EMMA COMPETITION – WEB PROJECTCREATING A ROCK BAND

You are going to be designing a Web site for a rock band. I have supplied you with a collection of pictures. Some of them I am going to require you to use and then others will be up to you. You will decide which ones to use or not. This will give you some flexibility in the design of the site. Many of the images are oversized, you do not need to use them in the size provided, also you do not need to take them into some other program like Photoshop to resize them. Use the sizing options in the image tag to resize the image or physically resize them in Flash(If that is what you want to use). It was my goal to allow you to use the images in the size that fits your overall design, and have some of them a little larger to allow you the freedom of sizing.

You will find many images in folders that have been supplied with this project. There are specific areas some of the pictures and should be displayed based on the band’s request. There are some other photos that they do not specify locations. These photos can be placed where you feel they would best suit your design. Even the photos that have specific locations can be used elsewhere in the site if you, as the designer, feel they also look good in another location of the site.

Make sure you read through this document completely and also look through all the images supplied before you start. You want to make sure you have good grasp of what is being asked and have all the information on what you are going to create before you start. There are several areas where I (the designer of the project) will talk to you, and there are other areas of this document where it is the fictitious band that is asking for something to be created/designed for the Web site. The band has some idea on how Web sites can be put together, but they may be a little vague on how something should be done. This is where you can you can shine and show the skills you have in designing a Web site.

When you see text in this document there are actually three different ways the text is being presented to you. Most of the information presented in a table or chart on this document such as the song list and tour dates are items the band would like to see on the site (Does not need to be in that structure). Blocks of text in quotes are information that the band would like to see word for word on the site, such as the bio on each band member or the history of the band. There may be blocks of text with a graphic in front of it. One represents instruction from the band, or hints of what they would like to see, and another will be instructions from me to help guide you through the process. These are as follows:

This icon means that the instructions given are from the band members themselves.

This icon is specific instructions from the designer of the project or general information

I can’t state enough on making sure you read through everything before you get started. Having a clear cut idea of what you are going to create is crucial in getting together the final product. Remember that you are not limited on the tools you can use. I know many of you will be at different levels in your knowledge of Web design. Some of you might know how to use Flash or Photoshop yet do not use it in class. This does not mean you can’t use it for this project. All the

tools and software available to you is acceptable for the project. This is your chance to show the skills you have and shine with your design. Work hard, and use your time wisely. If you have extra time, go back and make adjustments, or add more items in that fit with the design. Your options are endless…..

Good Luck!!!!

M A I N P A G EThis page will be the first page to load when the site comes up. Please make sure you name it “index.html” so that when someone comes to your area, this page will load by default. If you do not do this, there is a chance that your site will not be viewable and the judges will not be able to view the content that you have posted. If you personally or your teacher has access to the area you will be posting your site, test out a sample of something first and early just to make sure all of this works fine on your end. It will be impossible to give you another opportunity if you wait until the last minute to see if things are working on your end, and have a problem with the posting or viewing your site.

We as a band feel that this is the most important page. There are several things you need to keep in mind when putting it together. First you will see an image below this text. We like this image and want it used in some way on the main page. Our band name is “Synthetic Divide”, we want you to create a title for the pages that has our band name in it. All of us would like to see some graphic with some type of cool effect used on the text. We have heard that Photoshop or Fireworks can really jazz up text and make it an image. There are no special colors for the band or style of font so I would take any design you come up with as long as it fits in with the style of the site. All of us are anxious to see what you can come up with. This will most likely top every page so create something we can be proud of.

“Synthetic Divide weaves a tapestry of melody and angst with a new fresh feel. They are a young band, still a little new to the music scene, yet have released 4 albums in just about as many years. All have been greeted with enthusiasm from their fan base.

Synthetic Divide consists of 4 members Brad Jones and Sam Mitchell, both to play guitar and do the vocals. Their voices although very different, mesh together seamlessly into an amazing range of tunes that dive deep into your soul. Terrence Auchinleck (drums) and Michael Northump (base) round out the quartet. They are just starting out of a new US tour with many dates already sold out.

New York Times”

N A V I G A T I O N

We want our site to contain many pages promoting our music, albums, showing our tour dates and telling our fans a little about who we are. We would like to see the navigation in the order presented below, although we will give you the freedom of changing things around if you feel there is a better way.

The navigation needs to have these items:

Main.....................This is going to be our first page the fans will see when they come to our site.Our Story..............Explains how the band has grown over the years and gives a little history.Bios......................Tells a little about each band member, please make sure to include photos.Discography.........This page promotes the albums and shows the songs they contain.Music....................This is a list of all our songs we have released.Tour Dates............Our current tour dates so our fans can find when we are in a city near them.Gallery..................Photos of the band from ourselves, promotional photos and our fans.

