[hawken]

This summer I took a job for a client, to make a fashion website. I was responsible for the art direction on the shoot then the Autumn version of the website. For the Winter version they used someone else to make the site because I refused to pitch on it. It was a bit odd for them to ask me to pitch on a site I was meant to be building anyway.

So, the two candidates:

Autumn. Salon Boutique Autumn 2007

Winter. salonboutique winter collection 2007

Bare in mind that whoever did winter just took my concept for the autumn site, and the photos I directed. I'm having trouble deciding if it is good or not. Technically and Graphically, which one would you place on top?

[illvibe]

Really not a fan of that winter vers. It's just a big slow flash intro.

[shwizle]

quite frankly, neither really do it for me. they both have the right idea, but some of the execution strikes me as a tad corny. ie: the torn edges of the paper, and the burnt marks. it just seems like the style was too forced.
just my opinion, and overall the flash is very impressive!

[Liam]

erm neither, for a fashion website both designs are not very classy. I don't understand why your using a very tired cliched method of having dragable photos. Both are too cheesy for me.

However, yours is the better one as the winter one is too slow to load and the effects like the snow and sparkle just look crap.

[Drewry]

yea i agree they both are pretty bad but if i had to choose autumn is better.

[ahref]

the winter version appears to have a long loading time

[jcharnley]

i like the glove effect in the winter page, ... but thats about it..
and i like the colour theme in the autumn page .. but thats about it..

imo, nether page is "done", but both concepts are good, imo, imo....

/charnley
(i didn't vote)

[hawken]

Just a few more votes, thanks for the ones so far.

[Paddy]

Can we get a 'neither, both of them could do with being ditched because the whole draggable photo thing is ancient and wasn't very user friendly to begin with' option on the poll?

If not, Autumn is faster and simpler, but I won't vote.

[Liam]

'neither, both of them could do with being ditched because the whole draggable photo thing is ancient and wasn't very user friendly to begin with'

hear hear!

I voted but I want to retract my vote now and vote for neither.

[iblastoff]

i chose autumn simply because winter took too long to load.

[hawken]

Originally Posted by Paddy

Can we get a 'neither, both of them could do with being ditched because the whole draggable photo thing is ancient and wasn't very user friendly to begin with' option on the poll?

If not, Autumn is faster and simpler, but I won't vote.

tell you what I'll make a special poll just for you.

Please take a look at other fashion sites first though - once you collect your eyes from the other site of the room and your teeth from the clients fist, come back here and vote

[forbes]

theres some bad design elements in winter version.. font is awful and the flash intro makes no sense whatsoever..

autumn is better but isnt very user friendly ie i couldnt get back to mainpage

[Paddy]

Originally Posted by hawken

tell you what I'll make a special poll just for you.

Aww, thanks Hawky!

[Paddy]

Originally Posted by hawken

Please take a look at other fashion sites first though - once you collect your eyes from the other site of the room and your teeth from the clients fist, come back here and vote

You don't have to ditch the idea of photos as the main focus of the site. Obviously a fashion site should be all about the clothes and the photography. There are better ways to do it than what you came up with though.

Examples:

ANTEPRIMA

SIMON RASMUSSEN // STYLIST // CREATIVE DIRECTOR

FILIPPA SMEDHAGEN SUND - MAKEUP ARTIST

and my personal favourite

http://www.claracollins.com/

[iblastoff]

Originally Posted by hawken

tell you what I'll make a special poll just for you.

Please take a look at other fashion sites first though - once you collect your eyes from the other site of the room and your teeth from the clients fist, come back here and vote

i do know what you mean. i look at fashion-related stuff on and off and i know most of them are very simplistic but 100% flash (most of it usually useless), usually with some unreadable geometric font, and always more style than substance.

...which basically is the complete opposite of most web designers today who strive for standards, accessibility, tasteful amounts of flash and the ability to degrade gracefully.

some people just need to realize that not ALL well-designed sites are going to have those aforementioned attributes. in the case of couture fashion sites the audience is clearly very specific.

[Paddy]

Originally Posted by iblastoff

...which basically is the complete opposite of most web designers today who strive for standards, accessibility, tasteful amounts of flash and the ability to degrade gracefully.

Stuff standards and accessibility, some basic user friendliness would be nice.

The average user doesn't care about your code or how the site works in a screen reader (How many blind/visually impaired people visit these sites anyway?).

They do care whether they can use the site though, which in the case of any good fancy fashion flash sites, you can. All the examples I posted above are pleasant to use. They probably flaunt web standards like mad, but they look gorgeous and are a joy to navigate.

In Hawken's site (and the other bloke's who stole his idea) the site is not pleasant to use. You shouldn't have to hold down your mouse button to view an image, for example.

The transitions between pages are weak and without a discernible central theme, other than looking down at some polaroids from above. The whole design just seems a bit lazy and poorly thought out to me.

I'm not saying Hawken is lazy, just that he's probably capable of a lot more creativity than he's shown here.

[hawken]

the idea was to have an experience. Not really about content accessibility. Something that would stick in the users mind, regardless if they liked the site or not. If you missed the theme, well you just don't get it. It's a stalkers house. I don't see the comparison of creativity meaning a site should be enjoyable or coherent. It's more the opposite, those links are more about bling than being creative.

Something unique, that operates outside of the fold, even with the annoying interface and lack of information pertaining to what it is, can be regarded more creative. Feel free to disagree, but the internet is losing it's "designer flair" of experience driven content.

anyway, here's the 1st design the client rejected, but there is a whole other thread about that

Salon Boutique Tokyo

it has a menu, something fun to do, but the client hated it for being generic. I liked it.

[veckd]

winter for sure, to me it looked a lot nicer

[Paddy]

The newer design is definitely a step forward from the first one, I'll grant you that. It definitely needs a bit of work if you're going to go with the current idea though.

The draggable photo idea has been done to death, often very well. So if you're going to do it you had better do it right.

I like the idea of the theme but I'm not getting that from the site as it is. If you want the user to have a memorable experience you need to bring the stalker theme more into play. Make the site a little creepy. Perhaps recreate sets from famous serial killer/stalker films such as Se7en, American Psycho, Psycho, Fatal Attraction, etc. and work the fashion into these scenes.

I realise that that's a big change from what you have already, but if you went for it and pulled it off well I think you would have a great site on your hands.