The Pietasters
Role: Design, Production, & Project Management Project Date: 2007 Client: The Pietasters
I love you guys but your website sucks.
That's pretty much what I wrote to my favorite ska/soul band, The Pietasters, back in 2006. I thought it was a shame that a great ska/soul band could have such a horrible website, and as a web designer I wanted to help. To my complete surprise, they took me up on my offer and I had the privilage to not only meet but work with my favorite band on a project.
The process was unique from any other project I had worked on, as most meetings with the client were back stage at their shows, as it was the only time the entire group was together. This meant wrangling the ideas and opinions of eight band members and creating a cohesive design from those ideas. With the help of my friend and fellow designer, Rachel Mooney, we were able to do just that and the band loved how the site turned out so much, it is still in use today.
Who has the time?
The band doesn't have much time to practice together, much less update their site, so we tried to make it as easy to update as possible. Whenever anyone uploads a photo onto Flickr and tags the band in it, it shows up on the right-hand side of the page. The top area on each page can also be easily updated, as the black "frame" actually sits on top of each photo, making them easy to change out without any extensive Photoshop skills. Same too with the music player integrated into the header of every page, it reads off of MP3s put into a folder, which can be edited easily from a text document.