This one was a change of pace from the usual Fishbucket clientele. Lizzie Fortunato is an NYC-based jewelry and leather brand, led by twin sisters Lizzie and Kathryn Fortunato. We partnered up with the talented Winsome Brave again on this one; they handled design and we handled development. The site is half WordPress, half Shopify, with a lot of attention paid to details and keeping the experience seamless between the two sides.
We just wrapped up a quick little Shopify shop for everyone’s favorite bald chocolate man, Max Brenner. The task here was something we’ve been hearing a lot lately: client has a shop on another platform and wants to switch to Shopify. So we mimicked the style of their previous shop and got them up and running pretty quickly.
This one has been in the works for a long time. Back in 2013 I heard from Yelawolf, a rapper from Alabama who’s signed to Shady Records. He wanted a site for his label/collective, Slumerican. And he wasn’t interested in the typical straightforward blog-style site that most artists are going for these days. He was talking an immersive world that you can explore – which was music to my ears, taking me back to the crazy days of all-Flash sites.
So we set out on the long process of gathering photography (most of it shot by the Slumerican crew at real trailer parks down south) and figuring out the best way to make this thing work in the post-Flash world.
The result is this horizontal parallax scene (like the old days!) which pulls in content from instagram/tumblr (like the new days!) There are a few links hidden in the scene that’ll bring up some videos, with plans to hide some more stuff in here down the road.
It was a fun ride and it’s great to finally launch it. Pop the trunk!
This post is about a new site we launched this week. But before jumping right into that, let’s go back in time to this post I wrote after seeing Gang Starr live in 2003. I was looking back, thinking “damn, I remember about ten years ago when I used to sit at home, designing stuff on my computer, listening to DWYCK by Gang Starr. And I just saw them perform it live.”
Well, now it’s eleven years after that post, and I’m looking back on it saying “damn, I remember sitting at my computer writing about seeing Gang Starr live – and this week I launched a website for DJ Premier of Gang Starr!” (The only surviving member, unfortunately; this is the second time I’ve looked back on my DWYCK post here.)
So yeah, Fishbucket is listed in the Shopify Experts directory, and we get a ton of quote requests through there. (Unfortunately more than I usually have time to respond to.) But one of them quickly caught my eye and made me do a double take – DJ PREMIER!?
The site itself is pretty straightforward. He wanted a blog-based site, easy to update, clean design. Blog powered by WordPress, shop by (obviously) Shopify, and we plowed through the design and development stages pretty easily. A smooth process all along, and I look forward to working with Premier and his team on some more projects soon.
Totally honored and happy to announce this one!
Side note: the above post from 2003 was about seeing a Gang Starr, Talib Kweli and Common show. I made a site for Premier last week and Common in 2008. Kweli, hit me up!
Oh hey, Happy New Year and all that.
This blog has been quiet over the past few months, but it would be foolish to assume this means that Fishbucket has been asleep. When the workload gets heavy, announcing what we’ve been working on drops pretty far in the priority list. So here’s a look back at Fishbucket’s 2013, and a look to the future.
Rocawear
You know we’re sleeping on updates when we launch the official e-commerce site for Rocawear and don’t take the time to shout “Hey! we launched the official e-commerce site for Rocawear!” This project was done through the good folks over at Iconix. It’s powered by Magento, (which made me appreciate the ease of Shopify all the more, but that’s a story for another day.)
Billionaire Boys Club
2013 marked the brand’s tenth anniversary, and we’re proud to have been a part of it since the beginning. (or, well, since the beginning of their website in 2005.) 2013 saw a redesign of the site, plus ongoing design and development work. We have some more site enhancements in the works that should be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Slumerican
A good chunk of time in 2013 was dedicated to the site for Yelawolf’s Slumerican site. This one is going to be awesome – a throwback to the old days when Fishbucket sites were all Flash, and extra quirky and unusual. Although this one’s not using Flash at all. I’m excited to reveal it, which should be happening in the next month or so.
Mechanical Dummy
We’ve been working on Chris Brown’s Mechanical Dummy for a while now, mostly maintenance and development, but in 2013 had the opportunity to completely redesign the site. That redesign isn’t live yet, but will be soon. Very soon. Like, tomorrow soon. Stay tuned.
Cinematic Music Group
We had ongoing work in 2013 for a bunch of different projects under the Cinematic banner, including Big K.R.I.T., ASTR and Pro Era. Also, a redesigned Smokers Club site which featured a collaboration with the crazy talented Growing Pains Studios.
Shopify
We somehow gained “Expert” status with Shopify, and launched a few shops recently – including aNYthing and Super Mookin’ Fiends – plus some development work for The Primary Essentials (design and art direction on that one by the great Winsome Brave.)
The Team
I couldn’t talk about 2013 without mentioning the growing team of talented designers and developers who make Fishbucket work. I especially want to mention Nate, Ted and Susan, who have been a huge help in the past year.
2014
Much more on the way, but instead of listing more links I’ll just say “more soon” and that I hope you all have a 2014 of extra-ordinary magnitude.
I first worked with Set Free on the original Robot Is The Future site. He was a guy on the other end of the phone and we worked well together, but I never met him in person. Fast forward to this spring, when I made my way up to The Compound in the BX to meet and discuss his site, live2befree.com.
The site was already up and running, but was due for a facelift and new store. We cleaned everything up, simplified and responsified, and worked in some layered blueprint imagery of antique war machines. We moved away from the freebie wordpress shop software they were using before, and into the much slicker Shopify.
Looking forward to more work with Free and Liza in the future. Stay thirsty, my friends!
This week we relaunched the shop for Chris Brown’s clothing line, Mechanical Dummy. The previous shop was a chaotic mess, and our task was to clean it up and simplify. I kind of wish I remembered to take a screenshot of the previous look to compare, but I did not. So you’ll have to take my word for it. It’s much cleaner and easier now. (Success!)
Luckily, Chris’s team was already using Shopify, which I’ve become a big fan of lately. For years I was hesitant to take on new e-commerce projects because they ended up being so time consuming, but Shopify totally changed my view on that. (See also, shops for Big K.R.I.T., Smokers Club and Pro Era, all Shopified.)
Redesigned website for Big K.R.I.T. is up, based on artwork by the super talented Eric Bailey. Look for another Eric/Fishbucket collaboration later this month.
The homepage also has a download link to his latest project, King Remembered In Time. Download!
Apparently Pharrell hasn’t had his own official website for a while? Well, problem solved!
Today we launched PharrellWilliams.com, which is just a quick little page with some links and a photo. But hey, it’s a responsive design – for the kids!
Stay tuned, I’m sure this page will evolve into more of a site at some point.
Hot off the presses, today we launched a new homepage for our friends over at the Billionaire Boys Club. We did away with the scrolling lookbook that’s been chuffing by for the past few years. Now highlighting what’s going on in the shop, pulling in content, and other stuff that the kids enjoy these days.
Tune your Web TV over to bbcicecream.com right now, with the quickness!