Hopefully, all going well, you’re reading these words on a website that looks a little different to normal, and yet, still feels like The Design Files you know and love!
As we’ve worked towards this redesign over the past six months, I’ve been nervous to leap into new territory, to change something I know is already so well loved. If it ain’t broke, and all that. But, it’s been two years since our last major re-furb, and two years is a long time on the internet – we’re well overdue for a refresh! We always want to be improving, pushing this blog to be better, to be more inspiring and more relevant, and to offer more rich, varied content year after year.
We always want to be improving, pushing this blog to be better, to be more inspiring and more relevant, and to offer more rich, varied content year after year.
As you know, our passion is to ensure TDF is always full of inspiring, original, professional photography, so we have created room for bigger, high quality photographs in various formats (hello horizontal photos!).
We have collapsed content on the homepage to allow for easier navigation, and to reduce the ‘endless scroll’ of the vertical blog format. OH and we’re finally optimised for MOBILE (thanks for your patience on that!).
We’ve also introduced a few shorter ‘news’ style snippets on the homepage, such as a ‘Product of the Week’ and featured event listing, which will enable us to cover news and events more readily than we have been able to in the past.
We’ve introduced a spot on the homepage for a daily cartoon or illustration, too, and we’re kicking this off with Jeremyville, an amazing illustrator who is originally from Sydney, but is now based in New York. We love Jeremyville’s ongoing ‘Community Service Announcements’ project and will be sharing some of our favourites with you this week.
We’re also thrilled to introduce a couple of new contributors, and to finally formalise our contributors page! Rest assured you’ll still be hearing from me most days (4 out of every 5 posts will still be me!), but there are certain topics we defer to experts for.
We’re PUMPED to introduce Melbourne architect and co-host of Triple RRR’s The Architects radio show Stuart Harrison into the fold with a monthly Architecture column. Stuart’s passion for great buildings is infectious, and we love that he talks about architecture in a way that is democratic and accessible. We we can’t wait to run his first story next week. Added to this, we have Amber Creswell Bell, who has just joined us as our key Sydney correspondent, Georgina Reid of The Planthunter is of course still with us for her brilliant monthly gardens column, and Simone Haag who will soon return from her maternity break to resume her monthly shopping column.
Before I sign off I must also thank the hardworking team behind our re-design. Thanks to our long serving design team – Jesse Mallon and Andy Sargent at South South West, who always do the most brilliant, thoughtful work, and to our amazing web development team who have not had much sleep this past week (!!) – Pat Campbell and Pete Brundle at PDA. THANKYOU GUYS for your immense talent, your patience and for answering the phone or email at any time of day or night!
And finally, thank YOU guys, our loyal readers, for popping back here every morning to see what we have to say. There really would be no TDF without you! Please take a little time, if you have it, to acquaint yourself the new look TDF this week… (And forgive us the inevitable launch week niggle!)
‘TDF RE-DECORATED ‘ GIVEAWAY!
It wouldn’t really be a major event in TDF land without an EPIC GIVEAWAY, would it? Inspired by our own makeover, we’re offering seven lucky readers the chance to win a bunch of awesome prizes to RE-DECORATE your own space!
the full giveaway lineup!
$2000 to spend on furniture of your choice from NOMI (@nomi_studio)
$1500 to spend on a rug from Armadillo and Co. (@armadilloandco)
$1000 to spend on paint from Dulux‘ 2014 Colour Forecast (@duluxaus)
$585 to spend on an A3 size artwork from artist Sarah Kelk of Hello Polly (@hellopollyphotos)
$550 to spend an original artwork from Perth based artist Emma Lipscome (@emmalipscombe_)
$650 to spend on a beautiful mirror or lamp at Douglas & Bec (@douglasandbec)
$500 to spend at Loose Leaf (Melbourne) on gorgeous plants and greenery for your home (@looseleaf__)
TO ENTER
To enter, we’re asking you to show us your space via instagram! Simply take a photo of your home or workplace, and tell us which of the above prizes you would choose to update your space! Be sure to tag us (@thedesignfiles), and include the instagram handle of the relevant prize provider, and hashtag #TDFredecorated!
You can enter as many times as you wish, but please refer to only ONE prize per entry, e.g.
‘My bedroom needs a lamp! Please help @douglasandbec @thedesignfiles #tdfredecorated!’
‘My front verandah needs a lick of paint please @duluxaus ! @thedesignfiles #TDFredecorated ‘
‘I literally have NO DINING table, I am sick of eating dinner on my couch, please send me a @NOMI_studio Dove dining table! @thedesignfiles #TDFredecorated’
YOU GET THE IDEA!
Entries close at 10.00pm Melbourne time this Friday October 3rd 2014. Entries are open to Australian residents only (apologies to our much loved international readers, it’s just insanely expensive to ship furniture overseas!). Seven winners will be selected and contacted via Instagram next week – GOOD LUCK! *UPDATE: The winners of this giveaway have now been drawn and contacted. Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway, we loved all of your entries!
Thanks guys!
AHHH Congratulations TDF! I look forward to this part of my morning (sitting down with a cuppa and some breakky at my desk and settling in to read you… instead of work!) so much, the new site looks great. I have genuinely been saving my pennies for a NOMI table and one of those GORGEOUS Armadillo rugs for bloody AGES (since you featured them), it’s slow going as I’m also saving for the final deposit to buy a house AND I’m pregnant so I will cross my fingers and toes and hope I’m a winner!!
