Professional Creative Redesign & Rebrand

A full redesign and rebrand of a prominent musician’s website, with a focus on legacy, promotion, and fan engagement

Web Designer, Brander

Role

A close-up of a green leaf with visible veins.

Team Size

3

Empty road extending into the distance with lush greenery on both sides and a clear blue sky above.

2 months

Duration

A close-up of a person's eye with long eyelashes and a well-groomed eyebrow.

Bandzoogle, Bandcamp,

Squarespace, Figma

Tools

Included

Background

Original Design

Mood Board

New Design

Client Feedback

Final Design

Impact

Two men with beards and glasses sit together, smiling, in a room with wooden blinds. One man has dark hair and a long beard, wearing a black t-shirt and glasses. The other man has dark hair and a beard, wearing a tan blazer over a tie-dye t-shirt and glasses. The image has a vintage, slightly blurry appearance.

Background

In late 2025, I was approached by a prominent local musician whom I had previously worked for more than 20 years prior, named Alex Coke. He asked me to redesign his website, which, to my amazement, was unchanged from the original one I created in 2004!

None of the links worked, the images were grainy, the colors had no distinguishable connection, and there major navigational elements missing. It was a total disaster and, more importantly, he worried that its outdated look and clunky functionality was hurting his overall image and album sales. After looking at it again after so long, I agreed with him.

A smiling man with glasses and a beard, wearing a black shirt and standing with arms crossed in front of a black background.

The client, Alex Coke

Initial Client Meeting

Alex told me the MAIN things he wanted were:

  • Quick, easy way for fans to purchase albums from his back catalog

  • New main photo

  • Fix broken links

  • Bandcamp site with albums listed which he receives mechanical royalties

First, let’s take a deeper look at the original design…

White arrow pointing downward on a black background

Original Design

Color Pallete

A grid of six colored squares arranged in two rows and three columns, in shades of beige, red, orange, and cream.

The color pallette had no cohesion and appeared to be randomly chosen

Typography

Close-up view of CSS code snippet with various header styles and font weights

The typeface, Times New Roman, was chosen as a default and was not ideal for mobile screens

Things Missing

Logo

Lines

Buttons

Movement

Social Media

Videos

The site was also missing crucial navigational and information hierarchy elements which greatly improve the user experience

Pages

click any photo to enlarge

Low res, outdated homepage photo that client doesn’t like

Small, improperly spaced and sized page links

Jumbled, inconspicuous newsletter sign up box with broken link

No embedded songs/live performances

Disorganized and visually unappealing pages

Endless scroll of important information that is difficult to read

Pretty 2004, right? I can say that because I designed it in 2004. Check out the new design below

White arrow pointing downward on a black background.

Mood Board

After reviewing the old site, I had a million ideas for what I wanted to do. I needed to organize my thoughts. So I made a mood board which had colors and overall vibe concepts.

Collage of various art and music posters, including photos of jazz musicians, abstract artwork, and landscape scenes.

Rebrand

While the Mood Board helped with initial conceptual elements for the overall feel of the site, in order to show old and new fans the client’s vitality and importance as an artist, he needed a rebrand. The concept for the rebrand has three areas of focus:

Silhouette of a saxophone.

Legacy

More focus on the client’s rich history and importance in the jazz and music world in general

A black and white vinyl record with a blank label in the center, featuring the grooves and spiral pattern.

Promotion

Easy and quick ways for fans to purchase current and back catalog albums

Three figures with raised arms supporting a ball with radiating lines above them.

Fan Engagement

Videos, Social Media, Contact page, etc. and anything that encourages interacting with fans

New Design

After reviewing other jazz musicians’ websites, I decided to keep it the colors simple and classic. So I went with navy for the background, a creamy off white for the font, and a black highlight. This also made sure that the album cover, photos and videos would pop across the entire site.

Close-up of a graphic design with three vertical sections: dark blue on the left, light beige in the middle, and dark green on the right.

Color Pallete

Text logo reading 'ALEX COKE' in white letters on a black background.

