Dec 28 2009
My brother’s the bassist in a band named Project Blue Book. They recently recorded an EP so it was time to redesign http://projectbluebook.fm.
first draft
The main goal of the new site is for fans to hear the band’s new work. So, I reached for SoundManager2 to handle the audio player, modifying the Muxtape style. Our Rails Rumble team previously used SoundManager2 for Pockets and were pleased with the result.
The site is totally blue, black, & gray with bold, lowercase Helvetica.
second draft
Then I brought in Angelo Simeoni to make the design pop.
He did just that, adding outer space background images and giving the “project blue book” header a glowing 2001 treatment.
He used the RGBA color technique for opacity of the “navigation” elements.
We talked about displaying blog posts or Twitter updates but decided instead to add character with a mysterious background story.
third draft
In this version, Angelo fixed some kerning, squared off rounded corners, and added a playful, Galaga-tribute spaceship that flies up the page when clicked. There’s still a bug with the spaceship flight in Webkit browsers I haven’t figured out yet but hey, “ship it”. Har, har.
He made the band name & story white, the external links & player blue. Unlike the usual header/content distinction on most sites, I thought this was fresh. I missed the vibrant, glowing “project blue book”, however.
satisfying stopping point draft
“No art is ever finished. It only reaches a satisfying stopping point.”
What do you think?
Did we make the right decisions along the way? What would you have done differently?