Congrats again xx
Soph
I know how much work goes into website redesigns but I have to say I really prefer the old site, and the old logo. The old navigation was much more straightforward focussing on the article of the day. I’m also finding the banner ad really distracting. Think you were onto a good thing before…
Do love The Design Files though so hopefully I’ll get used to the new look.
congratulations lucy! big changes take courage. enjoying taking time to discover all that is TDF re-decorated x
Looks great,,,but the truth is I don’t really care what it looks like!! As long as I can check in to TDF every morning, I am a happy woman! Xx
The page wouldn’t load yesterday and I got all cranky-pants about the redesign. Lucky it’s working today and looking shiny and new :)
Congrats on the hard work!
I love the new site ! fantastic job !!
Ooh hello shiny new TDF and TDF-ers!
SO SPUNKY!
Ahhhhh.. call me a luddite, a technophobe or worse.. but I did so like the earlier TDF format for its blissful simplicity and easy navigation. And I don’t Twitter or Facebook or Instagram alas. I would love to show you my house and win pressies. So picture this: My bumbling abode, in a small country town, is uncompromisingly ME with a total 8 items of furniture and one hundred suitcases, plenty of my artworks and crafty bits, a small array of squirrels, koalas and donkeys. Anyway, I will persevere ‘cos I enjoy my daily dose. Always a magnificent effort from Lucy and the team. xxx Clare
Well done for a wonderful new site. The font seems easier to read and the various links that appeared in different colours are now much easier to see. Best wishes for TDF – Lucy and team – and for the new content and contributors.
While I love that you are always pushing the boundaries with tdf (your gallery space, bringing on new contributors) I’m not loving this new design. In safari it seems to render oddly with half photos and I find it all a bit complicated. I also don’t like that I now only get a title and no mini synopsis in my reader but not sure why that is. I’ll persevere but am not finding it intuitive.
great site:)
unhappy with no Australian residents rule:(
:-( :-( :-(
I so liked it how it was, , clear, straight forward and big easy pictures at a glance
Oh well…….
Im still a fan
Hi Lucy. I have no issues with change and love that you are updating the website. I do find though that it isn’t compatible with an ipad. It doesn’t matter which way I turn the ipad, the pics either don’t fit or can’t enlarge etc. I am hoping it is just a teething problem and the new website isn’t just catered for computers.
Since your website relaunch, I’m having trouble reading your posts in Bloglovin. Just thought I’d let you know but I’m sure you’re probably aware of the problem.
Hi all, thanks so much for your feedback and support! We understand this has been a BIG change so we really appreciate your feedback!
Kylie – you’re absolutely right, the iPad scaling is not working we’ve had some issues with it since we launched on Monday, please bear with us we should have it sorted in a few days! On mobile it should be working perfectly though! :) thank you!
Amanda, RattyClare and others – thanks so much for your feedback, we did wrestle with the whole thing of moving to a more collapsed ‘homepage’ – essentially, the main difference now is that when you arrive at the site, the whole post is not sitting right on the homepage, you just have to click once to get to it! Whilst I understand this is a pretty major change in the way you read our content, in the end I really just felt we would always be limited by that format… so we took the plunge! This gives us more opportunity to put more varied content on the homepage, to host videos (coming soon!) and to ensure that the photos for each post can be BIG and beautiful rather than squished into one long vertical column…
I think over the coming days as we iron out the niggles and we all adjust to the new look (me included!) , hopefully the value of this new format will become clearer… fingers crossed! In the meantime, thank you for your patience, encouragement and your trust in our vision! x
A great new looking online space for TDF. It looks fantastic Lucy!
Hi Lucy,
I’m really a big fan of your blog and we’re always pleased when one of our projects gets featured. Having gone through the whole process of launching our own new website quite recently, I know how much work (and sometimes grieve) goes into this. But I thought I will be frank with you, so see it as constructive criticism and take it on board or ignore it ;-):
I don’t like the latest changes to your web appearance as well as newsletter format at all. I’m not against change as long as it is for the better. Images as well as font sizes are too big (lots of scrolling required – which I get tired of), I don’t particularly like the logo (it looks a bit “homemade”), too many different fonts on one page.
Now, don’t get me wrong, your content will always make me look at it anyway, but I might just not bother scrolling to the end anymore as it is less enjoyable. I understand this new format might work better on tablets and phones which is not my predominant platform. It’s hard to please everyone, I know.
The revamp looks fantastic on my phone now. Well done!
Hi have you chosen the winner of the re decorate comp yet ?
Have the winners be announced yet? Have been checking in but there appear to have been no updates since just after the competition closed.
Hi Lucy , absolutely no offense intended because it is clear how much work you put into your site but I find your new page design far less user friendly than the old one . I’ve gone from reading daily to only occasionally because there is just too much information on the page and it takes too long to find what you want to read . The old one was easy , clear what’s new each day and chronological so very quick to navigate . Please reconsider ……
Hi TDF, just to add to some of the previous comments about your redesign as I’d hoped you had made some refinements to the layout since the relaunch. Trying to read the content with a column of 13 adverts flashing in my peripheral is a little distracting. And with the adverts taking up one third of my screen (on a Macbook) seems also a bit much. I understand that you need to make the site financially viable but a few tweaks would ensure it’s still my favourite site to visit.
The navy lounge featured in today’s SUNDAY style
Is it for sale
Where is it ?
And how much ?