Montecristo Social Club

Making it easy for cigar fans to connect

Montecristo Social Club was an initiative by Montecristo Cigars to create a website where news, events, and product releases could be discovered and discussed by the Montecristo online community. The site ended up being more of a news and event blog service, though we did integrate further social community functionality down the road.

After I completed the designs, they were handed off to another team to implement. You can check out the finished product at montecristosocialclub.com

Like the good old daysMSC was my first React.js web/native app. I knew the styles had to work within the regimented and restrictive React Native code framework.

I tried to create a design that evoked print material with tasteful fonts and rich imagery but kept the styles as modular and separated as possible.

I wanted to create a styleguide that gave good imagery plenty of room to shine, but didn’t rely on it.

I settled on large article header images surrounded with generous, uniform whitespace. Responsive images used the same aspect ratio across mobile and desktop. This reduced asset creation demands.

Overlapping text used gold and black backgrounds with white copy to ensure text was always visible.

We needed to keep this project as cost-effective as possible.

Libre Franklin and Libre Baskerville are great Google fonts that have roots in South American design. They played well with the culture of Montecristo Cigars.

Looks like you’re using Internet Explorer .
Unfortunately, this site uses CSS Grid.

When I made this site, I decided it was the perfect time to learn CSS Grid. At the time of me writing this, 0ctober 2nd, 2018, CSS Grid only has partial support in IE 11.

Since I intend for this site to be an example of what I can do, and not a comprehensive commercial product, I’m ok with that sacrifice in usability, especially since signs point to IE11 eventually adopting full CSS Grid support.

So with that said, I’d recommend using a different browser, such as Microsoft Edge. If you got cursed by a witch or something and have to use IE, you can contact me at patrick@delaney.design or you can check out my
Linkedin, Dribbble, or Instagram.