Recreating an Inspo Site
Remake a site you put in your #intro or any other site that suits your fancy. Your goal is to deconstruct that site’s “brand book”.
We asked you to make Section 1 Pedro and Section 2 Halcyon “pixel perfect” but if you’re looking for another exercise to challenge your design skills and your attention to detail, try recreating an inspo site. One of the challenges with this exercise is not replicating it exactly as it is. We know not every site is made in Squarespace so not everything is easy to recreate. This course is rooted in learning design & Squarespace so this exercise is for you to get the typography, layout, colours, and photography as close as possible.
Besides that, if there are features that are too complex then go ahead and redesign them! Feel free to redesign sections using Squarespace features. We want you to be learning Squarespace's cool features and use them to your advantage! It's about working smarter not harder 😉 so if Squarespace has a similar feature but is not exact, that's ok! If you want to reimage a section but keep the brand book in mind, that's also ok!
You don't have to do the whole website if it's too much. You can do the homepage + 3 other pages. If there are a lot of blog or product pages, just do 1-3. For mobile make sure the header, mobile menu and homepage look good. It's ok if mobile looks different from the original. Some website developers build completely unique mobile layouts, but Squarespace is already built to optimize mobile for you so go ahead and use that option!
Just make sure that what you are creating is intentional and not messy. If it's different but in line with the brand book then that's ok (we may even like your design better! It's known to happen 👀). We want you to be thinking about why the designer made those design decisions rather than being stressed about figuring out some tricky code.
Before we updated the course, this was a requirement for students to submit. Although it is now optional, we still feel like there is a lot of value that comes from this exercise. An amazing resource is the Level 3 Guide and if you have any questions post in the Discord Custom Sites channel.
In the videos below Puno goes over Level 3.2, past students 3.2 sites, what TA’s are looking for when giving feedback on Level 3.2, and how to choose a 3.2 site.
Clip from Live Office Hours September 2021
Clip from Live Office Hours March 2021
Student 3.2 Recreation Example:
@Rosie Struve recreated https://www.tentoonerum.com/ for their 3.2 inspo site https://rosiestruve2.squarespace.com/ (pw: brineintopedro) and it’s a great example of an inspo recreation that is a good reimagination of a site.
Check out the feedback Rosie received from TA Bronze and Puno.
