Christopher Howe and FriendsOfOurs have been working together since 2004. The previous website launched by us in 2004 was starting to show strain, prompting Friends and Christopher to discuss new opportunities now available for creating a site that could be very flexible for users with simple navigation and a vast array of content.
The key point was to make a site with a powerful management system (cms) to allow the various site administrators to update the site on a daily basis, expanding and documenting the current stock on sale.
The creative development of the site design meant moving away from the 'twee' style and colour of competitors, and instead focusing on a succinct navigation, very clean layout and ultimately a site which was held together through good photography mixed with core functionality for the user.
The exciting development in this site has been the vigour with which Howe is now publishing and managing it's communications online. The creative freedom allows the creative team to develop ever more enticing photography for each section (which is changed on a very regular basis) and the flexible product format allows images to be displayed in landscape and portrait. Beyond this lies a photo gallery for each product, related product links from one product to another, and product 'tear sheets' which can be uploaded and contain pdf details for easy printing and sharing.
There are currently approximately 300 products catalogued on the site, each with a varying array of image galleries and product information.
