the blue-eyed barbarian:
Denys Putilin, Olena Kvitkovska
Sector:
Prison Justice Non-profit
Website:
justice-defenders.org
What we did:
Creative Direction
Website Design & Development
Year:
2025
Fonts:
IMB Plex Sans by Mike Abbink, Bold Monday
Cabin by Impallari Type, Rodrigo Fuenzalida
Client and the challenge:
On a mission to defend the defenceless and transform the future of justice, Justice Defenders trains incarcerated people and prison staff in Uganda, Kenya, and soon the United States, to become lawyers and paralegals.
In 2024, they celebrated reaching the "promised land": the first two of 67 graduates with the University of London law degrees qualified as Advocates of the High Court. Since founding, more than 700 paralegals have been trained and supported over 170,000 clients, 69,000 of whom have now been released and reunited with their families.
Justice Defenders had proven the model and was ready to grow out from the disruptor positioning into a systemic changemaker. Mighty Ally, a strategic consultancy and long-time collaborator, helped them update the strategic documents and it was time for the new digital presence to embody this evolution. Mighty Ally recommended us as a website design partner.
The timing for the new website was acute. A documentary with Anderson Cooper and CNN was planned to be aired to the US public. We needed to optimize for the influx of small donors while not diluting the main narrative, that speaks to institutional and long-term partners.
Approach:
We immersed ourselves in the strategic documents developed by Mighty Ally and Justice Defenders, and decided to propose these design principles:
1. Radical proximity. Building on Alexander McLean's phrase, rooted in the genesis of the mission. Creating closeness to suffering, not observation from a distance. The site design needed to transport visitors into the challenging conditions of people in prison. This shaped how we selected photography and delivered the emotional register throughout the site.
2. Institutional authority and celebration. The organization has evolved from proof-of-concept to a proven institution. The design needed to demonstrate this arrival. Generous white space. Bold typography. Clear hierarchy. Every element was selected to demonstrate this is a credible organization with a proven model: presenting the stories confidently whilst allowing for celebration.
3. Two audiences tension. The CNN documentary would bring a wave of first-time visitors ready to give. But the site's primary conversation is with institutional partners and long-term funders. We needed the donation path to be frictionless without letting it overtake the story. We structured content so that someone looking to donate would find a clear path immediately, while those immersed in the narrative won't get the wrong signals..
Image use:
Justice Defenders provided us with an extensive media library, revealing years of documentation, country by country. We wanted visitors to feel physically immersed in the situation, so we were selecting a more documentary-style imagery: closer crops, fewer staged stages, more real.
We collaborated with the client looking at every image across the site. The final outcome balances the juxtapositions. Graduations alongside the learning in challenging conditions. Incarcerated people and prison staff next to each other. Graduation portraits mixed with the rougher, unposed moments of prison life. The celebration and hardship, side by side.
Typography and color:
IBM Plex, established in Mighty Ally's brand guidelines, already carried the right weight. We chose to use it more boldly. Larger scale delivers a more confident presence. The color palette was expanded too. Red originally had been an accent, but we proposed using it more confidently, as large panels. The bottom of every page now features a red section with "Join the Defenders," a bold bookend throughout the site reinforcing the call to action. The client embraced these evolutions.
Squarespace build:
The site needed to be built on a platform infrastructure that could handle a million-view-per-day spike without strain. Squarespace hosts millions of websites all sharing the same infrastructure, where a traffic surge barely registers.
An influx of retail donors means they already know the story and need a simple way to give. We optimized the mobile experience for quick donations and customized the donation platform to fit the website style, so that continuity is not lost.
We wanted to take full advantage of Justice Defenders' own video storytelling and the upcoming documentary, so we developed a custom video behavior. The videos silently auto-play bringing movement to the pages, but there's also a play button that starts a video from the beginning and plays sound. This way the narrative isn't missed. The feature is built so the team can reuse it without touching custom code.
Results:
The site design reflects the tension and juxtapositions that define the organization: radical proximity and institutional legitimacy, documentary rawness and professional celebration, the darkness of prison and the light of graduation day. It carries a narrative that works at two speeds. Quick enough for a million visitors arriving from a documentary, deep enough for the institutional partner evaluating a long-term commitment.
“We are delighted with the website, the final product and the process of collaborating with you. Your responsiveness, efficiency and quick turnaround were exactly what we needed.”
— Alexander McLean, Founder and CEO, Justice Defenders
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with Denys and the blue-eyed barbarian team. We came to them with a challenging brief: to refresh and reimagine our website to reflect our transition from proof-of-concept to an established institution, on a tight deadline just three weeks before our CNN documentary launch.
Denys listened deeply and quickly understood the narrative tension at the heart of our work. He did not simply redesign a website, he helped us clearly communicate who we are, what we stand for as Justice Defenders, why our model is unique, and our future ambitions, with clarity and confidence. The story was captured with precision and translated into a digital experience that feels both authoritative and human.
The process was calm, responsive, and rigorous under pressure, with the team consistently going beyond the brief. The final result exceeded our very high expectations."
— Solomon Elliott, Senior Strategy, Brand, and Communications Consultant