Project 3 Preliminary

[Ericha Eberhart]

Hi everyone! The website I chose to redesign is https://www.enigmahairsalon.com/. It is the salon that I usually go to for my hair, and it is the most stylish and personality-filled salon I have ever been in, but the website is really quite the opposite. It has spinning buttons, strange gradients, unblended imagery, and clashing textures.

I started my first concept by making a logo for the salon, as their “logo” is type on an image. I then took inspiration from the original site imagery of bricks and greenery and made a color palette of burnt oranges and sage greens. Using more vintage imagery with wood textures and classic barber chairs I connected the colors and imagery to give a classic and upscale feeling.
My second concept was inspired by one of the main walls in the salon as it is baby pink and has these beautiful swirl-like textures throughout. It is one of the first things you notice when you walk onto the salon as it is so unique. From this inspiration, I used different shades of pink for the color palette and the same logo as the first design but tweaked the colors to better fit the concept’s theme. I added a little greenery for the about page to balance all of the whites and pinks.

[Cole_Richards]

Hi Ericha! I really like your redesign, the original website definitely needs an update, and if you know them personally it might be an in for some business! I really like your first design, it's simple and professional and uses space very well, the photo and navigation are well done, you could bring the color from the logo into the navigation on the bottom and that would tie everything together, well done!

[kpargs]

Hi Ericha,
I like how put together both your designs are, but since the light pink is part of their shop, I would keep working on the second one to tie it all together

[Fatkid53]

Wow, great logo and bothe designs really flow well and look like a great UI experience. I would flow towards the first design for a couple of reasons; first being that it seems like a more unisex site that would appeal to a larger audience but still pops off the page, second the image gradient you put in really spark a good line of visual interest with me. The only thing I think I might change is darkening or increasing the opacity of the palm leaves so there is a bit more color the accent the awesome pics you have. Awesome start.

[lilykmitch]

Hi Ericha
I really like both of these concepts and i dont know which i like more. I think the first one's color pallet is really nice and fits the hairstylist theme but i like the layouts for your second concept! Nice work!

[Samantha_Thomas]

I think you should go with the second design simply because of the layout, and it mixes in well with the pink giving it an almost. Girly feeling to it, which most hair salons are. The pink is also very calming to look at when mixed with the white.
Meanwhile, the first design airs a more professional vibe to it and still screams hair salon, so it all depends on what you want to do in the end and what sort of vibe you want to give this website.

[zandrews]

Hi Ericha!

I always look forward to your designs - you have a very good eye and clean design aesthetic to everything you layout and these are no exception! I love both of these and as I was looking at them I was like damn... this is really, realllly hard to decide which set I like more. I honestly think you could go either way with either one of these as you know the salon and these stylists (which btw fantastic logo design and I love both set pages and how you laid out the stylist team). I guess my main question and depending on your answer would decide which site I would go with and that is... does this salon do guys haircuts? If so, I would go with set one and not because4 Pink is a girls color ( I love pink personally lol) but for most men, if they saw the pink site they may be just inherently turn elsewhere thinking Enigma doesn't offer guys haircuts (granted I would really love a society in which colors are no longer gender-ized but that is a whole separate bag of worms). However if the clientele is only women (or at least primarily which Im sure it is but ya know - if there is hardly ever a man getting a haircut there) then I would go with the pink as I feel that pink and teal color combo is so vibrant and really speaks to the "personality filled" description you gave. Set 1 does too but more so if the clientel is wide ranging.

As for your layouts, both are so expertly spaced and well thought out. Super chic and totally gives the vibe of a nice, high end yet inviting salon. Also fantastic choice of fonts! Really looking forward to seeing which set you go with. A really excellent start that I think will be easy to build off of for the final, regardless of which set you pick (also major props on having two very strong options as it is usually more apparent which set is the favorite and which was like meh... haha). High five!

[squidgola33]

the song roughs are my favorite! the color scheme is light and flowy as well as super girly; which is perfect for a salon. I also really like the pink with the white versus the white and brownish color scheme. it looks already like a real webpage!

[Instructor]

Oooh! I like your first one better, Ericha. Super clean!

What a great logo you designed for them! You should reach out and sell it to them. I bet they'd buy it off you.

Your first design is a textbook three column layout that really shows the strengths of the format. You have an entire column dedicated to a photo area. I really like how it changes from page to page. I think it'd be fun if you had a different photo every page for visual interest and to provide a handy little navigational aide for people. I like the way it fades out and points the eye into your content. Your second column is a nicely laid out content area. Great use of margin throughout this whole thing. Your three call to action buttons are eye-catching and well placed. Nice choice on the type as well. A clean slightly uncommon sans-serif goes well to making the layout feel trendy and urban, which is clearly what you're going for here. Interesting idea, centering the logo in the composition without making it look like you were centering the logo. Lastly, you have a thinner third column for ancillary notes, customer testimonials and other bits and bobs. Very much a pull quote area. I'm pleased to see you resisted the urge to make the columns equal widths. Not everyone can. Your navigation is well placed and easy to see and use. The whole layout folds up nicely when it shifts over to mobile.

Watch your margins in the faux-Polaroids in your inner page. They seem uneven on the edges and the type seems crammed awfully close together.

Great job!

[Elle Barre]

Well, let's put it this way Ericha: I put this salon into my contacts and I can't wait to book an appt based on your admiration of them and the beautiful way you have rebranded them to fit your regard for their professionalism, tasteful decor in the salon and consistent quality: your designs communicate exactly those characteristics. I love that you melded two graceful, elegant fonts and the scissors to make a durable logo for a classy salon, and kept some original colors from their really not good website for your first set. You fit a lot of discrete sets of info on that first page. My only suggested change would be to enlarge the address and phone number, ti a size like your "NESTLED IN" font: the phone number is the one set of characters that should be, imo, huge for any "appts" business. People can memorize a number and dial right away if they can "see" in their mind's eye, and dial it real quick.

I really like the pink-cast set, besides the fact that it's 'pretty' in pink, it's also working color-wise with the Expertise.com seal. Not so much on the first set. The seal colors shouldn't dictate the company colors, of course, but since it's so large on the layout, it does carry weight... Again, the phone # and address... they're actually smaller than the button that says "call us," and so buried. I do love the colors, the photo: the gradient that blends with the photo and makes the woman's shadow. It's so perfectly blended. So nice. And again, the logo, now using fuchsia, is so classy. When I go there, it will be all I can do not to show them what brought me there: your amazing redesign of their website. Do you need an agent? :- ) Interesting texture added with the fern boughs; nice way to have the negative/white space, while tamping down the glare of it, and carried through the mauve layer. "Meet the Team" font--cool. I would like that a little larger and a little bold on it. If you changed nothing, it would still be worth every free haircut you got for life. Check spelling tho: "stylists", plural, in the Nestled In section, and, I would say, "We at Enigma Salon pride ourselves on our fantastic team who offer incredible treatments... . ... amazing stylists. Find out why our clients come back time and again."

and Meet the Team: You can choose the stylist who fits you best ... ---I only bothered with copy editing it because you really should show this to them, they should feel flattered. Superb design.