Western States Gets a New Website

The oldest trail race has had the same website design for a really long time, but just recently (I saw it today) it received a facelift modernizing its design. I noticed the change when looking for the list of just announced 2027 qualifying races and I noticed the missing brown, California dirt-colored background the website used for so many years.

Now, as a designer myself I am not going to judge someone else’s creative decisions, and I am certainly not someone suggesting that the design should change. But there was something charming and familiar with this old Western States website design – akin to driving to your favorite old-time-y little vacation town. It made you feel something. It made the race look special and stand out among all the other trail running events websites that have this design treatment that sort of looks all the same. You know what I’m talking about: big hero image – often rotating, floating logo in all-white to juxtaposition it with the natural colors of the outdoor photographs showing happy runners in action. Below that, a selection of more photos and text highlighting various articles and important factoids and even blow that a list of logos. All of my Rock Candy Running race web pages look like this too, so I am not suggesting that this is an uninspired design choice. But the WSER website used to stand out in it’s old-time-y charm and now it feels like any other race, which diminishes a bit the status that the event has in our trail running culture, and that is a bit sad.