Web Design | Smug Designs

For today's Creative Business tip, I'm talking about the importance of creating a strong visual identity online and using Smug Designs as a quick case study!

For today's Creative Business tip I want to talk about the importance of creating a strong online presence and I'll be using Smug Stuff as a case study!

A little while ago (if you remember!) I ran a competition on indieBerries with my web collaboration-partner Class Castle. It was an awesome competition that ran for several weeks with the prize winner receiving an entire website design and build for their blog or business! Today I want to introduce you to the winner of that competition and the smug new website to match!

These days, having a strong online presence will either make or break your business. Just think about this in terms of your own engagement with new products and/or services: you see something you like (in a store/market/shop/brochure etc) and if you aren't quite ready to make a purchase then and there - you remember the name and go home and give that company a google. Within a few seconds of being online - you can form a very strong opinion about that brand which will either determine whether you decide to make an investment in that brand or if you quickly move on to something else.

Ayla from Smug Stuff was our lucky winner of this competition and she was so excited to get the process underway! I wish I had taken a screen shot of the website before the build to give a really good idea of the before and after!

The former Smug Logo (above) featured plenty of overlaid graphics in different shades of blue and green. This was also the main image on the home page of the website.

After sending a questionairre through to Ayla to get her brand vibe and the vision she had for her company - I could very quickly tell that SMUG is a company that prides itself on being that slight kink in the market - that brand that loves a bit of quirkiness! And as such, I thought it was important that we create a brand feel and website to match that vibe.

I didn't want to stray too much from what Ayla had already created for herself - so I questioned her on some of the graphic elements within her original logo. In particular I asked her about the sheep graphic, which she said came from "skaap" was a name her boyfriend had given her. I loved keeping this some how in the design and when she mentioned that she wanted to include the phrase, "stuff with expression" I pitched the sunglasses-cool cat sheep as part of the new logo design, still keeping with the original colour scheme.

I also pitched running further with the concept of the sheep as a type of "brand ambassador" for Smug, and playing on the idea of being a black sheep - and finding gifts that are a bit different/stand out from the crowd. We used some of these sheep graphics within the back drop of the web design. I also tried to keep some of the original swirls, puzzle pieces and dice from Ayla's original logo - but tie them more cohesively to the brand using fun language.

Using the agreed colour palette and selection of fonts, we mocked up some page layouts - using punchy language such as, "Looking for something, punk?" in the search bar, to tie in the quirky vibe!

A good thing to include on the home page of a website is a strong call-to-action, which gives the viewer a direct path or instruction. This could be, "join the newsletter" or "shop now" or "view blogposts", in the case of Smug, which you can see on their homepage, we have used a "browse products".

Once we had settled on the final web design, the guys over at Class Castle get ready with coding it all! GO TEAM!

In the process of the new website build, Ayla also had her products re-shot professionally which made a huge difference to the overall look and feel of the site and definitely create a much more professional look. Good photographs make ALL the difference to online product-selling!

It was such a lovely project to work on and SO rewarding to see the huge difference in Smug Stuff website before and after. Even more rewarding was the awesome mails that I received from this happy lady! A little excerpt from one of her mails:

Ché, You knock my socks off!!!!

I am so happy with this. Showed my man and he also LOVES the sheep idea.

Love the vibe the page gives off – the quirky catch-phrases and little comics are brilliant. Absolutely adore the ‘baaaaaaad ass sheep’ in the logo. My affinity for them is happy! :)
I like the idea of the slider on the homepage highlighting products – I want to have a few products that have their own quirky names….Not exactly sure which ones yet but for example the teddy bear becoming ‘Teddy Mercury’ or my sexy silver mugs named ‘Mugan Fox’….or some such thing. I’ve attached my pricelist so you can see what all the products I offer are. Feel free to use your creative genius to rename them!

You are amazing and thank you so much for what you are doing for my little business. You have no idea the implications this will have for me.
Have a stunning weekend!!

Ayla

* * * * * *

Go take a look at her finished site!

If you are looking for some web design work or would like to work in conjunction with Class Castle and I, pop me an email on indieberries(at)gmail.com for a quote!