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Website · Events · Redesign

Gnar Runners — a trail & road race website

A redesign of the home for a Colorado race series — twelve trail and road races a season, from a first 5K to a hundred kilometres of Rocky Mountain high country.

Designed and rebuilt in Next.js: a bold, brutalist cream-and-orange brand, a scannable race board and a big-mountain mood — with registration handed off to the race platform.

Role
UX/UI & Web Design
Type
Events website (Next.js)
Year
2026
Live
Gnar Runners — trail & road race website hero
01 — Context

Run. Race. Move mountains.

Gnar Runners is a Fort Collins–born race series that's been putting on Colorado trail and road races since 2011. The site has to help a runner find their distance across a full season, and pull people into a year-round running community.

The brand is loud and confident — big display type, a cream-and-orange palette — so the design leans into a bold, almost brutalist personality that still reads clearly.

02 — Challenge

Loud brand, clear board.

Twelve races, trail and road, every distance — big personality without the clutter.

01

Trail and road

Two race types and a wide distance range (5K → 100K) in one clear system.

02

Brutalist brand

Heavy display type and cream-and-orange, kept legible and scannable.

03

External registration

Sign-up lives on the race platform — the site guides and hands off.

04

Community first

Training events, volunteering and advocacy sit alongside the races.

03 — Identity

Dialed races, stunning places.

A stats band carries the brand's confidence — 12 races this season, every distance trail and road, racing the Rockies since 2011 — in big blocks of orange, black and cream that set the tone before a single race card.

IdentityWhy Gnar — brand stats band
The "why Gnar" stats band — brand personality in big, confident blocks.
04 — Race board

Pick your line.

The core is a photo-led race grid. Each card shows type (trail / road), status, date, location, the available distances and price, with a clear Register action — so a runner can scan the whole season at a glance.

RacesGnar Runners race grid
The race board — type, status, distances, price and a one-tap register.
05 — Community

Become part of the community.

A bold, full-width community block invites people beyond race day — into year-round training events and outdoor volunteer projects — turning a race calendar into a running club.

CommunityCommunity call to action
The community call to action — training runs, volunteering and advocacy.
06 — Outcome

Bold, clear and easy to enter.

A confident brutalist cream-and-orange brand that still reads at a glance.

A scannable race board — trail/road, distances and price up front, clean hand-off to registration.

Community and volunteering built into the journey.

Designed and shipped in Next.js — live and responsive.

Takeaway

Big personality, zero friction.

The win was letting the brand shout — huge type, hot orange — while the race data stays calm and instantly scannable underneath.