Use whatever tools you have available to create the navigation. This is an area that can get your site to stand apart from the others. There is no requirements, other than the names listed above, to putting it together. Please do not add any other sections to your navigation. If there is something else you want to do, find a way to get it in the existing pages of the navigation. You can use plain text, Flash, or create rollovers. Try to come up with some theme for the site and create a set of navigation that pops…

O U R S T O R Y

On this page we have supplied you with an image we would like to see used with the story of how our band came into being. Make sure you do not change our wording, but you can organize it in any way the works with how you have been designing the site. There is a lot of text so if you have some ideas of getting it together, we want you to use your skills.

“Synthetic Divide started out in the early 2003. They originally started out as Simplicity, but found that this name was used by another band many years ago, so they wanted something unique and catchy. They changed it to their now title “Synthetic Divide”. Their fans didn’t mind, they liked the band the name didn’t matter to them. The shows they would do at various venues would continue to grow in popularity.

It took several years of growth in the late 90’s to grow to their current set of members from their original two members of Brad Jones and Sam

Mitchell. Once the remaining members came into place the rest is history. Terrence and Michael rounded out the remaining positions and were a pivotal piece to the bands growth.

The band signed with Paraffin Records in June of 2003, and within a couple months put out their first album called “Young Travelers”. This album celebrated great success, prompting the band to sign a more lucrative contract with Paraffin Records and put out their second album “Gazing Pool” before one year had passed from their first album.

Both albums went platinum within the first several weeks of their release. Music stations were starting to pick up on the craze. The band decided to promote their albums and take a little change of pace by starting their first tour. This was a small tour of 15 states, and with all the fanfare, the band had a renewed interest in getting out another album.

“Guide the Wind” was their next release in 2006. This album was a little change in the focus in the band. The music was a little more rugged than the past. This album sold out in the first few hours of sales in many of the record stores throughout the United States.

Late 2007 Brad lost both his parents to a car accident, and the band started to spiral out of control. They decided to do the same things they did when they started and create another album quickly on the heels of the last one. They would use the turmoil in their life to hone their music, and keep the band together. “Dark Comes Quickly” was a tribute to Brad’s family.”

B I O S

Below is a bio from each of our band members. We want these all on the same page, but organized in any way you see fit. Make sure you include our photos as shown below in the design. Beyond that you are free to go wild. We are extremely anxious to see what you can come up with. Use all the information given below to create the Bio page:

BRAD “BEJ” JONES (GUITAR & VOCALS)

Brad was born in 1982 in Okinawa, Japan. Both his parents were in the military at the time and he had a lot of time to listen to music. His family would jump from location to location during the early years of his life. Each location he would get some friends together to play music in his garage.

SAM “SAMMICH” MITCHELL (GUITAR & VOCALS)

Sam grew up spending hours each day and night listening to the greats of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and even some oddities such as Neil Diamond (His parents favorite). These bands started influencing his musical taste. He had his first meeting with Brad at a local movie theater. It was just by luck that they started talking music, swapped numbers, and the rest is history.

TERRENCE “THE TERROR” AUCHINLECK (DRUMS)

As a kid Terrence was amazed by drums. He would play on anything he could find starting in his infancy. Fine tuned his skills at age 1 ½ by playing concerts to his parents on their pots and pans. It wasn’t long that his parents had purchased a used drum set at a garage sale. Many sets later Terrence finally met up with Brad who he jokingly calls “B-Rad” at a family block party. Little did they know that they were only about 3 houses apart.

MICHAEL “THUMPER” NORTHUMP (BASE GUITAR)

Mike came from a musical family. His parents had some limited fame in the 70’s. He got his first base guitar at age 5. Tried acoustic guitar and took lessons, but a couple of years later went back to his passion, the base. Mike was a schoolmate of Sam and was brought into the band when their fan base on their gigs when from the dozens to the hundreds.

D I S C O G R A P H Y

We want this page to contain all the albums we have release. We want the cover of the album which is shown below and a listing of the songs. You will see the track number, the name of the song along with the time. Minimum we want the name of the songs, but if you can integrate in the other items, we would love it.

You may notice that there are only a few songs per album. This is not normal, but I am trying to keep down the about of work you need to complete and also the size of the pages. The judges will be more interested in your design, layout and colors, rather than the amount of information presented on a page.

Y O U N G T R A V E L E R STrack 1 Deck of Aces 3:45Track 2 Red Pen Manifesto 4:11Track 3 Lost in Temptation 6:23Track 4 Rulers of All 4:05Track 5 Mailman Stomp 2:55

G A Z I N G P O O LTrack 1 Just Another Ripple 4:23Track 2 Dry Ice 4:15Track 3 The Wet Stones 3:44Track 4 Kick Me When I’m Down 4:31

G U I D E T H E W I N DTrack 1 Sand 5:02Track 2 You Don’t Mean a Thing 4:32Track 3 We Construct Our Future 4:01Track 4 Duh 4:03Track 5 Where Are You? 3:57

D A R K C O M E S Q U I C K L YTrack 1 Skies of Black 5:12Track 2 Trench Coat Warriors 4:15Track 3 The Echo of Sound 3:12Track 4 Noisy Neighbor 4:09

M U S I C

We are excited about the possibilities for this page. We hope you can accomplish what we are asking for. There is information about all of our songs we have released. We would like to see these listed in some way on the page. Where things can get a little hard, but we hope you can do it, is that we want the fan to be able to listen to the songs. We have seen this done in a variety of ways, but you will need to find out what way works with your design.

