Rhys Sadler-Scott created a website for hair and nail stylist client Helen Griffin to advertise her work. Due to the client's busy schedule over the holidays, Rhys was unable to film original footage as planned and instead used stock footage. Rhys edited photos of the client's work, improving them while keeping the original designs. The client approved of the website's format and provided positive feedback. While the project was successful, Rhys notes weaknesses in relying too heavily on a client's availability and not planning contingencies or researching website formats thoroughly beforehand.

1. Client Project Evaluation
Rhys Sadler-Scott

2. Meeting the initial brief
The initial brief outlined by the client; Helen Griffin Hair and Nails, was fairly simplistic: to create a website to
advertise and display Helen’s previous work, as well as some video media to display her talents in action.
In this brief, I was only partially successful, as unforeseen circumstances related to the availability of the client
prevented me from filming any original footage at her place of work. As she found herself too busy to
accommodate my shooting schedule throughout the Christmas season and beyond. While the client did
attempt to film some footage herself. It didn’t turn out the way she envisioned it so the idea was scrapped.
Instead I requested to film some hair and beauty work done here at York College, in order to still be able to
provide the audience with a video medium to witness the general content of Helen's work. The client agreed to
this and I was able to make a short advert promoting Helen's work to be included on the website. Though this
was unfortunately, the only original footage I was able to acquire in the timescale given. However, I was able to
edit and touch up a large amount of photographs of Helen’s work on both hair and nails. By subtly changing the
backgrounds and touching up the skin around the nail work, I was able to highlight and improve upon Helen’s
original work. Something she wholeheartedly agreed on. In order to make the site more user friendly, I
suggested splitting it into several simple pages dedicated to Hair, Nails, and a page for booking an appointment
with Helen. She approved of this format. So the general outline of the site was well defined from fairly early on.
The very first
design of the
website
homepage

4. Audience.

5. Audience
As established early on by questioning the client and a fairly comprehensive
survey (with almost 50 responses from potential product consumers) The
audience for hair and nail styling is overwhelmingly female. With a leaning to
25-34 years old and up in the age range. However, the client specified that
she serves clients up to 90 years old. Generally those in the middle classes.
Meaning that her presentation and advertising for her work had to be very
professionally laid out. This lead to a revamp of the original style I had
conceived for the website; which was a much more brightly coloured and
generally less professional design. I used a much more neutral, pale colour
palate, focusing on blues, whites and light pinks overall. All traditionally
feminine or neutral colours. So they were well suited to the base design of
the website. The general audience of the website are likely to be already
existing customers of HG hair and nails and their peers. However, the
distribution of the website was not part of my brief. So it is up to the
decisions of the client as to how the website will be presented to potential
customers.

6. The evolving nature of the Brief
Originally, the client was to send me footage and photo’s of her previous work to edit, touch up
and present in an aesthetically pleasing fashion on the website. Which I was to create for her.
However. Due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding her busy schedule during the Christmas
season, Helen was able to send me the photographs but no original footage for her site.
Suggesting I use stock YouTube footage of beauty tutorials in its stead until she was able to
replace it herself after the website was completed. I didn’t think this was a very good outcome, as
HG hair and nails could face copyright issues if they presented YouTube videos on their website.
Which could be misinterpreted as The Client’s own work. So I suggested creating a small
promotional video for Helen’s work using original footage captured from students studying
hairdressing at York College. Shot in a way that the audience doesn’t necessarily know who is
doing the styling. The client Wholeheartedly approved of this idea. And I was able to shoot
enough footage for a promotional video on the homepage of her website. Which she was very
fond of. I was able to meet the rest of the brief, thankfully without too much trouble. Though
there was a period during the start of my work where my touch up’s weren’t up to the client’s
standard.
The promo as it
appears on the
website homepage

7. Working with HG to meet her brief
There was a learning curve for me during the start of the brief, as I had the wrong idea
as the how the client wanted her photographs of previous work edited. Originally, I
used the stamp tool to add some fullness to the hair and used the contrast and
shadowing tools on photoshop to brighten the hair. In the process, the colouring of
the hair changed from a dark, ashy colour, to a brighter, redder shade.
(The original editing process.)

8. Helen explained that the original touch up work I had done did not fit her
brief, as it had changed the colouring and positioning of the bun. Which had
been styled and dyed to look exactly as it did and therefore could not be as
severely changed in either of these departments. Understanding this, I made
another, much more well received attempt. Using a bright background to
draw focus to the more subtle hairstyle and altering the shadows to sharpen
the image without changing the original colouring. The client was much
happier with this final product.
The finished piece

9. With these requirements in mind. I set about editing the rest of the hairstyle photo’s which were
all well received by the client. Each meeting her original brief and editing desires.
With that task set aside. I focused on the editing of the nails. Which was much more
straightforward. Using the spot healing tool, I erased any signs of dry skin or neglected cuticles
from the pictures of the nails the Client sent me. Keeping the original design intact. While
removing any imperfections around the nails. Helen was impressed with this subtle approach.
And the Nail work was completed very quickly. Though I debated using edited backgrounds as in
the hairstyle photos, in the end I opted against it. Not wanting to draw focus away from the
already colourful nail patterns and designs. In the end this was a good decision. As Helen’s
business logo appears on the table in most of the pictures, tying the images in much more
strongly to the client and the Website.
The nail page, as it
appears on the
finished website.

