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Junk Male Clothing
Project entry added: 6/2/2012
Designing can sometimes be a frustrating pursuit; a clients preference can often deviate dramatically and unexpectedly at any given moment until the final project ends up a distant memory from how it began. Consequently, the Highground portfolio can rapidly fill with work that is difficult to derive much creative satisfaction from ('the customer is always right', aside). However, very occasionally, a person will happen by that is equally obsessive about design, and fiercely determined to expedite a project that becomes something of a personal, creative landmark.
Enter John Timoney, or as he is now fondly called, 'Johnny Junk Male'.
John had much experience in design before contacting us, working in London throughout the 80's hey-day of slicked-back hair and £50,000 paycheques for writing two words on a napkin. After leaving the industry to pursue property investment, he continued his passion for art in the background, developing a range of t-shirts that were largely influenced from obscure cultural references such as 'Baron Samedi', 'Bettie Page', 'James Garner' etc. (to be fair, we're still trying to find out who Baron Samedi ever was). At any rate, John needed a platform with which to distribute his produce and quench his thirst to create ... inevitably, the internet beckoned.
John contacted us after a recommendation from a mutual contact from the property game (note, by all accounts it's a game to anyone that 'isn't' in it). After prolonged and rampant debate, it became clear that the shared interest in design piqued John's already rabid enthusiasm and the project began with gusto.
Johnny Junk Male
(note: we do not condone smoking)
Some people do detail, and then there's Johnny Junk Male. The 'wish-list' presented for the site was posted to the Highground studio on hand-drawn A3 sheets, meticulously mapped out in splendid biro pen. We did consider putting these scamps on eBay as collectable items but in the end decided to keep as a permanent reference of how to set a brief out properly. There's a photo of these below, a real rarity these days - diametrically opposite to e-mail'd instructions that can be bewilderingly short of detail, such as; 'can you do an advert by 1pm'.
Now 'that's' a brief! ...
Set amongst the very detailed instructions were a host of very specific requests for the site, usually restricted to higher budgets (i.e. big brand sites). Still, at Highground we like a challenge, and we of course admire John's enthusiasm. So, aside from the request to create a full e-commerce site designed to fulfil the passion of a design aficionado, supply interactive user functionality and create a logical CMS system, certain, even more complex items were requested - such as:
• 'the ability to zoom in on all products so customers can see close-up detail'
• 'a mechanism for the site to identify which country a user is in, show flag of that country and produce a line of text ensuring that Junk Male can deliver to that country'
• 'alternative products showing as a possible sale suggestion alongside similar items'
... and so on ...
The Devil is in the Detail
It would have seemed churlish to restrict the site to its budget, instead, we forewent a months worth of milk and papers and decided to plough on regardless, in the name of 'design'. Alongside the daunting ordeal to successfully realise John's 'vision' online, the 'zoom' function proved the most time consuming of all the special requests for a number of reasons; zoomed images occupy large file sizes and thus can slow the shopping experience down (web browsers are notoriously pedantic so any clever coding needed to accommodate such things), where to introduce the zoom - how to zoom and so on.
Consolidating a months work to a few words, we eventually customised some fairly robust JQuery code (JQuery, for all those non-web programmers out there, is a kind of basic coding that can produce special effects which is why it is usually favoured to the hideous and disgustingly problematic Adobe Flash). Appearing on the product page in the carefully crafted Junk Male styling, at the optimum moment i.e. after the potential customer has clicked on the preferred product, headed through to read about it, check its price etc. and now, can even zoom-in to check the threadware. From that position, a person can 'roll-over' the image and a zoomed version will pop-up.
It's at this point the 'alternative products' are introduced, just in case, after the zoom, the customer decides against the current purchase. 'Hey, why not try these'. The clever aspect of the imaging is that only '1' picture is ever included on the site. This single picture is mathematically re-assembled at different sizes and shown at different stages throughout the site in thumbnail, enlarge ned and even zoom states. And by saving as a web-optimised gif, file sizes are not an issue. The benefit is that John as the shop owner only has to uploaded one image instead of re-sizing several to fit different parts of the site. And once the customer is on the product page, he or she is also presented with other related options.
Below left: the product page, below right: the product page with the zoom activated:
The Product Page, featuring the 'zoom' option.
(click image to enlarge)
The Product Page with the 'zoom' option activated.
(click image to enlarge)
Keep the faith
And it's this attention to detail that marks the difference between an ordinary project and a project that makes a lasting impression.
Like most things in life, the person that gets up at 5am to swim 36 lengths of a swimming pool is far more likely to win a medal.
Menus for all products were meticulously trialled, re-modeled and re-engineered until John was satisfied that the site served 'his type of customer' sufficiently. Blog's were neatly arranged in drop-down menus in date order, in months, and with only one month showing so as not to over-populate pages. Type was assembled in 'dark grey', not black, with accents of red (a specific 'Junk Male' red, of course - #ce001c for anyone even more clinical than ourselves). The 'Help' section makes 'The Art of War' seem like an afterthought. Go on, I dare you to view it: click here And if you wanted to delve deeper into John's psyche and the ethic behind the site, click here Note that any picture, product or image which appears just for reference is battered, bruised and scratched-up in the Junk Male style; there's none of this 'just use a Google image' at play here.
Of course, this page could run forever, so this is only a potted version of the development. The point was to highlight a project that worked for both parties; the client and the service provider. John wanted a site that looked, felt and ran just as he wanted, and Highground received the opportunity to create for a designer and feed his fetish with detail. Ultimately, the work benefited by commitment from both sides, where money became a secondary commodity, eclipsed by the far more interesting and rewarding aspect of designing something that could be shown with pride, and one that has made it into our portfolio, and permitted John a commercial platform for his creative juices that he is also proud of.
And before the all-important detail is missed off - click here to purchase the very finest in culture inspired t-shirts and merchandise.
With thanks to Johnny 'Junk Male' Timoney, one of the last few 'designers'.