This post will document aesthetic and interactive design decisions made throughout the development process.
I began by using this image of layered trees that I took in Sheffield. Even though the album cover exists, I felt that the website should follow an aesthetic that will compliment this, and not just revolve around the album artwork. The user will want to view something visually beautiful, encouraging sales and traffic onto the website. A poorly designed website will not be as effective in this sense. Using the trees reflects the album title 'Free', and adds dimension to the page.
Creating a calming colour palette meant that I could be meticulous with my design decisions, yet there was always freedom to change it if it didn't work. The peach tone was taken directly by using the dropper tool on the album artwork, so it was relevant to the campaign and omitted a comfortable and relaxing aesthetic, especially alongside grey and soft black.
Here would be the website the user would be first greeted with. "Free" is placed with a huge point size to instantly grab attention. It is important that maximum attention is on the band's new release. Under this, the user can sign up to the newsletter and receive an unreleased teaser single from the new album. Doing this creates a sense of elite involvement and makes the user feel included in the fanbase. Fans generally enjoy exerting the fact that they are a 'top fan', so doing this allows for them to feel this. Only they will be able to hear the new music before anyone else. This also generates talk on social media, prompting other fans and members to visit the site to listen to the new track.
Under this, the image of the trees can be seen, blending into the colour and representing freedom and allowing an aesthetically pleasing user experience.
The icons at the bottom of the screen are a way for users to easily access the band's other social media with just one click, all in a concise button with no messy links. Navigation links to other parts of the page are also demonstrated on the top toolbar, next to the iconic Hundredth key logo, and roman numerals for "2015". This is a popular way to visually convey dates and numbers in an attractive way, and also very popular with this genre.
This image demonstrates another part of the website, where the user can see the tour dates for the world tour. Nothing gets a fan more hyped up for an album than a tour, especially speaking from personal experience. Knowing that one of your favourite bands will be performing songs you have not heard yourself yet is exciting and generates a lot of hype and questioning.
I feel I should possibly try and develop this idea further and make the website more interactive.
Another deliverable alongside the previous page is a tour poster that can be printed yet also posted across a variety of social medias, (facebook, twitter, instagram, tumblr etc). People who follow the band on these websites will see this posted and possibly then share it to their followers etc, creating a larger and larger audience as time progresses. Since this can also be printed it is important to consider colour of ink. Even though for this brief we are designing for screen, I ensured the pink colour was appropriate for CMYK, so the designs are consistent, however this is not as important in this case but still good to consider.
Another alternate mock up of the website. This felt more simplistic, but also had a much darker vibe, which in some cases does work for this genre of band. However, the album 'Free' represents a less sinister vibe in my opinion so this idea may not work as well as the other aesthetic. I kept the same concept of 'unlocking' the song, however next I need to develop this idea further somehow.
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