Those of you that read my Twitter will be well aware that over the past week and a bit I’ve been riding a rollercoaster of emotions trying to redesign the blog. I want to do everything myself, even though I have no real training in web design, and the only time I ever touch code is when I’m working on something for HYA, so I don’t get much practise. Due to this, I can’t make the site look like I want it to, but I know that over time I can tweak and improve the site until it reaches a point where I think it can be the best I can manage. However, that is going to take an awfully long time whilst I test things, whereas the site is just about where I want it to be as you see it now, so I thought I’d just let you see where I am right now, and then based on your feedback I’ll be able to align my aims with your expectations, and then hopefully this site can go on to bigger and better things.
Here’s what isn’t in the site quite yet:
Facebook Connect Integration
Thumbnails for all posts (for use in the popular posts, etc.)
Better Integrated Social Media Icons (they don’t look too great as-is, right?)
Lightbox-style galleries
Features Gallery where you guys can upload your own photos to
Message box for tee companies to add their coupon codes to
Integrated shop
A few typography and colour palette tweaks
It’s not a huge list of additions, but the web designers amongst you will probably be aware of why I ended up leaving these features out, because they’re a bit complicated, and whenever me and something complicated meet for dinner, I end up with a metaphorical drink in my face. In case you think I’m being a bit down about the redesign because I’ve had to compromise things a bit, I do like it, but I’m going to like it more, and so are you.
Oh, and after what has been a bit of a “me, me, me” week on HYA, we will be resuming normal service and doing the thing I’m here to do, let you know about some great clothes.
Finally, finally, finally, I can now link to products on the
Terratag website now that they’ve had a redesign!
And even better, all of those items that I can now link to have got 10% off.
I wouldn’t usually cover this kind of thing for a brand that is as new as
Holebrain, but it’s Sunday afternoon and I think I’ve made it pretty clear in the past that I like Holebrain, so any chance I get to mention them I’m going to take it. The site wasn’t exactly terrible before, but this new look should help them to grow a bit more, and I always like to see a blog being included on a t-shirt site because I love seeing all the background stuff and with a new brand especially it’s fun to see how their cotton-based adventure unfolds.
Storenvy have a good rep for printing tees within the indie community, by which I mean that people on
Emptees rarely bitch about them, and from what I can tell their storefront hosting service is also held in high regard. A couple of days ago they released a new version of their site which aims to help those stores owners make more sales, and help make it easier for t-shirt buyers to find shirts across their network of stores. To put it basically, you can search what they sell, it’s that simple, I’d add more words to this sentence but they’d be superfluous.
Search isn’t the only new feature to be included in the new Storenvy site, they’ve also introduced a concept called ‘Markets‘ which groups together stores that have something in common (such as fine art, eco-friendly, or urban wear), it’s an idea I like and thin that as it evolves it would work well for people trying to discover new companies in the same vein as ones that they already like. The forum is likely to be a useful hub for store owners, though as you would imagine so soon after launch things are still a bit quiet around there.
In the past if someone asked me about a third-party storefront to run their brand from I would have immediately said Big Cartel, but Storenvy could be an option worth looking at for a lot of budding tee-preneurs.
