LAW: Lives and Works Magazine Website Re-Design
Emily Kelly KEL15452179 Creative Direction for Fashion Year 1 Fashion Interfaces: Print and Screen
Project Concept
LAW magazine first stood out to me as a great way for appreciating and celebrating the unnoticed. I wanted to play on this ethos of LAW and attempt to portray the uniqueness of the subjects, areas and objects featured throughout in an even more eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing way. I plan to do so through engaging other senses via sound and moving image. It is important to utilise an online platform for sound and film as this is something void within print media and is also a good way to link the site to social media through the use of Vine and Instagram. This project also proposes to pull upon current and recent trends within website design, such as the hamburger icon and long scroll. This will aid the site in becoming more attractive and interactive. For example, aside from the design decisions, the website for LAW magazine will introduce live feeds and news updates and the use of social media platforms to encourage a wider audience. During the research process, there will be investigation into how similar magazine sites have incorporated a log-in/user option, which signs you up to frequent e-mail updates as well as being able to share posts from the site to social media. As for collaborators and contributors, albeit a magazine that focuses on British, in particular, London culture, it is possible to introduce photographers and creatives who have a global background to connect to a wider following and promote the magazine without risking the autheticity of its ‘real’ and ‘down-to-earth’ ethos.
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Design Decisions The design decisions have been inspired by current website design trends, which have recently included the Hamburger icon (fig.1), a cards layout, such as Pinterest (fig.2) and a Hero image (fig.3). There has also been a focus upon sites with a ‘Long Scroll’ which allow the audience to view the sites entire content through scrolling as well as having the drop down menu option to skip to a particular area. After having explored current trends within this particular field of interface, it is apparent that most of these features would attribute nicely to the re-design of LAW magazine’s online site. On top of this, the decisions for design are furthered through a sense of the brand’s ethos and character and therefore a more fashion and culture-influenced aesthetic should be applied. The main design change will be the use of the “Long/ Continuous Scroll” along with “Hero Image” as this will bring a new sense of modernity and chicness to the site as well as making it easier to browse through sections, with the option to select certain pages on a “Hamburger Icon” drop-down menu. Following trends from similar cultural magazines’ websites, such as dazeddigital.com the site will also include a lot more sound and video content, as mentioned in the ‘Project Concept’, therefore the design will have to include sliding card layouts and play and pause options. The site will also feature typography that reflects the magazine and its bold and simple aesthetic, such as Arial Black.
Fig.1 Fig.2
Fig.3
DESIGN 1: HOME PAGE
Option to sign up with Facebook or Twitter as well as e-mail.
DESIGN 2: POP-UP REGISTRATION
Hero image fades from image to image through a selection of work.
DESIGN 3: DROP DOWN MENU
Long scroll effect exemplified here.
DESIGN 4: ABOUT PAGE
Live news feeds and swiping stories top right can be skipped to be clicking on L,A,W circle icons.
DESIGN 5: NEWS PAGE
Playful example of a sound interaction to add a layer of humour and connect the audience with the images.
DESIGN 6: SOUND INTERACTION EXAMPLE
Scrollable short video clips. Text appears to the right to give a short description in relation to clip as well as credits.
DESIGN 7: VIDEO INTERACTION EXAMPLE
DESIGN 8: MOBILE VARIATIONS
DESIGN 9: TABLET VARIATIONS
Creative Concepts RVLT- rvlt.com is a good example of an existing website, which
incorporates some of the latest website design trends. Such as, the long scroll effect featuring everything on one page as well as drawing on the ‘card layout’ look with options to view several images from each lookbook. This site, in particular, demonstrates how easy the user experience can be made for a global audience. There is also very little text, henceforth putting focus on the imagery and allowing for an international audience, which is something LAW magazine’s website would benefit from. It also uses bright colour blocks that complement one another and striking imagery to retain the viewers’ attention as they scroll.
DAZED DIGITAL- dazeddigital.com provides a relevant example of a how a print magazine can be translated into an online source of news and archives. It also links nicely to LAW magazine due to the wide range of subject focuses with links to fashion, arts, culture and music. The site incorporates a card layout system with easy continuous scroll through main area pages with bold titles and social media links merged into one. This busy aesthetic works well for the site as it demonstrates how up-to-date and current they are with a continuous flow of information presented in an entertaining format. The top focus item also slides through a selection of articles/updates which highlights the main attractions in a bold manner.
