Naturally the eye prefers a centred image and bold title, as the title and logo are what people remember mostly and it is the band's signature image and name. From developed experience using 'Photoshop' in my AS project, I was able to freely use my editing knowledge to create a logo for GoldBloom. The band have used a 'Golden Sun' to symbolise their 'Band logo', I wanted to stick with this logo and place the sun in the top centre of all the pages on the website. However the image I had chosen on 'Google' had a white background behind the image, which I wanted to erase so that the Golden Sun contrasted with the sophisticated plain black background of the website.
Using my Creativity skills developed from 'PhotoShop', I was able to achieve the look I wanted.Creative ideas can be inspired from other sources. My website design consists of a black background with a contrasting 'Gold' logo, this idea had been inspired from the popular, current music band,'Mumford & Sons' website. As well as using Creative skills in the design and colour choice, you have to also consider the design of your 'Navigation' access. If you want fans and the music business to truly dig into your site, you must make it easy for them to move from page to page. After researching current websites, I have acknowledged that the 'Navigation Bar' usually sits along the top of every page listing the main sections of your site. I wanted to keep creative by making the chosen link light up 'yellow' to to match the Golden Sun, when the mouse hovers over it, this is also including interactivity. Keeping a good colour coordination is pleasing to the eye, and also makes a website look professional. Keeping the list of internal links short and snappy, 'Home, News, Live, Band, Blog, Video' this makes it easier for people to access what they want to know about the band quicker. When creating a website you have to consider all ages and gender of people who are likely to access the site. One way to get people involvedwith the band's music is to give them something to do while they are on your site. By creating an interactive element, for example on my 'Blog' page, I have written a blog from the band to their supporters a 'Post Poll' allowing them to feel involved and participate in contacting the band.
When researching current male music band websites, I found that when I clicked onto the website the link, there was no immediate sound, e.g. track of one of their songs. I found that when I came to the second/thrid page, there would be access for the viewer to click and listen to a variety of tracks from the bands album. I thought this was a good way to promote interactivty, as the viewer had the choice to click and listen. Personally as an outside viewer, I feel that on some music websites, for example, "Florence and the Machine", having music play straight away, was almost forcing the viewer to listen, as a way of forcing them to buy the song/album. As in today's society, the mediated world has become 'Power to the People', therefore I feel that the viewer would like to have control whether they want to listen or not. I have included this interactive element, by creating two of the main tracks from GoldBloom's album, 'Lavine Parine', I have created an animated button ON/OFF, as an easy access for the viewer to see and click. By only conveying two of the songs from the album, is almost teasing the viewer, by saying if you want to listen to more, buy the album, which is promoted for the viewer to buy on each page of the site.
FACEBOOK LINK
In the bottomright of every page on the website I have created an interactive 'FACEBOOK LIKE' button. This is to purposely invite MORE peopleto check out GoldBloom website, the more fans the more chance of success!
QR CODE
Is a form of barcode that can hold much more data than the traditional version, including links to videos and websites. QR codes have been around since the 1990s but have become increasingly popular in the UK in the last year or two because smartphones such as the iPhone are able to read them. I have included the code on the bottom right on each page on the website next to the Facebook like button. This again is finding another way to interact with the digitalised audience, and also a way to get even more new fans through this new source of technology.
HOME PAGE:
I have learnt that you specifically have to acknowledge that the home page is the 'welcome mat' of any website. Having the freedom to be however creative as you want can sometimes overrule the 'simplicity' of a website. I have considered this aspect, and have created a sophisticated, symmetrically pleasing to the eye layout that is not toographic heavy, this is why I changed from my first idea of creating a 'cluttered' image dominating website, as I wanted to go for the 'Less is more' effect. I have included an animated slideshow of a few images of the band on the homepage to add animation andinteractivity to the site. A music website can look attractive without overwhelming a visitor's eye and their web browsers ability to render pages. Creativity ability plays to the fact that you have to be aware of not over crowding a page on the site. Too much information too soon may chase people/fans away, or could easily bore them, loosing fans and the ability to sell your music. I have acknowledged this, by creating small rectangular boxes which include 'News updates of the band', 'Recent Album releases' in small detail to draw fans in on the homepage to want to carry on looking through the site to find out more. The secret is to suede people in with the creative design, layout, images, and persuasive text on the homepage.
NEWS PAGE:
I felt that having a news page was vital in today's 'Power to the People' media orientated society. People/Fans LOVE to get involved and express their views, opinions and suggested improvements, and what better way than expressing it online for others to see and agree/disagree. By allowing a'Comments' page it helps the band understand what their fans like to hear and what they wantto hear. This is a great selling point as at the end of the day the band are making music FOR their fans, so it's a great way for bands to know what their audience want. On the page I have creates small semeiotic symbols of the Twitter and Facebook symbols, for example the "t" and bird sign is for Twitter, and the "f" is for Facebook. I decided that these symbols were important as Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social networking sites, so having it on the site is good advertising and also expands more people to link onto the site.
LIVE PAGE:
Having a LIVE page is vital for important information about the band's tour dates of when they are playing and where! I have created a rounded box with information of when and where GoldBloom are performing. Beside the information box I have included 'vintage' sepia toned real images of band playing at one of their gigs. I have set the images within a 'camera tape' setting just to create the 'vintage' effect. On the right hand side of the page, I have included a POSTER of the band, which like I have mentioned before is a great way to advertise the band and where they are next playing. Below the poster I have attached audio sounds of two of the Bands songs, this is almost like a 'teaser' for the audience as they can interact by playing the music, to hear a teaser of what the songs played at the gig will be like. Including teaser audio clips is good advertising of the bands music, but also good advertising of selling gig tickets!
BLOG PAGE:
FANS NEEDMORE THAN JUST MUSIC! These days for fans to buy the bands music they want to know more about the band as individuals as well as musicians! This is where a BLOG is also vital to include on a website. The Blog is written by one of the bandmembers, addressing their fans as friends, "Dear Friends..." - this itself is pushing the barrier between the band and their fans, creating an even more personal relationship, so the fans feel special that they are addressed as 'FRIENDS' of the band. As well as creating a closer relationship with their fans, they are also cleverly advertising their new album release by answering questions that fans have asked about their album. By having a blog allows the band member, Harvey to be himself through his online language, for example (sorry y'all) This is almost like his ideolect, again another way for fans to get to know the members as individuals. I have created a 'COMMENTS' column, an interactive way for fans to participate by 'TALKING' to the band expressing their opinions, and suggestive improvements for the band to acknowledge.
BAND PAGE:
By having a 'BAND PAGE' is for the band members to give the viewers a background information of the band themselves. Potentially for NEW viewers who want to find out more about how the band got together. The page consists of a large image of the band, which I had edited to a sepia vintage effect to link with the Golden Sun logo, and also blurred the image to link with the 'BLOOM' effect. Under the image I have created a 'scroll box' with personal information about wherethe band came from, how they became a band, and a biography of how the bands interact with each other as friends as well as musicians. Also includes comments from the band.
VIDEOPAGE:
The lastpage consists of the PROMOTIONAL VIDEO of Goldbloom, I created the video on the last page, purposely to create a memorable advertisement and summary of everything that the website pages consisted of, basically the video is the evaluation of GoldBloom. I decided to create another 'COMMENTS' box for fans to comment on about the band, and why they like/dislike them, again another way for the audience to interact with the band.
No comments:
Post a Comment