THE SOUND CLIQUE
2020 - 2021
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The Sound Clique is a platform promoting artists and festivals within the electronic music industry and connecting them with their audience. I was employed art TSC as a visual designer and was responsible for the visual content published on their website and throughout their social channels.
Company: The Sound Clique (TSC)
My roles: visual design, animation
Design tasks: design and produce visual content for TSC´s publications on their website and socials
Duration: oct 2020 - mar 2021
Methods/tools: Photoshop, AfterEffects, Dimension
For TSC´s profile on Youtube, I designed the visual components including a banner, avatar and watermark. These are responsive meaning that the vital elements are placed in the safe area for view on all types of devices.
I also designed a set of templates for thumbnails and video animations that anyone from the TSC team could adapt to upload videos to the channel. The animations are 1 minute loops that are supposed to accompany their music mixes on YouTube.
TSC continually makes interviews with artists that they promote on their website and socials. Along with these interviews they wanted a cover design including photos of the artist/s in the spotlight. These are made in square format as this is a format that works well across all platforms that TSC is active on.
A big part of the TSC visual identity is a gradient overlay which colors change every quarter. Therefore, a crucial part of the design work is making sure that all elements easily can be updated with new colors along with the quarterly changes.
The interview promotional posts also come with animated teasers that are published in Instagram posts as well as stories.
Instagram allows for multiple photos in one post which makes opportunity for storytelling throughout several images. I took advantage of this when designing posts for longer quote sections from artists and music listeners. Scrolling through the multiposts, the viewer can follow short stories along with seamless images.
In addition, there are standalone image designs when publishing shorter quotes.
TSC also publishes music mixes on Spotify for which I designed thumbnails. Because of their universal format, these can also be used on for example Soundcloud or any other platform on which the same music mix is published.
Starting out my work for TSC, I analyzed their previous designs and VMV to make sure that the new ones would accurately represent them. Initially, I reconstructed their previous designs to be able to gradually change them without abruptly changing the visual language on their social channels. In this, I did a lot of effect and color testing for their quarterly color changes.
Following this, I researched the design guidelines for each platform to decide on what format the designs should have.
For a music platform to gain followers and listeners on social media, it is important to feel relevant and updated as well as engage the audience. So in preparation of developing a new visual appearance for the platform, I then researched the design industry for the latest trends in visual language and branding.
Based on my findings, I then developed a few design suggestions for the team. Since they did not have any specific style preference going forward, I experimented with different tools and effects resulting in 3 style suggestions. In this, it was important to me to create a modern look while visually capturing the core of TSC: the passion for electronic music. I wanted to convey the energy in this type of music in the visual material which is why I chose to incorporate aspects of flow in different ways.
All 3 styles turned out appealing to the TSC team in different ways, which is why I later tried combining several qualities of them in the following designs I presented to them.
As I personally have a big interest in music, I really appreciated the opportunity to be part of a platform aiming to connect people in music. Working with The Sound Clique, I got experience of designing visual content for social media. I learned to create responsive designs that work across multiple channels and how to adapt them to utilize design opportunities in specific platforms. I got insight in how visual language can invite and keep users interest in engaging with and support a channel, which is the bread and butter of social media. It has also made me attentive to trend updates within digital communication which has given me a new perspective on how to relate to and compete with other digital media.
