Planning for website ancillary

As I am creating a website as one of my ancillarys, I'll need to analyse other websites so I can gather ideas and inspirations on how to create mine. I will be analysing Sam Sparro's website and others found on the webpage wix that I feel will help in the creating of this task.

This is the top of the homepage for Sam Sparro's website. This is a good example of something that I will want to use when creating the homepage to my website as you have the artists name in big, bold letters at the top which stands out against the white background. His name is also repeated in the subtitle, 'THE OFFICIAL DIGITAL HOME OF SAM SPARRO' which emphasises the artists name and creates a sense of professionalism. There are also links which feature in a smaller font in the structure of a banner which is useful as it takes you to the part of the website that you want to look at. Just by looking at the top of the homepage we can already see a colour scheme starting to take place with a white background and bold, capitalised font in either black or grey. This makes the homepage look classy and professional, promoting Sam Sparro in an appropriate way as we expect this colour scheme to now run through the rest of the homepage to create a sense of continuity.

This is the homepage of a site that belongs to wix (follow link here) that follows a similar layout to Sparro's website. The artists name is in large, capitalised letters at the top of the homepage but has their logo on top of the writing which promotes all aspects of the artist. The links at the top of the page are slightly easier to read than on the Sparro website as they're in a darker font and more spaced out. The layout is also very simple, so your attention isn't pulled in all different directions and everything is easy to read/find. I'll take inspiration from this website in terms of using a logo that we might create for Sparro or for the production company and making sure the colour scheme makes the writing stand out on the page.

This homepage (follow link here) takes quite a different format to the other two above. The layout is different in terms that the artists name is beside and below the banner of links. However, the artists name is seen twice on the top of this homepage for emphasis. There is also an image of the artist playing a violin, which suggests what type of artist she is and what genre of music she might fit under. The colour scheme runs through this part of the homepage as the dark brown, black and beige colours run through the image, writing and background which neatly ties in the whole of the page. This is an interesting technique to use as it makes the homepage more interesting and lively. A colour scheme like this would also be good to use when representing the artists personality and how he/she would like to be percieved to the audience (ie. using a bright, neon, multicoloured colour scheme could be used to promote a pop artist).

This is the rest of the homepage for Sam Sparro's website. We can see a couple of clear images of the artist in a full frontal, close up shot which allows us to identify with him. It also gives links to 'blog' and 'news' which could be followed through earlier at the top of the homepage which will take you to other pages of the site and structures the site into particular sections. Sparro's new single is also advertised in a large space right next to his image as a form of promotion so viewers will click on the advert which will take you to a seperate site where you can hear a preview of the single and buy it. These features will be good to use on my homepage as it gives audiences the latest news and posts that Sparro may have written himself, so the audience can connect with Sparro and get all the information they need just by looking at the homepage. 

This is another page from a site from wix (follow link here) which specifies under the title of 'gallery'. The page consists of photos of the band 'Magic Unicorns'. Most of the shots are of the band performing and playing instruments which advertises what their concerts/gigs look like and may encourage audiences to buy tickets to any shows they have going on. It also allows the audience to get to know the band more and look at their style and chosen image, representing their genre and other aspects of themselves. The colour scheme of dark, grainy colours runs through the whole of the site which makes the website look professional. Using this idea of having a gallery of pictures of just our artist is something that I'll include in my website so people who are unfamiliar with Sparro can get to know him by looking at pictures of him performing or in photoshoots. 

This is at the bottom of the homepage for Sam Sparro's website. This is quite an important feature to have on a website as companies can get into contact with the management to book Sparro for events or appearances. I will probably include this on my website (however will be making up the contact details). 

On this website is an 'About' page which tells the audience all about the artist including their background, interests, how they got into music and their general hobbies. This is a good page to have as it allows audiences to familiarise themselves with the artist if they don't know that much about them and it tells readers a little bit more about their style and genre of music. I will definitely have a section of this on my website so readers can get to know the artist a bit more. The page also has a clear title written in bold letters so readers can see the artists name clearly and uses the pun 'A STARR IS BORN' to make the page entertaining. I will try to incorporate this into my website somehow to keep the readers interested and enjoy reading about the artist.