The concept behind this website is to inform and educated the new generation of Barbour owners who buy a Barbour because it is ‘hip’ without any knowledge of the companies rich heritage.
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The content of this website will be split into four separate pages. The first page will contain the history of the company, from 1894 and it’s birth as J. Barbour & Sons, right up to the present day as an international company. The history will cover all elements, from the people who have been in control of the family business as well as its opening of new stores world wide. The focus is to educate and inform the audience of the company’s strong heritage and roots. The second page will hold all the details and information on Barbour’s famous jacket design. It will focus on all the fine elements of the design and how to keep them for a lifetime.
This page will include a labeled
illustration//photograph of the most common and most renowned jacket with all of its key elements detailed and explained. This page will also contain a video on the waxing and rewaxing processes that is so important to the longevity of the jackets life. The third page will contain the collaborations that Barbour has had with external designers over the years. It will focus on the more contemporary designers that have created the modern collaborations. The reason I chose to focus more on the contemporary designers was because I thought the audience would be more interested in these ones. The fourth and final page will be a concise insight into the different collections Barbour has. This will mainly be image based however there will be a small amount of information.
concept. the history. the jacket. the collaborations. the collections.
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audience. The audience at first was difficult to define as there where many different possibilities due to the broad range of Barbour wearers.
After some discussion and a survey I decided that the audience were going to be the young ‘Hackney Farmers’ that were buying Barbours because they were on trend rather than because they were country types who used them for work or sport as these people would probably already know about it’s history and heritage. With many celebrities wearing them to festivals, as well as Barbour’s collaboration with contemporary designers, such as Tokihito Yoshida and Alice Hindmarch oversized Barbours are the jacket of choice for the up-andcoming ‘hipsters’ & fashionistas. It cannot just be anyone though as Barbour jackets do not come choice and there therefore has to be an element of quality and sophistication in the website. Whilst in talking to one of the guys in The Hip Store and from my survey responses, I found that very few people actually know about the rich heritage that
Barbour has and how it has developed and grown from its humble roots in South Shields to an international brand.
pantone 8643 C 80% Black 80% black 40%
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colour. When choosing the colours for my website I wanted to keep them very limited and simple, whilst still having a sophisticated edge. I didn’t want to use black as it contrasted too harshly with the white background. This contrast did not reflect the feeling and aesthetic of the website. The first colour I selected is the RGB converted Pantone 8643 C, which is a metallic gold. Although I knew it would not appear as a gold it provides a good representation against the white and amongst the black tints. This colour was chosen to add an element of class and regality. This colour is only used on the homepage.
The second chosen colour is Black at 80% for the header text, body copy, logo and homepage type. I chose this tint of black as it still provided a strong contrast against the white, however it was softer than 100% balck. The colour had to be strong enough so that the body copy was legible and readable. The final chosen colour is Black at 40%. This is only used in the button to distinguish what is//has been selected. I halved the other black tint so that it was still visible on the white background however wasn’t as prominent and therefore clearly shows what you have selected. I chose to keep the background white as I wanted a very clean and crisp aesthetic with the focus on the content.
The font was probably one of the easiest decisions to make. I wanted a modern sans-serif to keep with the aesthetic of the website and the company. Barbour use a customized version of Avenir Black so I thought this was the best font to use as it felt very modern when used as I have, yet it still tied back to the company. I use Avenir Black for all of the headers, titles and large text but I used Avenir Book for the body copy as the Black was too intense. My fonts sizes are all Fibonnaci numbers and therefore all fit with each other and look aesthetically right.
avenir book 13pt
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fonts.
avenir black 34pt
avenir black 55pt
avenir black 89pt
avenir black 144pt
I wanted a very simple, yet alternative, structured design. The design needed to be engaging, informative and functional, however, it also needed to be different to appeal to the web-savvy users. The design needed to reflect the brand qualities and preserve the brands austerity. I used a very structured grid and adapted it to fit my information and imager in how I wanted. The alternative side of the design came from the unconventional navigation bar and unusual layout. The two elements that are the hardest to layout and that I am still having difficulty with are the history timeline and the jacket information.
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design.