Test introduction
Design and develop a website for Orange Slip Inc. a bookshop with multiple locations. Its clients are middle-to-low-income, the experience needs to be informative and easy to navigate.
Focusing on the brand "Yellow" colour and the monochromatic feel, I designed the logo, a word-mark, simple idea using a "Book" style font to induce elegancy, and by adding a stalk and leaf to the "O" the word-mark was complete. Designed and developed a monochromatic informative website.
As this is a spec project, no real impact can be measured, but here is what I think would have happened; - there would have been an increase of clients to the shops due to the interactive "Locations" element on each page, helping the user find Orange Slip Bookshops.
Orange Slip inc. is a brick and mortar bookshop, they have been around for around 25 years and have grown over time to multiple locations across the United Kingdom. The current brand was a yellow san-serif font. With no official web presence apart from local classifieds and minimal social media, they decided to have a website build and have a consistent brand designed with an identifiable mark.
Orange Slip was not looking to move their operation online, what they were looking for is to increase the shop's foot traffic by showing the users how accessible their shops are and how many there are.
Orange Slip Inc. required a website to be designed and developed and also a brand identity that reflected their passion for books, but also would speak to customer about the feeling and experience they would have when visiting their bookshops.
DEVELOPING THE APPROACH
During the strategy session conversation, key questions set the strategic approach going forward.
Defining the goals and purpose of the project is paramount. I decided to anchor the goals in "Information" - "Locations" - "Products"
My strategy was based around information, but I also wanted to maintain a sense of mystery and not give everything away, by doing this hopefully driving the user to the many shop locations to experience the magic for themselves. In the current online world, Orange Slip wanted to maintain the adventure found in the books they sold, by encouraging the user to have their own adventure by making the time to venture to their bookshops.
DEFINING THE BRAND
Through a series of brand exercises I was able to identify key attributes, a monochromatic look and feel requested by the client from the beginning, and this style drove a vintage feel for the brand. I didn't want a slogan or tag line explaining the main word-mark, I wanted the name to stand on its own and induce the meaning of the value proposition.
By developing the "O" with the stalk and leaf creating a symbol for the users to associate with and thus become part of the brand.
It would have been easy to just follow the norm of the "Online" movement, and so the challenge become to resist it, and focus on the information delivery and story about Orange Slip Inc.
It can seem crazy to go against the grain, but it can be stupid to compete in the "books" industry with "Time of Delivery" - "Frequency" - "Delivery Costs" when someone like Amazon is just unbeatable, so following Marty Nuemeier's words "When everyone ZIG's you should ZAG"
As I mentioned before, this is a spec project, but I would like to imagine that Orange Slip fights the good fight day in and day out against the giants of online delivery. That Orange Slip remains invested in their mission and values to keep bringing adventure, excitement and anticipation to its tribe members when purchasing a book. Maintaining their many bookshops, taking daily deliveries of new books and thus keeping that nostalgic new printed paper ink smell that we all remember from our childhoods.
Test challenges
Test solutions summery
"The project is not complete, and could go on and on with many additions, I feel the website is screaming for a "Search" element, I have not put in just because I need to move onto paying clients haha, still need to pay the bills. It was a great project to immerse myself in, build a story - tell the story. I hope it can be enjoyed by everyone as I have enjoyed it.
Below is the link to the live Orange Slip Inc. website"
