The Horizontal Way

The Horizontal Way is a really interesting website that not only features horizontal scrolling, but also dedicates to featuring websites that also feature the same design element. It shows that there's a lot of interest in this type of design and how it can be a really clean and simple way to display work. The websites featured tend to have an artistic element to them (such as designers, musicians or photographers) which encourages me that this way of design would work really well for Vivienne's website.

Below are some examples of more horizontal scrolling websites featured above:

Stephane Tarteline 

BlueSfear.com

CSS Zen Garden Layout 1

CSS Zen Garden Layout 2

Alexander McQueen Website

Alexander McQueen

I thought a good port of call to help inspire me to create the website for Vivienne Westwood, would be another high profile fashion designer's website. I chose Alexander McQueen, since he is also known for his quirky fashion style, and I wanted to see whether his website would reflect that or whether it would be simple to allow for his designs to take centre stage.

What I found was a more simple website, and I was surprised to see that the basic layout was very similar to that of a conventional website. I guess I had pre-conceptions that due to the nature of his fashion design, his website may be a way in which to convey the message of his clothing.

I don't particularly like this website. There are elements that I think are fairly well executed, however it just doesn't really inspire me. It's not really a website that I'd really use for inspiration, but I guess a plus side to the website's design is that it allows for the designs to stand out, although I'd probably stay away from dark colours - I think lighter colours would allow for more distinction of the images.

EDIT: On doing some more research, I found the shop link to Alexander McQueen's online market for his clothing. I find that this website is something a lot more appropriate to the designs of McQueen's, with the lighter colours and the large space for the images to be the main focus. 

Again, this website is fairly simple and straight forward in terms of designs for online shops, which is obviously means it works and does the job it's intended for. I also think that the smaller details such as the rollover effect on the images of the clothing is a nice touch to allow for small amounts of information to be given without having to click through to another page.

Overall, I think the main website isn't much of an inspiration and I think there could be a fair bit done to it to make it more of an experience and more fitting to the type of work that Alexander McQueen and his company does. The shop website is again, not too inspiring, but I find that it's fit for the purpose and allows for the images to be a focus point.

Vivienne Westwood Official Website

Vivienne Westwood

 

As part of my research, I thought it was only wise to check out the website that Vivienne Westwood actually has to promote her fashion label. Obviously the design and coding behind the website is a lot more extensive the amount of coding I'd be able to do for this project, but it shows the potential of how a fashion website can showcase not only the clothes, but allow users to connect to the shop to purchase items.

 

The colour scheme is something that I feel is important, which I think would be good to incorporate into my website to allow for a little continuity within design. However, I don't really like the design of the website as a whole, since it feels like there's not enough similarity within the various pages of the website. I also think that the overall colour scheme is a little odd, but then what can you expect from Vivienne Westwood, really?

 

 I think researching and analyzing this website is a good start to get ideas of the design of my own website for the fashion designer.

Fotoplus Website

Foto+

 

Foto+ is a photographic collective run by local photographer Dom Moore and Kendel Noctor.  Their website features a large amount of work they've done in the past, all with vertical scrolling and a simple left hand vertical navigation bar.

What I like about this website is, again, it's simplicity. I feel that this could be a really strong idea for my website design due to the fact that Vivienne Westwood is so well known for her flamboyant and colourful fashion designs. This type of website would allow her fashion to really stand out.

This website really allows the photography to speak for itself with little need for a lot of other information. The other pages on the website, not featuring photos are kept simple and clean, which I think is a good way to maintain an elegant and effortless design.

Josh Greet Photography

Josh Greet Photography

The above website was created by local designer and ex PCA student Drew Turner. I've followed both Josh's and Drew's work for a while on recommendation from friends and tutors, and was very inspired by the design of the new website.

It shows features such as horizontal scrolling (which is something I believe could work really well as part of my Vivienne Westwood website) and smaller features such as rollover information for individual images.

The simplicity of the website allows for the images to take pride of place and be the main focus, which I believe is why this trend of simple, horizontal scrolling websites amongst photographers seems to be apparent.