Personal Project: Press Record
A few years ago, I had some thoughts on personal projects, but since then I hadn’t really started anything, until now. Back in early January, I downloaded the djay software to play around with it, recorded a mix or two live, and loved it. So it only seemed right that I do more of that, and make a project out of it. I designed a little teaser, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but it was motivation for me get moving on the project.
In comes Press Record. So I don’t have to repeat myself, you can read more of the back story/concept on the welcome post on the site. But here’s the concept in a nutshell…
That brings me to the theme of this site. Just pressing record, and start mixing. All of the mixes here will be just that. via
The goal of the site is to post recorded mixes made on the fly. No more, no less. So I wanted the design to focus on that, which I feel I accomplished. There are a bunch of features that I thought about adding, but removed most of them because they just didn’t matter right now.
Give people just what matters. Give them what they need when they need it and get rid of what they don’t. via
The typeface used for the masthead/logo was Sugar Pie. I came across it a little over a year ago and fell in love with it. But I never had chance to use it because it didn’t really fit any of the client projects I had. For icons, I used a few from the Corner Stone set from Iconlicious.
I dipped my toes into CSS3 using some text shadow for the headers and text, and I’m very pleased with the outcome. I considered building the whole site in HTML5, but since browser support is so limited, I changed my mind. But the site is built in Wordpress. I also decided that I’m not supporting IE6. This isn’t a client project, therefore, I just don’t care about those using IE6. Sounds harsh, but I just don’t want to waste time on those who continue using the worst browser on the face of the planet.
Future Plans
There’s a bunch of stuff that I want to add to the site in the future, depending on how the site is used, including playlists, a search, requests, and easier ways to share. I’d also like to work with other dj’s to contribute to the site, which could help expand the genre’s of music being played. I’d also like to polish the record button icon in the masthead. I’m not great at designing icons/logos so I want to either keep working on it, or pay someone to redesign it.
So there you have it. Head on over to Press Record and check out the first mix. I hope you like it. I’m very excited to start adding to the site.
I’m also open minded to design suggestions and such, so feel free to comment away about your thoughts.
