Wild Horse Records Website Design

The Summary

Wild Horse Records is a brand concept proposed to the University of Texas at Arlington music label. It was designed to indirectly tie back to the UTA brand, but also function as a standalone brand. Our goal was to position Wild Horse Records as the Music Maverick, willing to take risks and push the boundaries of the music industry in order to provide a new experience for artists and listeners.

Role + Duties

Brand Strategy, User Research, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & Testing, Information Architecture

The Background

Musical mavericks

The UTA Music Record at the University of Texas at Arlington was looking to relaunch their label.

Maverick music-makers now have an outlet to explore the business side of the music industry through the Department of Music's new Record Label, UTA Records. The UTA Music Record Label produces music created by UTA and the surrounding Arlington community. As an auxiliary product, the label also trains university students to work at record labels professionally.

The Challenge

The UTA Music Record Label is the new kid on the block. With very little online presence, no produced works readily available and zero branding, UTA Music Record Label has a clean slate. Our team has been tasked with creating the UTA Music Record Label branding and image, as well as generating an advertising campaign to launch the new branding. The primary marketing objectives are to relaunch the UTA Music Record Label with new branding, including a new name, new online presence and a homespun Maverick “feel.”

The Research

University record labels have the same functions as a traditional record label, but with different strategies. Their mission is typically to give their students an opportunity to experience working in a record label from various positions. Not only do they try to sign student music artists, some of the record labels even employ students on the administrative side. Unispan Records at Hofstra University hires students to work in A&R (Artist and Repertoire), marketing, promotion, radio, distribution, artist management, etc.

Opportunities

Looking at the websites of some direct and indirect competition, some opportunities for Wild Horse Records to compete are:

• They don't tie into their university brand.
• Users must go to secondary music streaming platforms to sample artists' music.
• Information is not organized or strategically presented.
• Interested artist could only sign-up once a year.

Information Architecture

User Flow:

We identified our two primary target markets for Wild Horse Records: interested music artists and music listeners. I then created user journey maps to inform the web design process and determine the best webpages/site map to help our target groups reach their goals.

Sitemap:

Based on the user journeys, I defined the website's sitemap. The top-tier navigation items are the various aspects of the record label, with the secondary-tier items providing more specific solutions to users' goals. I also prioritized strategic internal linking to ease travel between pages.