Logo

I also added a logo for the site that is very simple and classic. Since the client’s art is very free form, I chose the font “Barrio”, which has a handcrafted, imperfect look and chose to just use the artist’s unadorned name instead of a more stylized design.

Text displaying font styles and sizes for headers and body text, including 'Header, Cabin, 31px, Normal' and other similar specifications.

Typography

To achieve maximum readability, I chose the sans-serif font “Cabin.” A font this streamlined also improves overall accessibility for all users, whether they be on desktop or mobile.

Visual Hierarchy

A black square with indistinguishable content.

Lines

A black square with no visible objects or details.

Buttons

A person holding a yellow shopping basket filled with various groceries, including a loaf of bread, a bottle, and some vegetables.

Animation

A close-up of a wild bird perched on a branch outdoors, with a blurred green natural background.

Social Media

A plain black square image with no discernible objects or details.

Videos

Sorry, I can't see what's in the image.

SEO

Black and white photo of a laptop keyboard and a wired mouse on a desk

Most crucially, I added the fundamental design and navigational elements listed above. While the visual hierarchy, lines, and buttons help users navigate the listed information and the site itself much easier, small animations give the site a more lively and joyous feel.

And since he was still using the original site from 2004 (with very minor informational updates over the years), I also needed to add his social media and his many Youtube videos of live performances. Lastly, in order to help fans more easily find the new site, I added SEO alt text to the most recent albums and to other prominent page elements.

Client Feedback

The client was very happy with the new site overall. However, he did request three important additions, which were:

  • I added all of the albums I could find, but the client wanted ALL albums he had played on to be added

  • The client wanted to add a prominent button or section with an Electronic Press Kit, which is a one stop resource for press and booking agents

  • The client requested a Bandcamp page be created that can be linked to from the Discography page for streamlined album purchasing

A black and white drawing collage featuring musicians, musical instruments, and letters spelling 'JAM' and 'A'. The artwork shows people playing saxophone, trumpet, drums, and double bass, with some individuals in profile. The artist's signature and the year 1990 are at the bottom.

One of the client’s early albums

Final Design

Homepage

The client did not want an endless scroll of information on the homepage, so I simply featured the main sections of the site with links to the full pages. He also wanted his email signup list prominently featured, which I did near the top of the page.

Rebrand Focus

Legacy, Promotion, Fan Engagement

Bio

This section focuses on the Legacy part of the rebrand. I wanted the client’s bio to be prominently featured because the length and breadth of his experience is so unique. I also feature some interviews to get an even fuller picture of his life as an artist.

Rebrand Focus

Legacy

Recordings

Afer getting a full list of recordings from the client I individually added every album he has played on, while featuring those for which he recieves mechanical royalties at the top. As per client request, I only added “Buy Now” options for these featured albums.

Rebrand Focus

Legacy, Promotion, Fan Engagement

Videos

The Videos page features the many live performances the client currently has on YouTube, divided by project. All videos are embedded within the page for easy playability, thereby eliminating the need for a user to open new pages or tabs.

Rebrand Focus

Fan Engagement

Photos

After reading the client’s bio, I realized that he had been in the industry for exactly 50 years! The Photos page is therefore a celebration of that achievement with old and newer photos of the client performing, recording, and posing for artist profiles.

Rebrand Focus

Legacy, Fan Engagement

Contact

The Contact page is a simple way for fans and booking agents to contact the client for inquiries and performances. I placed the Electronic Press Kit download button here as per the client request.

Rebrand Focus

Legacy, Promotion

Digital screenshot of a webpage displaying a music album titled 'New Visions' by Alex Coke. The cover art features an abstract design with blue and red squiggly lines. Details about the album, including tracklist and recording info, are on the webpage.

For the Bandcamp page, I kept the logo and basic color scheme from the website, but added a retro background from the client’s first album to give it a unique look. See the full bandcamp page here:

Bandcamp page

Impact

The client was extremely happy with the design and functionality of his new site. He also responded very positively to the Photos section celebrating his “50 Years in Music.”

I will continue to monitor his site visits and album sales in the months to come and update those metrics here.

Thank you for checking out this project.

See the Final Design

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