QUEEN CITY FURNITURECreative brief/RFP

BACKGROUND

Target Audience

Objectives

Queen City Furniture is a company that will utilize recycled and reclaimed wood to create one-of-a- kind furniture, such as benches, desks, and shelves. I am focusing on this project because I believe that a worn and aged piece of wood exhibits more beauty, char-acter, and history than a freshly harvested piece of wood. Using reclaimed wood also cuts down on needless deforestation, and pre-vents a perfectly good piece of wood from ending up in a landfill. I also believe that in the era of IKEA, people are becoming increas-ingly drawn to pieces that have a sense of history and authenticity, as opposed to mass produced and generic. This company would seek to fulfill that need, and create something beautiful in the pro-cess, while preserving some of the earth’s resources.

This site would be aimed at hip, urban people in their late 20s and 30s. They would have sophisticated and discerning taste, and be relatively well-off. They would respond more to minimalism and restraint than clutter and “loud” design. They would have an inter-est in environmentalism, but this would not necessarily be their primary motivation for buying the furniture. It is a plus, but not necessary the deciding factor.

• Establish the company as a trusted maker and seller of furni-ture made with reclaimed wood.

• Present the company as having taste, a sense of style, and a commitment to aesthetics.

• Inform the visitor about the products available, and how they can be purchased.

• Inform the visitor on the building process behind the furniture, including information on the reclaiming process, and informa-tion on different types of wood.

Scott ThompsonWeb Design I

Objectives CONT. • Establish a “voice” that is formal enough to be legitimate, but friendly enough to be approachable and personal.

• Inform the visitor of how using reclaimed wood is more envi-ronmentally-friendly than harvesting new wood for furniture.

Single Message Queen City Furniture makes quality reclaimed wood furniture that has character and history, while being a more environmen-tally friendly alternative to standard mass market furniture.

design Requirements

Likes

The design of the site should be clean and sophisticated, primar-ily showcasing the product. Information about the company and the products should be easy to read and presented in a clean and structured way, making sure that it does not overtake the images of the product in visual importance. It should be easy to navigate, and avoid any fancy or distracting transitions between pages. Overall, I want the site to invoke the feeling of flipping through a well designed-catalog or showroom.

I like the following sites because of their clean typography, mini-mal and sophisticated design, and use of photography. The type on these sites tend to be small, and most embrace the use of white space. The color palettes of these sites are also minimal, featuring mostly white, black, and grey.

Likes CONT.

Likes CONT.

DisLikes This is a screen grab of a site that also sells furniture made with reclaimed wood, but I feel that the design fails the product. The large type fills up the frames of the images and obscures the prod-uct. The photography also frequently features people posing on the furniture, which looks cheesy and further obscures the product.

I dislike this site because the images have no room to breathe. Even the side bars have distracting images on them.

Functionality/ProgrammingElements

I imagine the site being relatively simple, so the only “interactive” item might be some sort of slideshow. This would likely be used to show different views of products, or a guide through the process of reclaiming wood.

Site Size(Each Page)

Site Size(Home PAge)

Site Size(Blog PAge)

Site Size(PRODUCT PAge)

Each page would show a small logo and the name of the company. There would be a navigation bar on each page, allowing the user to navigate to the home page, the blog page, or the products page.

I imagine the home page as having a single image showing one of the products, and perhaps a line or two about the company. The image space could rotate through images of products. Clicking on an image would bring the user to the product page.

This page could have articles about the production of the furni-ture, as well as information on different types of wood and the reclaiming process.

This page would show the different products. Each product would have an image, a title, a brief description, the dimensions, and the price. This site could have thumbnails of products that would bring the user to a separate product page.