vi-R-us

We just launched our redesign of the Joseph web site.

Fashion is at its core about change. The site therefore is structured around change, embracing a blog-like format to keep fans abreast of aggressive developments in every aspect of the business and customer experience. Whilst a blog content management system lays beneath the surface, it has been heavily customised to create a uniquely Joseph experience.

The front page uses a typography led approach, using dramatic contrasts in scale and formatting to create pictures with text. The obtuseness of this type-led treatment matches a brand that has become more radical, more playful, one that is now as likely to upset as it is to delight.

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I’m very interested in bending the rules of the ubiquitous blog. In 2007 we launched Katemosstopshop.com which is a stripped back image blog effectively. It means ultimate flexibility in the post layouts and visual construction that in turn leads to a very different feel. Not great for SEO but for this it doesn’t matter very much.

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture Blog that launched last year and has just picked up a Webby takes a similar stance. In this case they’ve changed a single variable, all the rest of the general blog furniture is there. They just made the images they already had rights too a lot bigger. That’s all, they made them much, BIGGER. They didn’t create a player or fancy lightbox or gallery, they just made the images bigger. It is tremendously successful and a real pleasure to experience.

We even played a bit with Poke’s blog to try and use variable type treatment for headers to give each post the potential for more individual character and expression and to create an overall more open and fluid feel.

With the recent explosions of twitter, tumblr, social media near real-time rolling updates, RSS ubiquity, video ubiquity etc etc, it feels very much to me that the trusty blog is in need of a reappraisal and rethink. Because when you change the rules, even slightly, very interesting things start to happen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 1:52 pm and is filed under NEW FROM POKE, THOUGHT CORNER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.