R&P Post 54: Creating our Website!

Hello there and welcome back! We have now begun to create a website for our debut artist and for this, we are using Wix. We started creating our website by starting with the front page. For this very first page, we decided to use this image:

However, before we added this photograph to our website it required some editing on Photoshop. Firstly, we used the 'healing brush' tool to smoothen out parts of Kati's face:

This tool allowed us to select a particularly smooth area of Kati's skin and then use it to help smooth out other parts of her face. 

After this we then used a gradient fill in order to change the lighting of the image:

For this gradient fill we used a 90 degree angle in order to increase the gradient field which then makes her face brighter, making kati the centre focus of this image which then further attracts our audience to her. Once this was completed, we then used the 'paint brush' tool with the colour black in order to paint over the background. This made the background darker, and then enhanced the brightness of Kati's appearance, further emphasising her as the 'superstar'. 

After we edited the image on Photoshop, we then added it to the front page of our website:                                                                                                          

To the left you can see an image showing the first draft of our front page. We have decided to use this photograph of Kati for the front page of our website as it portrays her as quite a defiant yet also feminine character at the same time, attracting a wide audience.

                  

Above you can see three different backgrounds that we tried experimenting with for the front page of our website. In the picture at the top you can see a gold leaf background. We decided to see what this would look like on our website as gold is a very luxurious colour and connotes themes of grandeur and wealth which will attract our audience's interest. However, we decided that when we placed it onto the front page of the website itself, it did not give it a pleasing aesthetic and did not match the photograph of Kati.

Another background we tried using was the background of neon lights, which you can see in the shape of hearts in the second image. We tried using neon lights because the aesthetic of them matches the aesthetic of our artist, as we are using mainly pink, blue, purple and red colours to market our artist. But again, when we placed this particular image onto the front page we found it did not especially match the photograph of Kati and did not suit the rest of the website.

We also tried using a photo of blurred lights, which you can see in the last image. In similarity to our idea behind using neon lights, we thought that by using a background of blurred lights, it would match the marketing of our artist and the colour scheme that we are using for this. Out of all three of these backgrounds, the background of the blurred lights was our favourite because it suited the colour scheme of our website and overall marketing, but the use of the blurry effect also concentrates the audience's attention on the actual photograph of Kati, which is the main focus of the front page. Yet we still felt that this background image did not completely go with the rest of the front page, in particular the photo of Kati. So we tried using a plain, simple colour instead:

The image above shows our final background that we have decided to use for not only the front page of our website, but we have also decided to use this background for the other pages of our website as well. This background is just a block colour of off-black which gives it a slightly different tone to the background of the photograph of Kati, but also really compliments it at the same time. It also gives the background a simple but effective aesthetic and by using this for the rest of our website, it will make it regular and emphasise the colour scheme, adding to our marketing process.

As well as this, another part of creating the front page of our website involved including the name we chose for the album. As mentioned in a previous blog post, me and my group decided on the name 'Love Like This' for our debut artists' album. Below you can see a picture showing a draft of the front page of our website:

This is only a draft of the front page for our website but so far me and my group are very happy with it. The aesthetic goes with how we have marketed our artist and its simplicity draws the audience's attention to the artist themselves, enhancing the marketing process.

So that is what we did today in terms of our website. We have started to understand how to create a website using Wix and started to come to understand the different tools provided to create a website. Come back again soon to find out about more improvements!