Independant Project

Review and Analysis

In the early stages of my project I tried to think of different ideas, but was really interested in working on something that would interest me, as I play in a band. This was the reason why I chose to produce a webpage to advertise a rehearsal and recording studio for young bands.

Although when I did research, I found that there were lots of rehearal or recording studios, I could not find any that were near the centre of Cambridge. This was one of the things that I tried to focus on as I think that location is important. Young people often cannot drive themselves to a recording or rehearsal space so I thought that it was important to have it near and with easy bus and train links. I also wanted to have parking nearby in case young people had a car, and so that they could transport their own musical instruments if they wanted to. I chose the end of Mill Road for this reason, and also wanted it to be near to places where you could buy food easily, as it usually takes all day to record songs, and young people like me get hungry.

I chose to have a combined rehearsal space that had a separate recording room, so that bands could have both facilities available. There were not many studios that offered this. One studio used the room for both, but I thought this was a waste, as when the room was used for recording, you would not be able to practice.

When designing the room, I also wanted to make sure that there were things to make the room more comfortable, like a nice big settee to relax on, as it can be very tiring rehearsing and recording. I chose a leather sofa as I thought this would be more practical to keep clean. I also wanted to make sure that there were toilets, and drink and small kitchen facilities so that young people do not get thirsty. I thought you could rehearse and record better work if you have had enough to eat and drink and had time to rest.

I tried to do some research on good quality recording equipment and microphones, as it would be important to be able to make good quality recordings to give the bands the best chance to promote their music.

I also looked at the kind of lettering I would use for my webpage, and really liked a collage to advertise oxfam. Colour was also important when I looked through magazines, and I noticed that a light background worked well with big bold brightly coloured lettering.

I think it is important to have lots of information on a website about the facilities, and tried to include this in my design. I would love to have a recording and rehearsal studio where the equipment is all available and where you can get spare guitar strings or drum heads if they break.

I got an idea from one website to create a logo, and although it was difficult to try and make a logo, I think it works, in terms of advertising and making all of the webpages link together.

Reviews were another idea that I got from looking at other people’s websites, but I did not think I could include them at the moment because it is meant to be a new website.

If I were to do more work on the website design, I would like to create more photo images of the facilities, and work on my style and colouring of lettering. At home I do not have photoshop, but I would have liked to use this program to improve the quality of my webpage design work.