__Brand Design + Web Site
Agent Johnny Red and Silver Horse Productions
In early 2023, I had the opportunity to work with Portland, Maine-based Music Artist Agent Johnny Red on a complete digital identity project. Agent’s sound is a blend of Synthwave and psychedelic explorations in sound. His unique approach to making music in 432HZ as an approach to healing through sound formed the cornerstone for our work together on this fun and unique project.
Discovery
Getting Started
We started with Agent’s existing logo and did extensive research and discovery in order to refine his brand Mission and Values. Once this step was complete, I prepared a Creative Brief in order to act as a blueprint for our design strategy.
The Creative Brief
The Creative Brief is designed to help ensure that the project planning completed in preparation of the project results in a successful product that meets the goals of the project, pleases the Client and will suit the target demographic. It is usually a 1 to 5 page text document outlining the key values of the project, the color palette, font selections, and other important considerations for the creative direction of the work.
Mood and Brand Boards
In addition to the Creative Brief, a Mood Board with inspirational images, colors, fonts, and textures is prepared to help aid the visual style of the project and to ensure that the final image assets are on brand. A Brand Board with the prepared color palette including hexadecimal color codes is also prepared at this time.
Midjourney AI
For this project Agent and I decided to use Midjourney AI in the assistance of creating some interesting imagery to use throughout his site and branding. I created hundreds of generations using dozens of unique custom designed prompts which were designed around both the Clients suggested keywords and those selected by me. We explored several different themes including retro futuristic postcards from the Space Age, pixel art with a Southwestern motif, and vibrant, cosmic gardens full of cacti and wonder.
Design Live
In order to convey how certain elements of this website work best, I opted for a live design/develop approach behind a private wall that only the Client can access. Rather than creating a traditional static page layout in Photoshop as I did in the past, I saved that time by coding a lean version of the site to start with foundations and received Client approval on that before honing in on imagery and finer details like fonts. By not using static layouts but rather designing live in 3 iteration rounds, I was able to help achieve clearer Client expectations of the responsive nature of the website as it appears across devices and also allowed me more time to focus on other project areas such as the EPK.
Development
Focused Development
Once the basic structure and style of the site were defined, it was time for me to get under the hood and make sure that everything was configured as best as possible for optimal web performance and site visitor experience.
Information Architecture
One of the most important elements of a website is how well its Information Architecture planning is structured. During the Discovery and Planning page we discuss how many pages are needed based on industry standards (5 at minimum for any website) and how they need to be linked to from within the site so that both search engines and human visitors are able to access the content they need quickly and easily.
Any Page, At Any Time
Though we certainly always want to make sure that the Home page looks fantastic, people don’t necessarily experience the Internet or any given website in a linear fashion. The first page they stumble upon in a search or linked to from an article may be any given page in your website. That’s why it’s so important to make each page center its content around 1 specific topic and keyword phrase in order to demonstrate to both search engines and site visitors your authority on the topic. Though Agent’s site isn’t large (yet), it has been planned and developed in such a way that he can expand his site over time in a way that makes sense and won’t cause him headaches down the line. This site is already capable of selling live tickets to show, can be expanded to serving up e-commerce and so much more!
Testing
Test, Test, Test Again
After all design and development elements are in place, the site is tested extensively for performance and style. All contact forms and other interactive elements of the website are tested including buttons and links, just as a normal site visitor or search engine spider might do.
Bug Detection
If any bugs are discovered they are addressed and the final site is given a thorough polish across various common screen sizes and resolutions.
Launch
All Systems Go
Once all testing and final polishing has been completed, the Client is invited to review the site for a final look and to provide official approval before site launch. The site is then launched with official Client approval and the Client’s site training is scheduled. All final assets are delivered to the Client via email at this time. The site is then tested once more after launch before the site project is complete.
Client Training
The Client is welcome to complete a 30-60 minute website training via Skype screenshare. Topics covered include how to update Pages and Posts, working with the Media Library, best practices for site security, and more. This empowers my Clients to successfully manage their website in house if they so desire.
Brand Guide
Art Made with AI
Mood Board
Responsive Website
Logo Design
Music Artist EPK
Let’s Work Together
Now booking websites, branding, SEO, and more for 2023. Please contact Acacia Carr at Mythic Rhythmic using this form to inquire about rates and availability.