White Paper 02 Branden Whitfield
Branden Whitfield
White Paper 02
1
What I look for, for inspiration. What I normally look for when browsing for inspiration are sites that break the norm of what you expect from a website or even a brand. This could be anything from a creative interactive experience with the site, or a great presentation of the product provided. Things like that can motivate me to buy something or even create something similar. I’m interested in Branding and Visual design so I like to browse and see what the current trends are in these fields and some sites that I found which I’ll talk about below represent things I draw inspiration from.
KIDROBOT.COM First thing you notice when you come to Kidrobots page is the simple layout that feels familiar to other websites layouts. But what sets it apart and what I like Is the use of grid to give emphasis to what they want you to look at. The immediate thing is the new featured items, but after that your eye travels down the page you notice a nice use of mason style grid layout of other collections they’re offering. The sites clean white background makes the well produced product photos stand out and adds to the
Branden Whitfield
brand quality of Kidrobot, The thing I don’t like is that it doesn’t immediately tell you about the Kidrobot brand I think they assume you know what you’re getting into when you arrive at the website which is a safe assumption. But I like to know a little bit about the brand I’m checking out and I think it’s a little thing they’re missing.
White Paper 02
2
L-R-G.COM Following my exploration of brands with a good use of visual design I arrived at one of my favorite clothing brands site. LRG, Lifted Research Group is a urban lifestyle brand focusing on Extreme sports (mainly skateboarding and BMX) and Hip-hop culture. This site is similar to the Kidrobot site in layout Featuring a main area with new product and blog post as well as a masonry style product line up. Which is nice and ads to the simplicity of the site. A thing I like about the site that’s different from other brands and Kidrobot is the
blog area of the site. It features free music downloads as well as info on artist and sports stars that they sponsor. I like this about the site because it offers a new way for people to connect with the brand, even if you buy any product you can come back and check out what new stuff the blog has to offer. It seems like in increases the chance of someone buying something new and it’s good seeing they support people that represent their brand. But one site I found that has an great presentation and gives you a little info on the brand as soon as you arrive is johnnycupcakes.com
JOHHNYCUPCAKES.COM With a vintage style and creative store layout that makes customers come in to his stores thinking they’re bakeries, Johnny cupcakes makes his brand personal. And it is something that’s always set his brand apart from competition and it shows on his site as well. What I like about his site is that it isn’t immediately selling you something as soon as you come to it. You arrive at a blog page which shows that the brand is active and shows the brands different touchpoints. After this you notice the products he’s selling but that’s an after thought,
Branden Whitfield
another nice touch is a contest that’s being offered where you can send in a picture of yourself in his clothing and become a featured model. I think it’s interesting that he provides another touchpoint for fans to interact with his brand to me it translates his brand concept of making connections with people. His site follows the other in respects of having a similar store layout with a masonry style layout which seems to be the trend now with online clothing retailers. It provides a clean grid system that easily displays merchandise and provides a space to display new product.
White Paper 02
3
CONCLUSION From doing research on these sites and few others I’ve realized that most site seems to follow each other in format not content. They follow the same grid layout for their stores but the content on the site differs, some sites you have to dig for the brand story or extra content where others provide it first. To me I think connect with users or customers can make for a better relationship especially in an online space where some people might want to know what they’re supporting or buying into. Each of the brands I talked about have a unique visual style and have set trends in both the design field and in the urban trend markets and seeing that even thought they differ in styles they seems to have found a web layout that works.
PAGE EXAMPLES
kidrobot.com
Branden Whitfield
White Paper 02
4
L-r-g.com
johnnycupcakes.com Branden Whitfield
White Paper 02
5