Designing a distinctive campaign website for Count Binface

How I took a website built on Squarespace, worked within a one-week deadline, and turned it into something that reflected Count Binface’s personality instead of the platform’s default design.

I’m Andy Clarke, a web designer from North Wales. Most of what I write is about design, CSS, SVG and developing distinctive websites.

What you’ll learn

You’ll see how I took a website built on Squarespace, worked within a one-week deadline, and turned it into something that reflected Count Binface’s personality instead of the platform’s default design. Along the way I’ll explain the design decisions that mattered, the compromises I made, and why those same principles apply to every website I create.

A long tradition of novelty candidates

Although it’s not purely a British phenomenon, the UK has a long tradition of perennial and sometimes novelty parliamentary candidates. People who frequently run for elected office but rarely, if ever, win. Screaming Lord (David) Sutch—an English musician—first stood for parliament in 1963 and then again 38 times. He founded the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1983 and was a familiar sight at election counts until he died in 1999. Lindi St Clair and her Corrective Party ran for office under the monicker of Miss Whiplash. Today, Nigel Farage is perhaps the most well-known parody politician.

Few candidates have captured the public’s imagination and affection as much as Count Binface, an intergalactic space warrior with a dustbin-shaped helmet. After contesting the London Mayor election, Count Binface stood against former Prime Minister Rish! in 2024 and former Prime Minister Andy Burham in 2026.

Studying political party websites

When Prime Minister Rish! called the snap general election in 2024, I’d been studying and writing about political party websites. I imagined how I’d design Labour’s campaign website if Sir Keir called me and, for balance, I wanted to redesign another political party or candidate. I was in no mood to help the Conservatives—no matter how indirectly—so I imagined how I’d design the website of Count Binface, should he ever come calling.

Well, it looks like my reputation has reached the faraway planet of Sigma 9 because a few days later, Count Binface called, and he asked if I had time to turn my design ideas into his campaign website for the 2024 general election. I couldn’t refuse.

Working around Squarespace templates

Squarespace is the platform of choice for intergalactic space warriors. So—with less than a week before Count Binface was due to announce his manifesto—my challenge was to develop the website using Squarespace.

It’s not a platform I’m especially familiar with, and I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to deliver all the details in my designs using Squarespace. But I soon realised I could add SVG to Squarespace’s code blocks and learned to use its injected CSS feature to override the platform defaults and add extra design details that were not possible out-of-the-box. Overall, I’m very happy with the results.

Every organisation has a personality

Designing for Count Binface reminded me that every organisation has a personality, whether it’s a satirical political campaign, a composer, a charity, or an engineering consultancy. My job isn’t to impose a style. It’s to discover what makes an organisation memorable and express that through typography, illustration, layout, colour, and content. Count Binface just happened to wear a dustbin on his head.

Whether you think perennial or novelty candidates are a positive aspect of politics or not, I believe they demonstrate just how precious the democratic process is. Given the opportunity in my constituency, I’d lend my vote to Count Binface. After all, who wouldn’t like to see 99 flake ice-creams capped at 99p?