10. Process of building a website.
Once the editing was done on the promotional video
and the hair and nail touch ups. It was time to format
them on the website in the way I had discussed with
the client. The early attempts at a homepage were
okay. But they had an air of unprofessionalism to me. I
decided to mute the colours and simplify the design of
the page for my next attempt. Which the client
responded very positively to

11. The earliest final design of the website.

12. The final
Designs of the
website

13. Strengths of the production
I think the biggest strength of this production was tied into procuring
my client early. As well as getting a brief from the get go. This gave me
a huge amount of time to refine and perfect my work on the
Photographs HG hair and nails sent me. As well as discuss ideas for the
website format from the beginning. Meaning that by the time I had
completed production on the video and the photos, I had already
created most of the pages needed for the website. This gave me much
more time to refine their design to more professional standards.
Another strength is how I was careful to keep the client included
throughout the client included on the editing processes of her
photographs. If there was something she didn’t like, it was amended
very quickly. I was also careful to look into other beauty website
formats during my production, to ensure I knew what it should look
like and what style websites typically adhere to in terms of content.
This led to creating a page later on in the development for scheduling
appointments with Hghair and nails.

14. Weaknesses of the Production
Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen circumstance in the Christmas season.
The client became unavailable to send any original footage as we had
discussed and instead suggested using links to tutorial videos online. Though I
compensated for this by filming some footage of other hairdressers at work.
None of the original footage we agreed upon shooting was obtained. This was
due to the client becoming extremely overwhelmed with customers over the
Christmas season. To the point where I was unable to travel to their place of
work and film some footage myself. Neither was the client able to shoot
footage to a standard that she wanted to appear on her website. It would
have helped to have a backup plan. As this weakness created somewhat of a
ripple effect that meant I was unable to produce nearly as much content as I
had hoped to put on her website. Making it a bit bare by comparison to what
I had originally envisioned. With at least twice as much original footage and
photos. Despite this large glaring weakness. I was still able to complete the
work on the photos and footage I did have to the clients standard and she
was extremely happy with the finished project.

15. Final Work

16. Homepage

18. Appointment Page

19. Haircuts and dyes page

21. Nail gallery

23. Client’s Feedback
Hi Rhys, I have just received the website you have been
designing for me and so would now like to give you some
feedback.
I am extremely happy with the finished result, you have taken
into account all my specifications and needs.
I am also very impressed with the video you have created for
me, along with making all the photos of my work look so
polished and professional!
You have been attentive throughout the process and always
happy to alter anything I wasn't quite happy with, this takes a lot
of the stress away from me, as I knew it was in capable hands.
Thanks so much and hope to be able to do business with you in
the future. Kind regards Helen Griffin

24. Product Comparison 1:
ThePamperLounge.com

25. There is a huge amount of similarity between my own website homepage
design and that of Thepamperlounge.com. As seen above. The headline
photo was that of some of their previous work, as well as having a separate
page dedicated to each of their beauty aspects. The colouring is very similar
also. With a focus on earthy, light, neutral colours, traditionally associated
more with the feminine side of the spectrum. The logo’s for each website are
also in the exact same place, the top middle of the homepage. A major
difference is an animation in which the homepage centre picture is constantly
changing to reflect more of their work, whereas mine stays static. This would
have been an interesting option to show more of Helen’s work on the
homepage in hindsight. The fonts used on each product are very similar in
appearance. With thin, plain black lines. And gentle curves. Adding to the
somewhat feminine nature of the two websites.

26. Product comparison 2: Hobson and
Holmes hair and beauty.

27. The format of the Hobson and Holmes differs quite a lot from
Hghair and nails. Instead of displaying its separate hairstyles and
dyes on one page. It has split its content into pages focusing on
separate styles, cuts and dyes. This method of organising the
website is considerably more comprehensive, but also more
complicated than my method of having all the separate
hairstyles and dyes offered on one comprehensive page. So
there are pros and cons in each approach. Though the sites are
similar in having samples of the work the services produce at the
top of the page. To give the audience an example of what sort of
service they offer. Though the format of each site differs. The
general offerings of each site tends to stay the same. With photo
examples of their previous work, a comprehensive detailing of
the beauty services they offer and an invitation to make an
appointment.

28. Action plan
Though the final result of this project was very satisfactory for the client, there was a very
turbulent production. As much of the media we had planned to produce was unfeasible to
make due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding my client’s availability; during the
Christmas season, the client became too busy to help me produce the video media as we
had planned and the project suffered a definite lack of content because of this. So in the
future when relying on someone else to help produce my work, I will ensure that a stronger
back up plan is in place for contingency.
In terms of organisation I allowed too much for time editing and not enough time towards
my planning. This meant that during the production, I had to rethink some of my plans for
what would go on the website, due to the circumstance listed above. If I have allowed more
time for contingency and planning in general. I might have been able to produce more and
higher quality content for the website. So in future. I will ensure that my time management
is distributed more evenly and effectively.
I found myself a little stuck as I wasn’t sure how a beauty website would be formatted.
During my research. I didn’t focus enough on other beauty websites and how they are
formatted. This proved to be a mistake as I found myself strapped as to how I should
approach the site design. Which caused me to fall behind. For my FMP, I will thoroughly
research EVERY aspect of what it is I decide to make. Instead of focusing too heavily on one
particular area.