Creating a Brand Identity for 'Psycho Circus' - Part Two : Web Presence

So my next step was to create a web presence for Psycho Circus. Social Media is one of the biggest ways of spreading information and reaching vaster audiences in the modern day, so I targeted the top 5 ways for a band broaden their reach.

1: A personal website

2: Facebook page

3: Twitter page

4: Youtube account

5: Bandcamp profile

Beginning with the website, I created the band their personal domain name (www.psycho-circus.co.uk) and designed a basic home page.  This homepage works as a portal to their new social media accounts (listed above). I also designed a 'Who are the Circus?' Biography page to give new visitors of the website an insight into the band itself. 

To design the action buttons, I used Adobe Photoshop. The style of the blood splatters creates a continuation of style and imagery, as these colours, imagery and typeface will be used throughout the bands social networking.

The icons used in the buttons are the most commonly represented symbols of each social networking site, so I knew users of the website would recognise what each button lead to by the imagery without necessarily having to have the exact name of it on there.

Using photographs taken in the photoshoot (see Part One) I could create a website that showed the fun and interesting side to the imagery of the band which would make them stand out from competition in the music industry.

After the website portal was set up, I went on to create the imagery for their Facebook page. Facebook being the most popular social networking site, it seemed like the best option as their following on their unaltered Facebook page was at around 200 likes at this point. The bands aim was the more than double this in order to make a good impression and impact, so professional design and artwork was needed.

This was one of the first teaser pieces of artwork I created the band so they could leak the fact they were returning with a cover photo. Using illustrations they were given by another artist (permission given to use and alter) I created a simple cartoon based piece. After discussing with the band, we decided this wasn't the direction to take the teaser in, we wanted something more symbolic rather than literal, and after these discussions I decided using old illustrations of their old costumes would make it look like they hadn't developed as a band, so I then went on to try a simpler different approach.

Using basic colour scheme and, again emphasising the consistency of the blood imagery, created this teaser which the band was more than happy with. It received many likes on the Facebook and began to build hype for the band, so was serving its purpose.

Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site of recent years, so my next step was to set up a twitter account for the band. As I had designed the website and Facebook, I new exactly what direction to take the twitter in to keep the continuous style, so the band were very happy with the style I put forward!

Initially, I created a profile banner with the action buttons on, but decided a photograph of the band itself would be best for the promotion as it was more eye catching and the profile photograph itself was the logo. Being that the imagery of the band and the way they dress is a main selling point, it was important to show this on the twitter page as soon as you looked at it.

The band informed me that they had created some teaser videos of their old demos ready to show people an idea of their sound, so I designed them youtube artwork so they had a format to upload the videos onto. I decided to use their character illustrations for this, as their old demos were to bring some nostalgia to old fans so the older artwork with a new twist would work well with this idea. 

I kept the youtube very basic and simple as this meant the page was easier to navigate for anyone who came across one of the demos wanted to look into the band further. I also included the website link on the home page so users could find their social networking sites which had more information on.

For the Bandcamp profile, at this stage of development it was simply a matter of creating the page with a 'coming soon' style teaser image so it was apparent that they would be releasing new material soon, as at this stage the band had no material to release till the new EP was finished recording.

My next step from here wi to begin designing the EP cover! Album artwork is always fun, but the direction to take with this band will be an interesting one!

© AElizabeth Design