Cultural Contexts It can be suggested that the scroll down effect has been influenced by social media applications such as Instagram and Facebook, which allow the user to browse with ease whilst scrolling and is something that ameliorates the site’s potential as a mobile-friendly site. For example, the Wonderland magazine website, their music section in particular provides a very simplistic and up-to-date way to browse new tracks and news within the music industry that they think would appeal to their audience. It is a very convenient way to browse and would translate well on a mobile or tablet device, which is important to consider in an age where print media is continously being threatened by a range of digital competitors.
A way for the magazine’s online site to improve it’s cultural presence is through the use of social media platforms and currently the site does not put much emphasis on this. Therefore, I have suggested through my designs the collaboration of a twitter box with a live feed and the same with a preview of the magazine’s instagram account. An example of the use of social media in website design is the i-D site, i-d.vice. com, which provides easy access to their social media platforms as well as allowing the user to share and communicate articles and features on the website onto the user’s own social media account. v
Collaborators/Contributors
TOM EMMERSON PHOTOGRAPHER LONDON, 15 http://tomemmerson.com
SOPHIE GREEN PHOTOGRAPHER LONDON, 18 http://www.sophiegreenphotography.com
After exploring through all the LAW archives, it would be a good idea to bring in the work of younger photographers and artists because they were celebrating the lives of youth culture, so it can be imagined to complement the name of the magazine with both lives and works of youth. A young 15-yearold boy named Tom Emmerson had been mentioned in an article on i-d.vice.com who photographed urban youth culture in a very raw and authentic way that suits LAW very well.
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Sophie Green is another example of young, emerging talent in London. Her candid photography and crude realness of the world around her appeals to the ethos of LAW magazine. Her style would both suit the magazine’s online content as well as broadening the areas of culture from not only an urban London scene, but also various subcultures such as Travellers culture, featured in the example images to the left. It is also important to consider that not only the wider sense of culture, the young age of the photographer would widen the appeal to a younger audience and work well as social media content to gain a higher following and increase popularity for the brand.
Collaborators/Contributors ASHLEY JONES ART DIRECTOR AND WEB DESIGNER NEW YORK http://ajdesign.ca
Where fashion can be expressed through street photography, the idea that LAW includes still-life photography to express culture is something interesting and should be invested in. New York-based still-life photographer Sam Kaplan captures culture through photographing a range of objects from food to beauty products, making the mundane beautiful. Also, being a New York artist, LAW can attempt to branch out and cater for a more global audience.
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Ashley Jones comes from a graphic design background, educated in Toronto. Her web design work is innovative and current and often follows similar trends as to the design improvements mentioned in the ‘Design Decisions’ such as the continous scroll and interactive card layouts. Her style of work and the content she works with also appears to complement an everyday, very real aesthetic, which would complement LAW and ensure that the online layout and content would flow nicely together. SAM KAPLAN STILL-LIFE PHOTOGRAPHER NEW YORK http://www.samkaplan.com
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Conclusion of Findings In conclusion to my findings throughout the research process, it can be surmised that the incorporation of several different and new aspects throughout creative and cultural concepts, as well as collaborators and contributors, would help to improve and develop the tone of LAW magazine’s online site. The combination of the design developments and the contemporary themes of context would lead LAW to a more current and up-to-date style, including the use of social media platforms, younger and more innovative photography and a fresher design aesthetic. Taking inspiration from leading print magazines’ online content, such as dazeddigital.com, is vital for an appealing look, which will hopefully encourage the audience to engage further through easy, scrolling layouts and the interactivity of music and video elements. The cultural concept aspects from these findings have drawn together to conclude that there needs to be a bigger emphasis upon social media interaction and mobile- and tablet-friendly techniques, such as the continuous scroll and sound and moving image. Lastly, to consolidate the re-design ideas for LAW magazine, new and exciting collaborators and contributors such as those mentioned would help to bring in a more global and wider age-ranged audience at the same time as adding another layer of perspective to the everyday that LAW aims to convey.