Three ways to answer the question — what is the homepage for?
We built three distinct homepage concepts for West Central Area Schools. They're not three skins on the same wireframe — each one answers a different question about what the district site should actually do for Knight families.
All three share the WCA brand: brand red, white, and charcoal in Lato, with a custom Knight Crest built from WCA-specific symbols — the helmeted Knight with red plume, three towers for the three schools, wheat stalks for the prairie, and the ISD 2342 banner. The crest is a district-owned asset, reused across every concept and every footer.
on Cloudflare Pages
MN Standard 4.0
Edge-cached globally
(shared across all 3)
How to use this review. Click any concept below to open the full-page render in a new tab. Scroll the whole page end-to-end — each concept is a complete homepage, not a mood-board. When you're done with all three, come back here and use the comparison table at the bottom to decide which direction (or hybrid) to move forward with.
The Front Porch
Editorial magazine aesthetic. Warm, photographic, serif-driven. Leads with story and community — the way a small-town newspaper would.
The Command Center
Operational dashboard aesthetic. Cool neutrals, signal-orange accents, monospace details. Built for the parent who visits this site every weekday at 7:04 AM.
The Knight's Hall
Dark, cinematic, heraldic. Navy + antique gold. Leads with the live "What does it mean to be a Knight?" conversation the district is already having.
The three concepts side by side
| I · Front Porch | II · Command Center | III · Knight's Hall | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The big idea | The homepage is a front porch — welcoming, story-led, community-first. | The homepage is a control panel — get in, get what you need, get out. | The homepage is a hall — it tells you who we are before it tells you what we do. |
| Who it wins | Board, community, prospective families, first-time visitors. | Busy parents, staff, anyone who uses the site weekly. | Leadership, identity committee, the "What is a Knight?" crowd. |
| Mood | Warm · editorial · analog · newspaper. | Cool · operational · precise · dashboard. | Dark · cinematic · heraldic · ceremonial. |
| Typography | Lato — light editorial weights, italic pull-quotes. | Lato — black/bold for tiles and numerals, tight tracking. | Lato — thin cinematic display, uppercase ceremonial tracking. |
| Palette | Brand red on warm cream · charcoal ink · dark crimson hero. | Off-white + brand red as the signal color · charcoal UI chrome. | Charcoal night · brand red as the hall accent · bone white text. |
| Hero does what? | Full-bleed photo + giant serif headline + crest watermark. | Compact brand band + rotating announcement + 6 quick-action tiles immediately under. | Oversized animated crest deconstructed into its meaning, next to live survey quotes. |
| Photography needs | High — needs real student/community photography. | Low — icons and typography do the work. | Medium — crest and typography lead, optional hero video later. |
| Risk | Feels soft to a parent who came to pay lunch money. | Feels corporate to a board member looking for heart. | Feels ambitious — needs leadership buy-in on the "Knight" story. |
| Implementation cost | Same block library as the others. Photography is the swing cost. | Same block library. Quick-action tile component is the swing cost. | Same block library + one optional React island for the quote carousel. |