Lifestyle is a word that can be found everywhere, nowadays; the sound alone it is believed to make any soup sound tasty. Most of the times, though, it is abused: ‘No, that is not a kettle, it is a crucial piece of the Byzantine mosaic we call “lifestyle”’, and so on and so forth.
Since Alfred Adler came up with the word “lifestyle”, back in 1929, things have changed; the term, initially used to describe a set of behaviours we embrace every day, is now much broader and complicated.
In simple words, in the past a car was a car (with all the trimmings and the meanings behind it, the ultimate object that turned space and time into something flexible, changeable and compressed), now it is a piece of lifestyle, along with the shoes you use when you drive it, and the watch you check to see if you are late for the restaurant you booked last night, using your smartphone.
Let’s see a tangible example: Brogues + Fixed gear bike + iPhone with Apps for taking vintage-looking photographs + Semi-skimmed soy latte + Mac Book Pro + Mid-90s Polo Sport sweater = EAST LONDON HIPSTER.
This applies to anything else – the aforementioned chap is likely to have a studio on Broadway Market, with a vintage Chesterfield sofa, Scandinavian style wood flooring and a moustache trimming set sitting comfortably in an all-white bathroom (various books of philosophy lying on the floor, next to the bathtub).We all know that brands don’t sell products anymore; rather, they sell stories, dreams, experiences – all in one place.
Giorgio Armani created the perfect “Armani world” in Via Manzoni, Milan, a luxury box in which you can shop for yourself (formal/informal), your wife, kids, buy lamps, flowers and technology for your flat, and eat sushi, if you get the “shopping munchies”. The same – created for another kind of target – can be said about Colette in Paris, and Corso Como 10 (Milan, again), places in which every sense is stimulated, every fantasy is excited, any kind of object can be found and bought.
When it comes to their online presence, though, many brands are still struggling, especially in the case of luxury brands, as we stressed many times; surprisingly, often it is the way their websites/social media profiles to be blamed. Believe it or not, it is not rare to land on a homepage and go “erm”.
The basic rule is: everything a brand does should have the same feel, vibe, hairdo. Everything. Even the font you use on the “Back in 5” sign on the office door should mirror the brand’s identity, philosophy, aesthetics.
Case study.
L&B designs and manufactures high end fabrics since 1860, for an international and exclusive client base; their HQ in London, a stunning space designed by JM Wilmotte, offers one of the largest range of luxurious home linen in town.
But, more importantly, L&B offers the only fully bespoke bedlinen service in London; they operate from a family-owned and managed factory in France that produces the finest quality on a small scale.
Family-owned, made in France, finest quality, bespoke, small scale - the epitome of exclusivity and uniqueness.
A company selling high end products needs high end web design, and that’s exactly what we created for L&B.
At Appnova, we believe that beauty and functionality, exclusivity and user-friendliness can get along together, for a sumptuous yet smooth navigating experience. For L&B we wanted to reproduce the way you feel when you enter a shop and wander around; therefore the full screen website, the excellent photography and the minimalist interface. Nothing is intrusive, you stroll around the boutique without getting overwhelmed by an avalanche of music, colours, stimuli, prints and so on; this is a white cube, sort of MoMa for the bedlinen, the main character being the object, according to the company’s philosophy.
If you are looking for “London web agency”, “Web design London”, “Fashion eCommerce” or “High end web design” you will find our name, Appnova.
London Web Agency Appnova – follow us on Twitter @appnova and “like” us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/appnova) for useful news and tasteful digressions about geeky stuff.