As stated before in this project is you can use any tools available to you to accomplish the needs of the band. You will find a folder that contains MP3 files of the songs listed below. There are no lyrics in the songs, just the instruments. Try to get these files to play if the client viewing the page and wants to listen to a song.

Song Album Song Name Release DateSong 01 Young Travelers Deck of Aces July 2003Song 02 Young Travelers Red Pen Manifesto July 2003Song 03 Young Travelers Lost in Temptation August 2003Song 04 Young Travelers Rulers of All (With Album)Song 05 Young Travelers Mailman Stomp (With Album)Song 06 Gazing Pool Just Another Ripple August 2004Song 07 Gazing Pool Dry Ice (With Album)Song 08 Gazing Pool The Wet Stones (With Album)Song 09 Gazing Pool Kick Me When I’m Down (With Album)Song 10 Guide the Wind Sand April 2006Song 11 Guide the Wind You Don’t Mean a Thing May 2006Song 12 Guide the Wind We Construct Our Future (With Album)Song 13 Guide the Wind Duh (With Album)Song 14 Guide the Wind Where Are You? (With Album)Song 15 Dark Comes Quickly Skies of Black November 2007Song 16 Dark Comes Quickly Trench Coat Warriors December 2007Song 17 Dark Comes Quickly The Echo of Sound (With Album)Song 18 Dark Comes Quickly Noisy Neighbor (With Album)

T O U R D A T E S

Below is a list of dates and locations of our tour. It is very important this information is clear and easy to read. We want to make sure our fans can come out to see our show if we are in their area. The information is pretty basic so whatever you can do to make it look good would be great.

Tue, 07/01/0805:00 PM

Cruzan AmphitheatreWest Palm Beach, FL

Thu, 07/03/0805:00 PM

Ford Amphitheatre At the Florida State FairgroundsTampa, FL

Sat, 07/05/0805:00 PM

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre CharlotteCharlotte, NC

Sun, 07/06/0805:00 PM

Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach AmphitheaterVirginia Beach, VA

Tue, 07/08/0805:00 PM

Nikon at Jones Beach TheaterWantagh, NY

Sat, 07/12/0805:00 PM

Susquehanna Bank CenterCamden, NJ

Sun, 07/13/0805:00 PM

Nissan PavilionBristow, VA

Tue, 07/15/0805:00 PM

DTE Energy Music TheatreClarkston, MI

Wed, 07/16/0805:00 PM

First Midwest Bank AmphitheatreTinley Park, IL

Fri, 07/18/0805:00 PM

Verizon Wireless Music CenterNoblesville, IN

Sat, 07/19/0805:00 PM

Marcus Amphitheater SummerfestMilwaukee, WI

Sun, 07/20/0805:00 PM

Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St LouisMaryland Heights, MO

Wed, 07/23/0805:00 PM

Verizon Wireless AmphitheaterSelma, TX

Thu, 07/24/0805:00 PM

Superpages.com CenterDallas, TX

Sat, 07/26/0805:00 PM

Journal PavilionAlbuquerque, NM

Sun, 07/27/0806:30 PM

Fiddler's Green AmphitheatreEnglewood, CO

G A L L E R Y

We have supplied you with a bunch of band photos. We want some way of showing these to our fans. The photos depict our practice sessions, some of the gigs we have been at, along with some promotional and fan photos. We would love to have you find some cool way of presenting these photos to the fans looking at our site. We do not want a page with a set of photos all over it. We have seen some very cool looking photo albums out there and would love to see what you can come up with.

A N Y O T H E R I T E M S

From here you have the main core of the site together. If you have extra time, I would use this opportunity to take the site to the next level. I have supplied you with a lot of text and files such as the songs, and graphics. Try to find some eye popping things you can do with these and integrate them strategically into the site.

Try to come up with something young and cutting edge that really would bring in the followers of a young rock band. Remember there are several things that the judges will be focusing on:

Use of color. Layout of design Ease of use Integration of given content Creativity on non-specified design aspects

Make sure that you have done your best on these topics and have integrated everything required by the project into your design.

F I N A L N O T E

Make sure you have everything completed, tested, and organized before the deadline. It will be up to you or your teacher to post the information to your designated area before the deadline hits. After that you will not be allowed to post any new or changed content. College students will be posting their own site to their personal areas, while high school students will be sharing an area with their class. your teacher will do the final prep work on getting all the projects for their school posted to the area assigned to them. Follow the teacher’s instructions on getting things done. Remember, there is a deadline, and if the site is not posted or working properly, I can assume that you will be out of the running for the competition.

I wish all of you the best of luck on this project, and I am very excited to see all the wonderful designs you will be coming up with at the date of the competition. Good luck to all….