Dustbintown

I’ve been wanting to do a redesign of the cutecreative.net site for a little while now. I had the idea, but I had a lot of research to do before I could get started.

Put simply, social networks are set to become a massive part of 21st Century marketing. Companies will begin to understand that communication through these channels will be essential to building brands.

Users are always the best salesmen…

Of course this has always happened… In school, in the pub, on the golf course. I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve converted to Macs simply because I talk (some say rant) passionately about them. But, in the 21st Century, it’s happening all over the web and it’s searchable. Bloggers tell people how great stuff is, youtube shows them how to get the best from their new stuff and what stuff not to buy because it sucks. And all of this is outside the control of the actual people making the “stuff”.

Unless companies get conversations started with people via youtube, facebook, twitter, myspace etc. they are faced with endless (uncensored) reviews of their “stuff” based on single user experiences. Some of which can be both very visible and damaging, not to mention unfair. IE: If one person has a terrible experience with a product, and then posts a youtube clip which becomes popular because he cries and rants all the way through, what damage is done the product in the process and how fair is the review?

Why does this affect my site re-design? Well, I’m a product. I want to increase my exposure and let people know about the work that I do. The needs of cutecreative.net are similar to the needs of my clients. So it seemed obvious to attempt to harness these social networks, gather a bit of knowledge and pass it on.

1. I decided to use flickr for my portfolio/recent work. flickr images can (amongst other features) be (batch) tagged which makes them searchable. This isn’t really relevant to me, but to a couple of my clients, having “proper” product shots come back from Google searches rather than some of the shots that get used on shop-sites would be very beneficial.
2. I also decided to link to my Facebook account. Even though the numbers tell a slightly different story, it’s becoming the social site of choice for everyone. Ask anyone if they’ve got a Myspace and, if their not in a band, they’ll tell you they’re on FB. Plus I added the Twitter app to my FB account so that my tweets update my FB status automatically. I also show my latest tweet on cutecreative.net.
3. Finally, I decided to link to my last.fm most recently played track. This is done via iTunes, my iPod and even the old Xbox  in the house. If someone can just get it right I honestly believe that a site like last.fm will be the future and saviour of the music business. And, I hope I’m there when it happens.

The end result is that cutecreative.net looks constantly updated and anyone using any of these social networks can find cute*creative content via their service of choice. I have a presence in all these places which is being updated all the time, almost automatically.

As for the design, having read and been inspired by quite a few posts by Mark Boulton I knew a clean, simple Bauhaus inspired grid was going to be my preferred choice because:

• I’ve used this design style for years in print but never on the web.
• I think that the work looks better presented in an uncluttered frame.
• My chosen ID for cute*creative looks best when it’s presented clean and on white. On Black is too “Jagermeister” 
• I want to incorporate some photography and stop-frame stuff I’m working on.

I’ve adopted the 960 grid system which has worked out very well so far. Web tools have finally caught up with print tools like Indesign and Illustrator enough that the kind of control required to do grids is now possible, if not entirely semantic. But I’m sure I’ll find a decent work around for “bastard” columns soon enough.

Overall, I’m really happy with the new design and I’ll post on how the social network integration goes in the future.

;p