Thursday 27 November 2008

Update: Lick of paint and upcoming posts


It must be the combination of pre-Christmas dread and excitement because the world of men's style has been relatively quiet recently...although we were both excited by the chap recently featured on garance doré (yes we posted about his glasses yesterday but his hair alone deserves a post which will be with you soon!). No matter on the quiet times on the men's style front, as part of the Men Represent DIY Challenge (talking of which we are both gathering materials, how are you getting on?) we have decided to use this time and rather than twiddle our thumbs give the blog a lick or two of paint - we might have been inspired by TheSundayBest's recent redesign. As the blog has grown older it has become somewhat cluttered (like most old homes - just think of your Grandparent's home filled with an amazing amount of antiques and tat) and we want to make the experience of reading it as easy and as aesthetically pleasing as possible so have been working on ensuring just that. First up has been to redesign the right column of the blog and to tackle the clutter we have been working on creating our very own Style Salvage Buttons (above is one example of what we have been working on). We are however interested in your opinion, so it would be great if you could let us know what you think about the aesthetics of the blog, how can we improve it (please bear in mind that blogger only allows a limited degree of creativity)?

As well as messing around in photoshop we have been plotting a number of post ideas. This is what we have coming up (in no particular order):

1) Men Represent DIY - The first round of the the 'how to' posts along with the results will be posted after the weekend. We will give you a hint about our projects...Steve's involves feathers whilst EJ's involves facial hair...intrigued and worried? well you should be!
2) Style Salvage Gift Ideas - as the festive season is fast approaching we will walk the streets and surf the web to find the best gift ideas (also, it will give you an idea if you want to send us something)
3) Advent Calender - rather than a piece of dubious chocolate we will give you a picture postcard each day
4) Best of British - inspired by acontinouslean's The American List we will unveil the very best products and brands originating and producing in this Island.
5) Magazine Review Videos - Like the true junkie that he is Steve is waiting for the next batch of men's style journalism to hit the shops, as soon as they do we will digest and review them for your viewing pleasure.

So, we are sure that you'll agree that there is lots to look forward to! It doesn't matter if you love the Christmas season or scream bah humbug at every given opportunity because we are going to ensure that December is going to be a good month.

8 comments:

TheSundayBest said...

I must say, the random button is a work of genius. Even getting that image to work must have taken the skills and hutzpah of a code-crunching Mozart. Hats off to her.

Style Salvage Steve said...

It was truly great work by the awesome ej but what about the design? It took far too long considering it is only a 150x75 button! Any layout tips out there?

fuchsiaboy said...

Hey steve, did some DIY with my damaged shirt.

see here:

http://fuchsiaboy.blogspot.com/2008/11/diy-project-salvage-damaged-shirt.html

Kyle said...

I think the colour of the font doesn't stand out as well as it could be...

I'm not a photoshop expert so I really don't know what to suggest.

In terms of the overall aesthetic of the site, I prefer minimalist looks like Skeletonlegs.com and markboultondesign.com

(Maybe try: http://www.skelliewag.org/a-guide-to-creating-a-minimalist-website-63.htm ???)

Or even the magazine-like Vanityfair.com, NYmag.com, etc. That's just me though! Everyone has their own taste :)

Style Salvage Steve said...

fuschiaboy - Congrats on being the first one to complete the challenge! Awesome work!
Kyle - I see your point and I am fond of the minimalist aesthetic but so many blogs these days are using such a layout, so we wanted to inject some personality into the blog and be a little different. Thanks so much for sending the links through - I've not come across skeletonlegs before and am always on the lookout for new blogs to read!

EJ said...

oh, this place could never be minimalist, it just wouldn't work... just look at steve's or my flat and you'll see straight away that we could never be minimalists!

Style Salvage Steve said...

I live with Susie for goodness sake! The minimalist style would never work with Susie's ever expanding wardrobe...One day the clothes are sure to suffocate me.

Ian Brown said...

haha I understand what you mean about minimalism all too well. I think the font on the new buttons can be more readable. With the complex backgrounds and broad color palettes of the backgrounds the type is difficult to read.

Does Blogger allow backgrounds in the margins? If so I think the theme would be complimented with some sort of pattern/collage on the trim.

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