How I designed a website that could only belong to Count Binface

Count Binface already had an unmistakable personality. My job wasn’t to invent it. It was to translate it into a website where every illustration, typeface, colour, and layout decision felt unmistakably Binface.

Hello! I guess you’re here because you searched for Count Binface. I’m Andy Clarke, a website designer based in North Wales. You can find out about me and my work. Most of what I write is about design, CSS, SVG and developing distinctive websites.

Personality isn’t something you add to a website. It’s something you reveal through design. It comes from understanding what makes someone memorable, then expressing those qualities consistently through every design decision. Count Binface already had a unique personality, so my challenge was making sure his 2024 General Election campaign website reflected it.

Introducing the project

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.

Working with Count Binface started as an experiment. After spending weeks analysing political campaign websites during the 2024 General Election, I wondered what I’d create if Count Binface ever asked me to redesign his website. So I spent a day imagining the answer and published the concepts on my blog. A few days later, Count Binface got in touch.

His existing website contained the campaign information, policies, and videos his supporters came for, but very little of the personality people saw in his interviews and public appearances was present in his website design. That interested me because because many organisations express their personality everywhere except on their website..

Looking for the character underneath the bin

The obvious approach would’ve been to try to make Count Binface’s website funnier, but his humour isn’t the only thing that makes Count Binface memorable. His absurd confidence, commitment to the character, and love of democracy are what people respond to. Once I’d recognised that, the design decisions became surprisingly straightforward. Typography needed to feel as though it belonged on a science-fiction comic book. My original illustrations needed to celebrate the character, and even the colour palette became part of telling his story.

Typography makes an impression long before anyone starts reading. Count Binface’s website needed to feel bold, optimistic, and slightly eccentric. I experimented with several typefaces before deciding on Wildwords from Comic Book Fonts. It immediately gave headings presence while body copy remains comfortable to read.

Drawing Count Binface

The illustrations became one of my favourite parts of working on the Count Binface project. Rather than relying entirely on photographs, I created a series of original illustrations that celebrated Count Binface’s outrageous personality and unmistakable silhouette.

They helped establish a visual language that worked throughout the campaign. Because they were created specifically for the project, my illustrations made the website feel more distinctive than a typical political campaign built from press photography alone.

Making Squarespace disappear

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.

What I learned

Working with Count Binface reinforced something I’ve believed for years. Personality isn’t expressed through one bold idea. It’s revealed through hundreds of thoughtful decisions. That’s true whether I’m designing for a satirical political candidate, an energy consultancy, a composer, or a charity. Every memorable website begins by understanding what makes someone worth remembering, then expressing that consistently through design.

See the finished project

The finished Count Binface 2024 website combined original illustration, expressive typography, bold colour, and thoughtful design to create a campaign website that could only belong to Count Binface. Take a look at my portfolio case study to see how those ideas came together.

Related reading

• My Count Binface portfolio page
• Imagining what I’d make if Count Binface came calling
• Designing for Count Binface
• Developing for Count Binface using Squarespace
• Design a new website or product