Overview

The Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI) website was rebuilt from the ground up as a modern archival platform—preserving over 30 years of landmark legal history while maintaining the integrity and voice of its original early-2000s site.

Developed entirely in Framer, the project reimagines CLIPI’s legacy through a contemporary, accessible design system. The result is a living, searchable record where visitors can explore cases, briefs, and alumni histories with clarity and context.

Every element was designed to honor the Center’s values of historical accuracy, transparency, and open access, ensuring materials once buried in file cabinets are now usable tools for today’s advocates, researchers, and communities.

Design & Experience

Inspired by CLIPI’s archival documents and the typography of its 2002 website, the new visual identity establishes continuity between past and present.

• Typography: Lora and Avenir were selected for their balance of classic readability and modern simplicity, echoing CLIPI’s professional tone.

• Color Palette: A blend of Deep Ocean Blue, Steel Blue, and Teal Green grounds the brand in stability and trust while evoking civic integrity.

• Responsiveness: The site was designed to perform seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile, ensuring accessibility for all audiences.

Each content type—cases, alumni, public interest briefs—was modeled in Framer’s CMS to interconnect dynamically, allowing users to move fluidly between related materials.

Technical Implementation

Built with scalability and archival preservation in mind:

• 112 pages at launch, all dynamically linked via Framer CMS.

• Integrated custom PDF viewer for primary source documents and legal filings.

• Structured metadata fields for easy search and categorization.

• Optimized for performance and accessibility, achieving an average Lighthouse score of 92 across pages.

This approach not only future-proofs the site but enables CLIPI to continue adding materials, briefs, and biographies without external support.

Mission Alignment

The new CLIPI site transforms public-interest history into a practical knowledge base. Its purpose is both commemorative and functional—helping future lawyers, policymakers, and communities learn from precedents that shaped Los Angeles’ environmental and civil rights landscape.

It’s a project that turns nostalgia into usability—bridging generations of advocacy with modern digital design.

Outcome

A cohesive, performant, and historically faithful digital archive that:

• Centralizes decades of documents in a public, searchable format.

• Highlights the voices and contributions of CLIPI’s founders and alumni.

• Serves as an educational and inspirational resource for civic engagement.

Delivered on schedule and optimized for long-term maintainability, the CLIPI Historical Archive stands as both a preservation effort and a forward-looking digital monument.