What do we have here?

6a00e5508e95a98833014e8b24521e970d-800wi.jpg

Hold up… something's different around here…

Screenshot

By now, unless you have a super heavy cache that needs clearing you should be seeing Style Bubble 3.0 for want of a better phrase (hard refresh if you can't see it‚Ķ)  It's 3.0 in that it's the third design in five and a half years.  If I'm honest, if I had it my way every day this blog would look a little different but sadly that's not how the internets work.  Sadly a website can't just go on outfit rotation unless you really want to mess with people's minds and have a lot of time to devote to CSS.  When facing the task of revamping the site, I had to call upon external help so this time round, I enlisted the help of Louisa Lau and Joseph Piper aka err‚Ķ. my sister and her boyfriend‚Ķ

P1000217

That was definitely deliberate nepotism.  Working with someone who doesn't know me all that well could well have shifted this blog towards the obvious choice of a minimal white background and sparse design that apes popular print aesthetics such as the Fantastic Man typeface look.  This is of course all well and good for a lot of fashion sites/blogs – it does a fine job of providing legible text, big images and a to-the-point message.

There's the crux though.  When have I ever been 'to-the-point'?  When was I ever just about pretty enlarged images?  The difficult thing about this blog is the fact that the content can jump quite dramatically from post to post and jamming all of tha with an equally busy design has probably been the failing of how the site has been for the past four years or so.  The trick was to find a way of housing all of this diversity without stripping it back completely (though practical issues of site loading slowly was one consideration – apparently my one crashes my friend's browser regularly‚Ķ).   Therefore to remedy all of that, who better to work with than my closest sis who knows me best and her equally loveable boyfriend.

If it was me messing around with HTML and CSS and doing random things to bung together on the site (as I did for the last two designs), I wouldn't have too much to say about it… but since Louisa and Joe put in a good chunk of their time and had an altogether more 'creative' approach towards the site, I thought I'd let them pipe up a bit…

"We were looking at the story of Style Bubble.  Researching the brand – what was the first post?  How does it compare to the last post?  What the 'brand' of Style Bubble has been up till now?  We were looking for stories, getting used to tone, reading comments.  We then looked at Susie Styles, the outfits and we noticed that texturally and colorise, it was a very rich palette and we wanted to incorporate that into the site.  We were quite scared to brand Susie too strongly as it would take away some of the unpredictability of the blog and would sap the life out of Style Bubble."  

P1000239

Cue Joe and Lou immersing themselves into all things Style Bubble for months on end, complete with moodboards with my mug all over their walls in their flat (quite creepy walking in to see notes written all over you… I think I saw "butterfly-catcher" on one post-it).  From their research what they derived was that – uhuhuhuh – I'm a tough cookie to pin down.  I'm not one thing or the other which means a visual identity is pretty difficult to derive.  Well a basic online psych test could have told me that.  The main thing we all agreed on was that a texture that felt like 'me' was required and so Lou turned to marbling for something that was 'escapist' or 'otherworldly'.  She deliberately did the marbling on Muji recycled notepad paper to get a sort of grainy texture…

P1000246

"We were keen on creating a print or a pattern but we wanted to make something that was fluid and had organic elements to it."

P1000247

The colours were weirdly inspired by a packet of Sobranie cigarettes… I don't smoke but err… if I did….

P1000260

Joe and Lou also investigated a way of creating a pattern using the silhouettes traced from my outfits‚Ķ except that makes for some rather strange irregular lines that are naturally all over the place.  I like the fact that I recognise each outfit though just by looking at the lines.

P1000256

Those lines made for a natural progression to drawing a line through the logo that would connect everything up.  I kind of fell head over heels when I first saw the logo.  There's something quite normal and abnormal about it that I like‚Ķ

P1000262

P1000264

I went a bit loopy with the camera over the weekend and if they turned out ok, I would have bunged the pics up to illustrate the past weekend of solid hard slog.  Basically Lou, Joe and I spent our Bank Holiday weekend thrasing it out over CSS, Photoshop and getting quite angry with Typepad.  Hah!  We beat the system and found ways of getting round slightly mental Typepad quirks.  I got very familiar with JQuery – yay me!  We listened to Kanye & Jay-Z's Niggas in Paris track at least hundred times because it has a motivational bassline (wonder if Margiela is chuffed that they got referenced…) and we also consumed a hefty amount of pizza, guacamole, tortilla chips and Orangina. 

P1000223

I can't quite express how grateful and happy I am with how Joe and Lou worked on this site (along with lovely new business cards!) and how the site turned out.  I'll owe them a string of dinners and quite a few beers.  Everyone will have their say and I definitely welcome opinions and I've already had a few minor grumbles over the perceived simplicity of the site.  I am so satisfied though that this is the one thing that I won't second-guess (the anxiety attack about everything else in my life is quite enough).  In my mind though, the change was long overdue and hopefully this column right here that you're looking at can make the noise and what surrounds it is memorable without causing seizures or browser breakdowns.* 

* On that note, I hope there aren't any technical difficulties.  Please do update Java etc as there's script on this page and update your browsers, especially if you're using IE7.  If you can't see the new site at all, please clear your cache or do a hard refresh.  Refreshed is certainly how the site should feel hopefully!

75 comments

  2. I’m loving your new site – clean, crisp and clutter-free. The marbling effect on the background wallpaper looks beautiful, wouldn’t it be great if it were digitally printed onto silk or chiffon? And create a blouse out of it?

