House of Crimson - Website Creation & My 1st Blog Post
Initial Planning and Conceptualisation
The initial concept for House of Crimson was to create and develop a a brand that combined my interests in motorcycles, aftermarket parts, urban fashion clothing, and creative culture. In the process I wanted the website to feel more like a lifestyle brand rather than a conventional motorcycle retailer, in this perspective this will help to create a connection between the products and the identity of the customer.
With previous experience designing and managing cldlabel.com on Shopify, I initially approached this project with a familiar e commerce wireframe structure in mind. Now that I am developing a new website using Wix, its now a new challenge requiring me to learn different interface, its design system and work flow, this also provides me further clarity in initial planning whilst focusing on establishing the brand structure, navigation, visual identity and user journey before developing any further.
(Useful resources here)
Design Decisions and Rationale
The deciding design I created for the House of Crimson was to be modern, premium, and recognisable, with this identity it will connect the motorcycle culture with urban fashion. The type of colour palette chosen was a white #e8e8e8 back ground with black #131313 bold text for the visual language and the signature colour crimson red #B20710. This gave a sophisticated aesthetic, while allowing product photography to remain the main visual focus.
Wireframing to plan the structure really helped before structuring elements in place, this allow me to visualise the user perspective and identify any potential layout issues before finalising any designs forward on Wix.
The homepage chosen layout was a hero style structure for immediate visual impact with large scaled imagery along with modular sections to divide distinct content. This help to show the visual hierarchy where large images, headings and featured products attract attention before secondary information. Hero > Brand introduction > Motorcycles > Aftermarket parts > Clothing > Lifestyle/brand content > Blog > Footer
The layout design was to have a clear navigation structure and have the following categories highlighted as a menu option which were motorcycles, aftermarket parts, and clothing, this helped give a clear user experience. I’ve also incorporated the lifestyle imagery to communicate the culture surrounding the brand rather than focusing solely on the products. As these were decided It would help to intend a flow of consistency across the website while reinforcing Crimson Supply’s identity of individuality, performance and self expression.
Technical Challenges and Solutions
During the process of development, one of the main technical challenges was adapting from Shopify to Wix, as I had previous experience with Shopify’s interface and e commerce tools, Wix’s editing system was way different. Initially this made me position elements and layouts more challenging, before moving forward I took the time to explore templates and layouts which gave me the idea how visual positioning must be considered for a responsive design, as this helps to ensure the functionality for different screen sizes. Through this experience, the solution was by adapting and utilising Wix’s tools accordingly. By learning on the go this made me develop more confidence and I became adaptable to the interface. This also highlighted the importance of testing, experimenting and problem solving during developing the website.
Tools and Technologies Used
By using Wix as the primary platform to design and develop the House of Crimson website, the Wix editor helped me create the pages, layouts, navigation, content structure for a responsive experience. By using such tools as Figma to create wireframes and mock ups, this allowed me to plan structures and have a hierarchy for content visuals before developing any further. Adobe Photoshop was also used to edit product imagery and promotional graphics especially saving the correct file formats. Along with previous experience with Shopify, the e commerce functionality with Wix became easily familiar as I already knew the principles this helped me adapted my workflow.
Overall Development Process
Overall the development process began by establishing the House of Crimson brand concept, target audience and overall website objectives. By creating low fidelity ideas to high fidelity ideas, by wire framing the website structure this allowed me to explore, test then publish.
The next stage involved developing the homepage and key sections for the website brand visual identity, this included the input of the typography and imagery throughout the website. In addition I also incorporated product categories for e commerce functionality to support the brand elements. During the process I had to make sure all clickable elements functioned accordingly as further adjustments had to be made when I came across user experience issues. By previewing each time I made specific changes I became more familiar refining areas that needed attention especially across different screen sizes. The whole process helped me transform the initial concept into a functional website and I was so impressed that I even purchased the domain and here we are and by you as a viewer stay tuned and til next time thank you for reading.
Watch this space! The marathon continues!
Comments