Behind the Curtain

Kate Spade has launched a minisite off of their ecommerce site called, “Behind the Curtain”. It bills itself as “News and Ideas from the Kate Spade Design Studio.” Not only is the content surprisingly interesting, but the execution of the site itself is clean, beautiful and effortless. I particularly like some of the small design touches, like how text starts to fade at the bottom of the page so you intuitively know to scroll, that there is more to come.

The Things We Love page is exceptional in its layout, the horizontal scrolling motion of the page, and most of all the content itself. It encourages the exploration and discovery of diverse and interesting things. From simple pleasures in life like Red Hots, Helvetica, Audrey Hepburn and Laduree macaroons, to more esoteric multimedia adventures such as a Flickr photo pool of guerilla knitting, The ADC Young Guns site, a You Tube clip of Michel Gondry solving a Rubik’s cube with his feet, and one of our favorites, www.wefeelfine.org. This collection of links displayed as objects communicates the quirky aesthetic of the brand and the personalities behind it. As a final touch, the site prompts users to submit their favorite things too, creating a collaborative dialogue between the user and the brand.