  4. AMaaaaazing, really carries your personality yet clean and easy to navigate.
    And that Jo guy, is he harry potter or something, MEH!
    This layout makes history!

  8. I am so digging the new simplicity even though I loved your old site designs so very much. The colours are absolutely beautiful‚Äìyour sis did such a good job with the marbling. The only small grumble is the width of the site…there’s a scroll bar at the bottom which is slightly annoying. This could just be because I am using a Macbook and not those super wide desktop macs.

  11. LOVE IT! Evolution is inevitable, and this one is a great step. I’m sure the clutter was getting to you! Looks great Susie!

  12. I love LOVE this redesign, Susie! I think it fits well with the evolution of your style over the years, and the colors are gorgeous. Well done, Susie’s sister and sister’s boyfriend! 🙂

  14. Normally I’m always iffy at first about redesigns but this….I instantly love this! If this redesign is an outfit then it totally suits you.

  16. Its funny you say that… I was going for a medium Georgette….
    🙂

  18. This is really pretty and nice and more stylebubble than any of the previous ones (been reding since the beginning).
    Well done sisterbubble and bubble-in-law!!!

  24. it looks really really good. best incarnation of stylebubble so far! took a few clicks and scrolls around, and it works fine on my browser (chrome). i’m so impressed at the thoroughness of the research behind the design c:

  28. Love the background, the colours, the font, everything! It looks less cluttered but not in a simplistic way…still very personal and dare I say it ‘you’ haha, fantastic job! 🙂

  31. really love the new face of my favorite bubble. i definitely like it more than the old one. i like the simplicitiy and the coulour spatter. great job

  38. I love this new layout so much! It looks great!
    Love all those sketches, really inspirational ideas.

  41. I love the new look of your blog, Susie.
    It’s more original and fresh.
    Thank you for sharing the backstage work 🙂
    Sara Ottavia C.

  42. omg you did not just make that joke. We need to catch up with Hermionie Lau @ Hurwundeki stat.

  44. Really like your blog makeover! Been following your blog for a while and although I loved the old blog design, there is something fresh, unusual and knew about this one. I started a blog a few months ago and still trying to settle on a final look for it so it’s really great that you gave so much detail about how this new design came about. Thanks!
    http://www.houseofbule.blogspot.com

  46. Well I think is absolutly amazing and beautiful how it turned out!
    Congratulations to all! It’s wonderful and it’s always good to have a change 🙂

  48. no probs my end, safari 5.0.6. sometimes the “2.0” didn’t like my browser but this seems fine. they did a very good job

  50. I like it! Clean, lean and elegant.
    Running FireFox 3.6.21, no problems.
    Change is good…Go team Bubble!

  52. Ah weird! The width here is actually smaller than the last design as I’ve changed to two columns… so it actually takes up less space….

  53. Your new design is so beautiful, if only by blog was this pretty <3 The colours and style suit you so well

  54. hah, i love how the little lines flip when you hover over the top links, what a nice detail! & even though i don’t really know you, the design embodies exactly how i see susie bubble… a big thumbs up to the designers!

  55. Susie, I absolutely LOVE the new design, working with your sis and her boyf produced beautiful results! I love it, it’s so clean, clutter-free, easy on the eye with no harsh white background. Yup, I really really do love the new look!

  56. love the new layout. so much neater, i used to dislike visiting your website because it’s so packed, so i just read your posts through subscriptions, but now it’s so much better

  61. Love the new look but, on an iPad I can’t see the marbled backgorund, it’s just plain white hmm

  62. Yes I’m trying to rectify this… it’s got something to do with the fact that Safari on iPad and iPhone (and Android/Blackberry) can’t read certain CSS tags…the version of Safari on iPad is NOT the same as the one on macs/iMacs… it might be that the white background is something I can’t change but oh well….

  63. I think it is perfect, perfect, perfect…modern yet still imbued with your personality. I feel like I also remember you mentioning long ago that you loved marbling paper as a child…or at least loved attempting it!

  64. I’ve followed your blog since last year but I only left few comments for you.
    I really like your style! You really good at mix and match in the clothes thing.
    Your new blog style is extremely adorable! The background, headlines, Fonts, love everything.
    I wonder, are you designer?
    But that doesn’t matter, you just now been my idol!
    ps. I barely have a chance for comment till today.
    pss. Sorry for sucks grammar, I’m Thai 🙂
    psss. I’m using Macs too, I saw you use the Photoshop in Macs. I wanna ask, do you have some ways to download it? Thanks!

  66. Amaaaaazing! So refreshing to see a blog that actually is not afraid to be the so trendy ‘minimalistic’. Your sister and her boyfriend are soooooooooooooooo talented. The marbling print is sooooo amazing too, it would look great as a shirt.

  67. insanely beautiful re-design of your blog susie! i wasnt a fan when you changed from the original stylebubble to version 2.0 but this i fell for from first sight!
    haha the marbling actually reminds me of a dress that i have (which is my all time favourite dress!):
    http://67.215.227.235/images/p/n/z/SOME-WD21_V1.jpg
    i love seeing the work and thought process that went into re-designing the blog, from the mood boards to the sketches – big ups to joseph & louisa! 🙂

  71. Refreshed is the word! Haven’t been on here for a few days so it was a nice surprise to see the new design – particularly love the stencil style header xx

  73. I’ve been away far too long! I know you update your site almost daily, but I didn’t think I missed this much! I LOVE it, Susie. Lol at the fact that you listened to watch the Throne the whole time to get throught the process. Can always count on this site to bring something fresh to a mundane area.

Comments are closed.