Behind The Scenes of the Web Design Process

Do what you like”,
this was the sentence when I informed the design team that we start working on the project
“a new website for Vogue tex”

A few days later, we finalised around 25 Styles and received the full support of our colleagues from the Pattern & Sample room departments, and started with the new developments.
The Photographer, Jehan, was found quickly, lucky us and this luck stayed with us – with the Models Kalpanee and Chris was our Project ready for the next steps. Jehan was already one step ahead of us and had a nice location in mind.
A few weeks later, after all the preparations were done, we meet the Team for the photo shoot at Havelock Place Bungalow in Colombo 5. Hidden behind a small metal door and several old mango trees, we arrived in our very own tropical paradise in the middle of the Capital – 15 minutes from our head office.
That fact that a photo shoot starts at 5:30 in the morning was new for me, but not for the rest of the team who were already served with tea and coffee by the Havelock Bungalow Team. With a cup of tea in my hand – half awake and a head full of outfit combinations, I glanced over at Kalpanee who was enjoying having her hair and makeup done by Nethmi. She was already operating in autopilot mode, reaching for everything she needed from her numerous suitcases, without so much as a glance. They were full of brushes of different sizes, little boxes with many shades of makeup and lipsticks in all imaginable colors – a true dream for every woman.
Searching for Chris, who was relaxedly seated in the front of the room with his coffee and ready for the t first pictures.
Quick check with Kalpanee – now Nethmi styles her hair – so much hair …
Plan changed – Chris was already in his second outfit – quick check with Nethmi – Chris hair looks good, a bit of powder and the in front of Jehans lense.

“To dress up as a man is really so much easier – and I asked myself what are they doing with all the additional time?”

Finally, Kalpanee was ready for her first shots of the day. She was great and a natural in front of the camera; 3 shots in and I was already happy and pushing to move on to the next outfit. Jehan politely insisted that we take a few more shots, so we have a selection to choose from – in the end we selected the 2nd picture 😉
As the day progressed, we jumped into multiple outfits and combinations before moving on to Park Street Mews. We managed to get permission to shoot in front of their graffiti walls. It was 1 pm, and the sun was directly above us – we had to improvise using the reflectors as shades – but the pictures came out beautifully. Day 1 was completed.

Fred Astaire started singing ‘I love to dance ..’ at 4:30 am and this was my wake up call. I got to the location by 5:30 am ready to begin another day of shooting. As most of the guests at the Havelock Place Bungalow were still asleep, we used the morning session to maximize the variety of spaces available – the pool area, the breakfast area and in and around the lobby area. Working with a talented and motivated team really makes the time breeze by, and all the while the team at the Havelock Place Bungalow were on hand to assist with any requests to help us – including the supply of an ironing board.
By 11:30 am we were taking the last set of images of Kalpanee and the final outfit for the photoshoot. A little over 1 and a half days in our little green paradise was finally coming to an end. I was feeling a mixture of emotions; both happiness for completion of the assignment on time and a little sadness that it had ended. At least I had the photographs to look forward to once they were ready.
After lunch, Jehan came over to the Creative Centre at our head office. Here, our team of models were Iesha, Wathmi and Ishani – the 3 ladies from our design team along with Trudy and our in-house male model, Kaneru, who was representing the fabric sourcing team.
This time we could not take just the 1st or 2nd picture. We are new in the business and someone would always close their eyes, look in the wrong direction or was just not happy.
1 hour later, we grabbed Jehans camera once again and gave the final approval.
Our job was done for the next few days and we were already looking forward to the next meeting with Jehan – to review the final results of our 1st experience of a Website – Photo Shoot.

We would like to give a big thanks to,

Our Management, for listening to our new ideas and supporting our efforts to make them a reality,
The Design Team, who worked together closely and shared their ideas to achieve the beautiful styles which we used
The Sourcing Team, who ensured that we managed to get the right fabrics in time for style development
To the Patterns and Sample Room team for bringing those ideas to life
To our colleagues in Kosgoda for their attention to detail on the embroidery ideas
To the Thermo tex team who executed the brilliant and bright prints
To our Driver, who made sure we got to each location on time
to Jehan D Adahan (Photographer), Kalpanee Gunawardana (Model), Christian Klein (Model), Nethmi Munasighe (Make-Up), and Lakwin Madushanka (Photographer Assistant) for creating the wonderful photographs which we will be using on our website
And finally to the Havelock Place Bungalow team.