Heavy Metal Bandcamp Design Help
October 1, 2014 5:24 PM Subscribe
I know that my bands bandcamp page can look better, but I don't know how.
What are better choices for the background color of the main page?
The header image is set for now, as it matches the cover of our upcoming album, but the colors for background and text look bad to me, like a personal homepage. None of us even dabble in web design and up till about a month ago the record label handled online sales. Now that we're venturing out into managing our own online presence I worry about it looking... professional? presentable? Perhaps a white background would help. Bandcamp lets you set any color for the background and text elements. Keeping it 'evil' would be best. ;) To me its obvious that the grey doesn't work.
The header image is set for now, as it matches the cover of our upcoming album, but the colors for background and text look bad to me, like a personal homepage. None of us even dabble in web design and up till about a month ago the record label handled online sales. Now that we're venturing out into managing our own online presence I worry about it looking... professional? presentable? Perhaps a white background would help. Bandcamp lets you set any color for the background and text elements. Keeping it 'evil' would be best. ;) To me its obvious that the grey doesn't work.
It's true, the grey isn't really working. I'd say black if you can make the rest of the text work on it. If not, the gross green-ish color in the skeletons would probably work pretty well.
Source: Pretty much all of the 15 metal band websites I just looked at had black backgrounds.
posted by General Malaise at 5:35 PM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Source: Pretty much all of the 15 metal band websites I just looked at had black backgrounds.
posted by General Malaise at 5:35 PM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: https://trueskelator.bandcamp.com
Suppose I should provide a link, ha
posted by kittensofthenight at 5:58 PM on October 1, 2014
Suppose I should provide a link, ha
posted by kittensofthenight at 5:58 PM on October 1, 2014
Best answer: So, take a look at what Relapse bands do: http://baroness.bandcamp.com/releases
Super quick, I'd set the background to black and use whatever color those skeletons are to set the text. But the most amateurish thing you've got on there is the album art, with that black and white one looking like a sketch more than a finished piece.
But match the body design to the header image (which is pretty decent) and use two different greens for the body and h1 text.
posted by klangklangston at 7:15 PM on October 1, 2014
Super quick, I'd set the background to black and use whatever color those skeletons are to set the text. But the most amateurish thing you've got on there is the album art, with that black and white one looking like a sketch more than a finished piece.
But match the body design to the header image (which is pretty decent) and use two different greens for the body and h1 text.
posted by klangklangston at 7:15 PM on October 1, 2014
hmmmm... I'd say to do away with the fuchsia-pink link text - doesn't go with any of the colours in your band banner whatsoever, and is especially difficult to read against the grey (which you also said didn't really work).
Could you make your h1's white-text-on-purple (or white-text-on-puke-green), the link text a brighter hue of puke green (or purple--basically what you did not use for the h1's background) and the overall page white-text-on-black?
posted by Tsukushi at 7:21 PM on October 1, 2014
Could you make your h1's white-text-on-purple (or white-text-on-puke-green), the link text a brighter hue of puke green (or purple--basically what you did not use for the h1's background) and the overall page white-text-on-black?
posted by Tsukushi at 7:21 PM on October 1, 2014
Best answer: I think it looks pretty good. The gray contrasts nicely with the skeletons and the red text stands out. It's a good "evil" color scheme.
My criticisms have nothing to do with the page, and are about the band's graphics.
The logo is striking, but it isn't immediately legible. At a glance, I read the SK as a big M. I think that K is your main problem. It needs to read more as a K. Maybe the vertical bar of the K needs to be extended? I'm not sure.
The cover art looks like the kind of stuff I'd expect to see on an album like this. I'm not crazy about it, but it looks appropriate for the genre and I'm not really your audience. The white logo on black and white artwork is clear, but if possible I'd say to color in that logo. It'd help it pop. As it is it makes me think of old band flyers from the 1990s Kinko's days. Maybe that's the look you were going for, but color doesn't cost you anything online and a pop of color would make the cover look more professional.
Again, I'm not the audience, but I think you're going for the right look for this kind of music.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:14 PM on October 1, 2014
My criticisms have nothing to do with the page, and are about the band's graphics.
The logo is striking, but it isn't immediately legible. At a glance, I read the SK as a big M. I think that K is your main problem. It needs to read more as a K. Maybe the vertical bar of the K needs to be extended? I'm not sure.
The cover art looks like the kind of stuff I'd expect to see on an album like this. I'm not crazy about it, but it looks appropriate for the genre and I'm not really your audience. The white logo on black and white artwork is clear, but if possible I'd say to color in that logo. It'd help it pop. As it is it makes me think of old band flyers from the 1990s Kinko's days. Maybe that's the look you were going for, but color doesn't cost you anything online and a pop of color would make the cover look more professional.
Again, I'm not the audience, but I think you're going for the right look for this kind of music.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:14 PM on October 1, 2014
Best answer: Some quick and dirty tips. Keep in mind that colors and color combinations will communicate moods and emotions. You've got a theme of death and decay, your color scheme should be putrid and evil, black blood, purple bruises, gangrene, yellowed bone. And probably a good idea to keep it dark.
You have some really awesome album art. In fact, you have a cool header that should be setting the tone for your site. Pulling colors from that might get you something like this. Unifies things.
Don't be afraid to keep it simple. 2-3 colors, give each color a job. Don't feel like you have to pick the most extreme black. Designers generally stay away from pure black and find a lot of nuance down in the darker, almost black regions of color. In your favorite image editor, use the eyedropper tool and pick out blacks from your header image. Notice that most of those blacks actually have a lot of purple in there. Dark, evil purple.
I hope that helps. And for the record, I think the black and white album cover is awesome.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 7:11 PM on October 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
You have some really awesome album art. In fact, you have a cool header that should be setting the tone for your site. Pulling colors from that might get you something like this. Unifies things.
Don't be afraid to keep it simple. 2-3 colors, give each color a job. Don't feel like you have to pick the most extreme black. Designers generally stay away from pure black and find a lot of nuance down in the darker, almost black regions of color. In your favorite image editor, use the eyedropper tool and pick out blacks from your header image. Notice that most of those blacks actually have a lot of purple in there. Dark, evil purple.
I hope that helps. And for the record, I think the black and white album cover is awesome.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 7:11 PM on October 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Awesome. Thanks for the advice.
I do want to clarify taht the b+w art is for the single, and the header is pulled from the real album cover, so klangklangston I think your concerns are covered. I really appreciate the input.
buriednexttoyou, thanks for the mock up that's really helpful. 'dark, evil purple.'
posted by kittensofthenight at 11:24 PM on October 2, 2014
I do want to clarify taht the b+w art is for the single, and the header is pulled from the real album cover, so klangklangston I think your concerns are covered. I really appreciate the input.
buriednexttoyou, thanks for the mock up that's really helpful. 'dark, evil purple.'
posted by kittensofthenight at 11:24 PM on October 2, 2014
Response by poster: Hey if anyone cares this thread really helped a lot (including designing the album layout), here's what we went with.
https://trueskelator.bandcamp.com/
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:45 PM on November 11, 2014
https://trueskelator.bandcamp.com/
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:45 PM on November 11, 2014
Nice. Purple on black is a little hard to read, but it looks totally metal.
posted by klangklangston at 3:17 PM on November 11, 2014
posted by klangklangston at 3:17 PM on November 11, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rob Rockets at 5:30 PM on October 1, 2014