American Genius

Groundbreaking advances are often surrounded by controversy, and history doesn’t always tell the whole story. National Geographic Channel’s American Genius gave audiences ringside seats to eight epic battles between fierce competitors whose drive and vision changed the world. Every time you light a room with the flip of a switch, you can thank competing inventors Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison for harnessing electricity. The device you’re using to read these words was probably influenced in some way by the heated rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Standing on the shoulders of these and other titans of innovation, we crafted a content-rich online companion experience for American Genius that explored some of the most significant advances in human history. Think you know the whole story behind your favorite tech? This site might change your mind.

Our American Genius website provided a beautiful, flowing experience on both mobile and desktop platforms, allowing visitors to casually scroll through the stories behind some of the world’s greatest inventions. Evoking the feel of classic boxing promotional posters, each battle page pitted genius vs. genius and adopted the look and feel of its historical era, with the fonts and visuals reflecting the prevailing styles of the period. Our fully responsive design created a side-by-side historical journey on desktops, with each genius’ progress unfolding in a dedicated column. On mobile devices, content modules gracefully stacked into a single column for intuitive browsing. Year markers and a subtle progress meter at the bottom of the page helped visitors keep track of their position both in history and in the selected battle.