The Bar Lady – Web Design Project

Concept

Chocolates can communicate many different emotions – luxury, lust, friendliness, love, excitement, and innocence, to name a few. I knew that the design had to speak a very identifiable language to match the Bar Lady’s brand personality. I pieced together a quick idea of her brand from her current website and Instagram account, and had a clear vision of what the design should look like.

I wanted the site to feel light, friendly, and approachable. I wanted the chocolates to be the main focus so they could shine in the layout. I decided to use a combination of a soft, rounded font for the headings and sharp angles in the background of the site for contrast. I used soft pastel colours to keep the background and other elements fairly neutral. This worked well and allowed the design to focus on the chocolates.

Process

I started with simple wireframes to determine the basic layout of every page. I only designed three pages, but nonetheless they had to have consistent visual hierarchy and information architecture. When I had that figured out, I moved on to collecting imagery and piecing together the site identity. I picked Quicksand for the main headings of the site for its’ quirky and friendly look. I paired it with EB Garamond for the body copy, to keep the design classy and timeless. I used colours that were featured on the Bar Lady’s Instagram account for palette inspiration, and settled for a dark and light pink, and a dark and light cool grey.

I decided to keep the navigation simple and straightforward-forward, but to highlight the “where to buy” link. The Bar Lady does not have a permanent retail location, therefore customers need to know where they can find her products. This page would feature a list of upcoming events, like farmer’s markets and pop-up sales, where the Bar Lady would be selling her chocolate. Her Etsy shop could also be featured there for online orders.