ARTIST WEBSITE

DEVELOPMENT
FRONT PAGE
I started my artist website using a personalised
template, made by Wix, that gave me the
basic layout and sections of a musicians
website. I then began to experiment with the
image at the top of the homepage, using an
original shot of the artist, as seen within the
music video, as well as experimenting with
colours that suit the visuals of my artist. I
wanted the visuals of my artist website to
represent the ideas of freedom in my music
video, while giving it more feminine and light
imagery and colours.
HEADER
Once I had chosen my image and
colour palette for my artist, I began
testing different headers that would
suit my website. After changing the
colour of the original header from
black to a light pink, I looked at a
transparent header, however changed
to a pink fixed header as I wanted the
links within the header to be accessible
from the bottom of the home page as
well as the top.
SECTIONS OF THE HOMEPAGE
My next step was to organise and add
sections to my homepage, in order to
promote my artist and make it easy for the
audience to reach certain elements of the
website. I changed the colour palette of my
website from that of the template to pink,
grey, and white. I felt this suited the visuals of
my artist best as it is feminine and light, fitting
the some shots of my music video. I then used
keynote to make merchandise for my artist,
fitting with the visuals of the website and
album. This section was added to the
homepage as well as a separate page made
exclusively for the merch.
ADDING MUSIC
The template that Wix gave me had a section of
the homepage with the ability to add music to my
website. I downloaded the song used in my music
video in order to upload it to this section, and then
began looking at the different designs I could
have the section as. I increased the size of the
play button and song title from what the original
template looked at, before deciding to add the
single cover to the section, which I designed
myself using original imagery. This makes it easier
for fans to download and play the song.
LATEST RELEASE SECTION
The template made by Wix had a section to
ad information about my artist, however I
decided to make a new page, ‘Bio’, to put
information about the artist on. This meant I
could use this section of the website to
promote and link the new album from my
artist, making It easier for fans to keep up
with the latest release from the artist. For this,
I experimented with different colours,
changing from the original black from the
template, as well as changing the layout of
the photo, description, and link to the music.
LATEST RELEASE SECTION
After changing the colours of the latest reel
section and adding my original album
cover photo, I looked at the different
layouts in order to determine which would
look best with the photo. For the text, I
changed it from the original template of
information about the artist, to promoting
the latest release from the artist, and
adding a ‘Stream/Download’ button that
sends fans to the shop page of my website.
IMAGERY ON THE HOMEPAGE
Another section of the original template dedicated
part of the website to an image and title. For this, I
decided to use original photography of clouds, from
my single cover, as well as adding lyrics with the
name of the artist, Kaleidoscope, included. The
lyrics are from the song ‘Welcome to New York’ by
Taylor Swift, which I saw fitting with my artists visuals
and website as the song used in my music video is
by Taylor Swift. I then began changing the layout of
the section, in order to decide which layout best
suited my artist and website. My final choice of the
cloud photo taking up the length of the website
suits the style and visuals of my artist as it is a light
image with ideas about being free shown.
UPCOMING EVENTS SECTION
In order to keep my website fitting with the brief of an artist
website, I kept the upcoming events section that was put
in the original template in order to make it easy for fans to
see events with the artist. From this, I made a tour for my
artist, choosing venues that are best suited for a new artist
and adding them to the original template with new dates.
I then altered the original design by adding a ticket
button to each event, as well as changing the font, colour
palette and layout. For the layout, I changed the style to
add photos to each event, but decided this did not fit
with the visuals I want for this section of the website. My
final choice means fans can see the dates and location of
each event, as well as an easily accessible link to tickets.
BOTTOM OF THE HOMEPAGE
At the bottom of the homepage of the original
template, there was a ‘contact us’ section,
including a map with the location of the artist on. I
chose to remove this from my website as I did not
think it was in keeping with the brief and ordinary
style of an artist website. Instead, at the bottom of
my homepage I chose to have a ‘subscribe’
section, where fans are able to sign up to receive
emails from my artist. I felt this fitted with my artist as
fans are able to keep up with latest news and
events from my artist, as well as giving the artist
another platform to promote new music on, hyping
the fans for it.
BIO PAGE
For the Bio page of my artist website, I wanted fans to be
able to connect with the artist, as well as giving new fans
the chance to get to know the artist. For this, I added an
‘about the artist’ section to the top of the page. This is
where I can add a brief description of the artist, and a
place for the artist to communicate with the fans. After
writing the description, I started experimenting with different
designs that would suit the visuals of my artist. I changed the
title, and where the title was placed, from the original
template, as well as adding an original photo of my artist
smiling, in order to make it a more personal page and give
the fans a chance to feel connected to the artist. I then
changed the layout again, in order to make the photo
smaller, showing fans that the photo and information link
together.
BIO PAGE
After chasing the layout for my artist bio, I chose to move
the instagram section of the original template from the
homepage to the bio page. I moved this section in order
to make it easy for the fans to follow and keep up with the
artist, after learning more about them from the bio section,
making it more fitting of the section to go on this page
rather than the homepage. I decided to keep the same
layout as the template for the instagram section, as it looks
the most visually appealing and links well to the posts on
the artist Instagram, Another section of the big page, that
was not put on the original template made by Wix, was
the gallery section. I decided to add this to the bio page
of my website as fans are able to look at original images
from and of the artist, making the website more friendly to
fans .