Designing The KIT

For me Franz, fashion is art. (A ‘mobile’ installation really… I find it incredibly inspiring.) Beauty to me is all about simplicity. (Yes, I’m a dude that moisturizes out of need.) And wellness is just who I am; I eat ‘relatively’ well and enjoy the euphoric feeling you get when working out. (Tried Yoga and Pilates, but I really do enjoy just throwing some weights around) When Yuko and I were briefed with redesigning The KIT’s website, my initial reaction was simply just a big ol’ smile… “At last!” A site about Fashion, Beauty and Health & Wellness… I’ve been creatively itching for this.

The premiere issue of The KIT first hit the web in Fall 2010 and has since garnered loyal followers who have grown to know and trust its content. We at Dashboard really wanted to honour what The KIT team had established by producing a first class site that the Client and loyal KIT readers would love. We were brought in to come up with a design solution to their website that would compliment the existing digital magazine and to strategize on positioning The KIT as Canada’s beauty authority.

Naturally, we got started doing what any overly excited creatives would do… we got inspired. We researched our heads off, looked at what the “competitors” were doing, “strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats”… We asked people their thoughts and opinions on digital magazines, listened to some beautiful music, looked at some inspiring fashion collections online, really paid attention to usability and site flow, “How to manage heavy content websites”… I really did google that, and most importantly studied the existing site and read it’s content inside and out (Do you know what the difference between a Brazilian Wax versus a French Wax is? Well I do now!)

After much brainstorming, Senior Art Director Yuko Brown dove head first into planning the site’s user flow and produced the much needed wire frames. Then together with Yuko, ACDs Julie Stolberg and Catherine Baird, we let it rip with the design, tackling the challenge one heading, one column, one page, one section at a time. Senior Developer David Blonski worked his coding magic and brought the creative designs to life on the web and together with our Director of Technology & Innovation Ralph Reefke, there was no technical issue these two couldn’t handle. Project Manager Angie Boddy kept us all organized and running efficiently and Account Supervisor Pamela Teh and Account Director Cheryl Munroe made sure the work was on strategy and on time.

It was a project with a set deadline for launch and sure, along the way we were presented with some challenges. But after a few weeks of intense work and heaps of coffee, we came up with a colaborative solution that met the project objectives by delivering a beautiful site that we feel is a reflection of what The KIT is; stylish, confident, sophisticated, informative, simple and whole lotta fun.

We love it. Our client loves it. We hope you’ll love it as well.