Alright, so I’ve been messing around with this project I’ve dubbed ‘style lady’ for a while now, and I figured I’d share a bit about how that whole thing went down. It wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, but hey, when is it ever, right?
Getting Started with the Idea
It all kicked off because I was looking at a bunch of user interfaces, and honestly, a lot of them just felt… blah. Same old, same old. I wanted to create something with a bit more personality, something that felt, you know, sophisticated but still approachable. The main goal was to get a look that was clean and modern, but with a touch of classic elegance. Sounds easy, but getting that balance is a real pain, lemme tell ya.
So, I thought, “Okay, I’m gonna try and build a sort of design guide, or a set of styles,” something I could reuse. That’s where ‘style lady’ started to take shape in my head. I wanted it to be distinct, to have a clear voice.
The Nitty-Gritty Process
First things first, I just started collecting stuff. Images, color palettes, bits of websites I liked, anything that resonated with that ‘elegant but modern’ vibe. My desktop was a complete disaster area with screenshots and inspiration folders. I spent a good few days just soaking it all in, trying to find a common thread.
Then came the actual doing. I fired up my usual design software – nothing fancy, just what I’m comfortable with. I started with the basics: typography and colors. Oh man, the colors. I must have gone through fifty shades of grey, trying to find the perfect neutral. And then picking accent colors? That was another battle. You pick something that looks great on its own, but then you put it next to something else, and it just screams. Back to the drawing board.
- I’d pick a primary color.
- Then try to find complementary secondaries.
- Then test them in different combinations. A lot.
Typography was a similar story. Finding a font that could be both a headline and also readable in smaller text, while still having that ‘style lady’ character, took ages. I downloaded a bunch, tested them out, squinted at my screen a lot. You know how it is. You try one, nope. Another one, almost. It’s like Goldilocks, but with fonts.
Once I had a rough idea for colors and fonts, I started to sketch out some basic components. Buttons, input fields, cards, that sort of stuff. I kept asking myself, “Does this feel like ‘style lady’?” Sometimes it did, sometimes it really, really didn’t. There were days I’d design a whole set of components, look at them the next morning, and just toss the whole lot. Frustrating, but that’s part of it, I guess.
I remember this one week where I was stuck on how to make the forms look good. Everything I tried either looked too clunky or too flimsy. It reminded me of this old project from years back where we had a similar issue, and we ended up over-designing it so much it was unusable. Had to consciously pull myself back from going down that rabbit hole again. Learning from past screw-ups, eh?
Bringing in the ‘Lady’
Why ‘style lady’? Well, I wanted the design system to have a certain grace, a refined quality. Not overly feminine in a stereotypical way, but with an inherent elegance and composure. Strong, but not aggressive. Polished. I kept that persona in mind with every choice. It sounds a bit daft maybe, giving a design system a personality, but it helped me keep things consistent.
Where It’s At Now
So, after a lot of tweaking, redesigning, and probably too much coffee, ‘style lady’ is in a pretty good spot. I’ve got a solid set of guidelines, a component library that’s starting to look quite neat, and a clear visual identity. It’s not ‘finished’ finished – these things never are, are they? There are always little bits to polish, new components to think about. But it’s definitely usable, and I’m actually quite pleased with how it’s turned out.
It was a good exercise, that’s for sure. Forced me to really think about the details, the tiny things that make a design work or not work. And yeah, it’s satisfying to look at it now and think, “I made that, and it doesn’t suck.” That’s the win, right there.
