design your own hand-bags
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- case2000
http://www.elementalthreads.com/…
I made this for my lady friend
It was a lot of work! and I didn't get paid... $Fanciness:
Google checkout, SWFAddress w/ new google analytics integration. (so cool)
http://www.zedia.net/2008/swfadd…>60,000 possible handbag designs, all deep-linkable/emailable/trackabl... and most importantly previewable. Previews are composites of bag and fabric imagery. In some cases the flat fabric image is distorted using Bitmap Displacement Filters (and other custom image distortion functions) for volumetric curves, pleats, sub-panels, etc.
Any and all feedback is most welcome!
- CALLES0
"I made this for my lady friend
It was a lot of work! and I didn't get paid... $"laid?
- detritus0
Also, how accurate is the texture positioning in the preview? The implication from having the 'rotate' function is that what you see is what you get, though I'm hard-pushed to imagine that is so?
- detritus0
Your GF is going to make these by hand?!
- rafalski0
This is very good, both the bag idea and site execution. Make sure to promote it well across design blogs, I just emailed this to one of these.
I suggest adding paypal as google checkout works only in a few countries.
- rafalski0
So how do both promoting and the business itself go?
- still compiling a list of blogs to submit to... we got an unsolicited post from http://joshspear.com…case2000
- thanks again for the solid suggestions. Paypal will be incorporated very soon...case2000
- Samush0
love the idea, love the site.
- geralddean0
This is really hot.
- 23kon0
"Choose Your Ring!" eek!
nice simple site and a no-nonsense customiser :)
- digdre0
i like my freitag more
- loiscor990
fabulous!
- e-pill0
hi case2000,
i am a handbag/ backpack/ luggage designer in nyc. can i ask what part of the design you came up with and how you processed that design to the final you have shown us and how do you feel the design process is with this company/ vendor/ manufacturer?
i am liking the idea of the site but i want to know what is your role and what is theirs, can you describe the relationship and the work itself you did to create your product?
thanks!!
the bag looks great!!
best,
edd-e
- ok i saw the site...
hahaha!!! sure takes my job and makes it easy!!e-pill - ahh so the product is already designed, you are just adding color and stuff.e-pill
- this site is hilarious!!!
the user isnt designing anything. as its all done.e-pill - cool idea, but... meh!!!!e-pill
- everyone in my office is laughing hysterical!! its like pre-designed web pages...e-pill
- ...and me taking those templates and claiming i designed the site, when i..e-pill
- ..didnt design it all, but taking full credit... meh, each to their own, nice bag you did.e-pill
- you did a nice bag, cool gift!!
e-pill
- ok i saw the site...
- drgs0
i keep seing thread "design you own asshat"
- Jaline0
*buys for madirish
- adev0
Why is the entire site flash? nothing's animated, no special fonts, no video? I don't get it. Obviously the Designing the bag part is better suited to flash, but the entire site?
- case20000
Thanks everyone for the kind and the silly words! And especially for the solid suggestions!
adev: because I _like_ Flash :-) Nothing animated? it's not 2-advanced I know, but most every element has at least a quick fading transition... cart layout is elastic, bags move into position.. I used Tweener all over the place. (TweenMax is my new fav.) There's also a smattering of timeline animations...
no special fonts? its got 3 weights of DIN used throughout (and using flash8/9's custom anti-aliasing settings - html text don't look like that, at least on PCs), and the "grunge text" is actually dynamicly generated bitmaps, also based off DIN - with a few exceptions, all text is dynamic, pulled from xml. DIN != Arial!
I also enjoyed the challenge of making a full-flash-ecommerce site. As you guessed, it started as flash being the most obvious choice for bag previews, (not to mention loading/reprioritizing all the separate images needed) and once we started using SWFAddress... deeplinks, local-shared-objects for storing carts... Flash also makes layouts easy to tweak - many bag-related interface elements are positioned via the IDE, and some xml-positioned elements even support dragging in the SWF in "admin mode", spitting out modified XML as you re-crop a thumbnail for example. Flash sites can be their own CMSs! I also don't miss having to test on 4 IEs.
Coming up next - live VIDEO preview of you sashaying down the street looking cute with your new bag. :-D
- e-pill0
can you answer my questions?
- case20000
e-pill: sure - sorry - I thought you answered them yourself. :-)
(BTW: where can we see your work?)The relationship the "client" was unique, since she's my girlfriend of 6 years. This was different from most client relationships in that I could call her at all hours of the night, drunk, and with ideas. I also could refuse to make certain edits, she makes me tuna-melts, rocks my world, etc. The bags are all her original designs, with occasional input from various design consultants. The site design / concept / flow / language are all collaborative - I'm certain it's better than what either of us would have come up with on our own. I did all the coding, production, and 99% of the photoshop. (em's learning to process and upload her own product shots). We photographed the bags and fabrics in em's basement using a $10 photo-studio composed of a white backdrop, and a mess of clamp-lamps with full-spectrum bulbs diffused through tissue paper.
I gotta say it was way more fun that working for a paying client - the pro-bono nature of the work allows a degree of creative freedom you don't get otherwise. It was really a labor of love, and "feature-creep" was more like foreplay...
- case20000
detritus-
"Nice, but you can't preview the lining?"- you can now! Thanks for pushing me to do that!
- You can also now "edit" the bag seen in the "product shots"
- And we managed to get Google checkout to accept international shipping addresses. (still might do paypal too - who's best for gift certificates? Google Checkout seems to have no built-in gift cert. system???)Any other suggestions?