Meant as a fun little diversion while one is at work (my interpretation) Warner Reprise Records contracted me to design and program a Flash matching game to promote their band Rock Kills Kid. The entire project was completed in less than a week, due in no small part to the excellent photography they had already produced.
The art direction was relatively easy to accomplish due to the simplicity of the band’s branding design. There was a very clear direction in place that fortunately lent itself well to the interface of a match game. The door that was the primary component of their look, so it was only natural that the photos should hide behind the door. To make it slightly more creepy, I added the little touch of making the eye in the peep hole freak out a little. As a major piece of their branding, it was begging me to give it a little more life. It’s the details that make work fun for me.
As the game is completed each round, it becomes progressively more difficult by providing less time in which to complete it. With a little bit of simple PHP magic, the game even keeps track of the fastest time and allows for the user to enter a name in the high-score list. Since it was meant to promote a band, it was natural that the game required an MP3 player to provide background.
No longer available as a promotion, the game can be seen here in my archive.
Role: design and programming. Freelance.
The blog section: reviews of music artist Web sites and forthcoming tutorials for bands in need of cheap DIY Web sites.
[UPDATE: Steven Levy wrote an editorial in this week’s Newsweek about a tangential issue, namely how the pricing of music affects buying habits. He quotes an experiment that showed how to increase sales six-fold. Fascinating, counter-intuitive way to make more money and please the consumers.]
Consumers drive every industry, I think it’s safe to say. Therefore […]
My portfolio of work, clients include Warner Brothers Records, NBA, NHL, NFL, Visa, Nestlé and more.
Warner Brothers Music needed a Web site to promote the motion picture soundtrack to Beowulf, but the catch was that it needed to be launched soon after they contacted me. How soon? Three days. I don’t like backing down from challenges, and the opportunity to create a design for the property was an interesting proposal, […]
E-mail me or download my CV. Interested in custom work? Submit an inquiry here.
My route from musician to graphic designer to interactive and new media designer reflects my desire to constantly learn new things. I hold a Master of Arts degree from the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University (studying under AIGA Fellow, J. Charles Walker), where I focused on interactive design and motion graphics.
Not being the type of person to follow traditional paths, I started my own design service after graduating. My first task was to update the identity system, print and online collateral for Nosco Pharmaceutical Packaging, a national company whose clients include Alcon and Abbott Laboratories. I also began adding music artists to my client roster by contacting people in my network from my five-year stint in my touring band.
In my current role at DigiKnow, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, I walk the fine line between designer and programmer by switching between art director, designer, animator, Web developer, and JavaScript/XHTML/CSS/ActionScript programmer.
Need front-end Web design or development work? Need to see proof? Click the link below to download a PDF of my CV with links to my recent work, personal info, contact information, and really self-congratulatory biography.