessibility
White text over the darkened photo stays clear, and rust buttons with white text measure about 5.4 to 1. Charcoal on warm grey is about 14 to 1. Uppercase headlines are short, which avoids the slow reading that long all-caps passages cause.
Type system
- DisplayOswaldOswald is tall and tight, so a short headline looks like it was cut into a steel plate.
- TextSource Sans 3Source Sans 3 is clear and unfussy, which suits plain talk about early mornings and commitments.
Colour and contrast
Each text pairing is checked against WCAG 2.2 in both themes. Ratios are computed from the exact theme colours.
