Acqua Couture Introduction

Acqua Couture

Brand redesign concept for online store Acqua Couture. Designed by Mynor Alexander.

Brand Redesign

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS6 • Adobe Illustrator CS6 • Node.js • Cheerio.js




Introductory Paragraph

Sabrina Jane, founder of Acqua Couture, is a web designer/developer from Orange County California. The brand redesign was something I proposed and developed to build out my portfolio. I chose this project simply because every other designer does some form of Facebook, YouTube, or social network redesign

I wanted to emulate a real world project. The added bonus of completing this task, rather than the other redesign options, is that I would get direct feedback from the founder. Ultimately I saw this as a great opportunity to challenge myself!

Acqua Couture Landing Page
Goals

Goal: The goal for this project is not to provide an entire web or brand redesign. Rather my intention is to provide my personal feedback and/or interpretation of some elements and design choices that I feel will increase Acqua Coutures brand identity. In addition provide Sabrina with a few ideas that she might want to consider on her next redesign. Lastly my personal goal is to get as much feedback regarding my decisions and/or recommendations.

Acqua Couture E-Commerce
Research

Research: I didn’t use my traditional approach of researching the brand, their demographics, or their competitors (if you just said oh no… then you’re right! This decision would ultimately come back to bite in the end.) Ideally I would never skip this step but this was a special assignment. I felt comfortable simply because of my own personal awareness of the brand and my personal time constraints for this project.

Ideally I would never skip this step but this was a special assignment.
Custom tool
Node.js logo

Custom tool: I did however build a quick web scraper using Node.js and Cheerio.js. I used this method to scrape the images, site content, and product description directly from the current website. Once I obtained the content that I needed to get started I began to organize and simplify the information. I was very selective of what I wanted to reuse. Since this isn’t going to be a full out redesign the goal was just to gather enough information to build out some important components.

Outline

Outline: The list contains elements that I felt were important to include for the redesign.

Style Guide

Style Guide: Once I selected a few images, product descriptions, and elements I could reuse to tackle my list. I then created a style guide to use as reference for the components I chose to redesign. It’s Spring 2015 and this would be the determining factor of why I chose to use this color palette. If I hadn’t skipped over researching the brand, the color choices would have definitely been influenced by my findings.

Acqua Couture Style Guide
Wireframe
Acqua Couture WireFrame

Wireframe: I initially had the idea of incorporating an instagram gallery section towards the bottom of the landing page. I felt that having this in place would showcase the product in use by their target audience. I decided that it would be more important to include the design and development cycle that Acqua Couture uses to craft their products.

There really isn’t a reason why one is better than the other. I would highly suggest incorporating both elements, which could be used on their “Homepage” or within the “About Us” section. I chose to go with one over the other simply due to my personal time constraints for this project.

Design

Design: Once I was happy with the layout and site structure I began to put the elements in place.

Acqua Couture Animation Design
Showcase
Acqua Couture Gallery

Showcase: Shortly after finalizing the placement of images and including elements from my style guide. I then mocked up the final concepts to showcase the final product to Sabrina.

Feedback
Acqua Couture Mac Book Pro

Feedback: Sabrina was really supportive of my design choices and welcomed my interpretation of her brand. She provided a lot of positive and valuable information regarding the direction, the brand vision, and the inspiration behind the Acqua Couture brand, which instantly let me know that I had failed! Although Sabrina stated how pleased she was with the outcome… She also indicated that my interpretation lacked the design aesthetics that make up the Acqua Couture brand.

One thing that I would have done differently was to actually reach out to Sabrina before moving forward with this concept. I took the gamble simply because I wanted to challenge myself with this type of project. After talking with Sabrina I gained a new perspective of her vision, which would have drastically affected all of my design choices. Again this was something I took on for myself and I was prepared for any and all feedback.

Closing thoughts: The reason I chose to share this project with you is because I want to let other designers and developers know that I’m available for any type of collaborative project. I welcome constructive feedback… It helps develop new strategies. I challenge myself on a daily bases and this is just a glimpse into my design/development cycle. If this were an actual client proposal I would have thoroughly explored all of my options. I would never consider skipping the most important part, researching the brand extensively, before considering anything else. I simply chose this project out of curiosity and to get the feedback I intended to achieve.

I would never consider skipping the most important part, researching the brand extensively, before considering anything else.


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