Bonus Tracks

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2017

After TriPlay-Inc acquired the eMusic brand in 2015, I was given the opportunity to come on as their first Creative Director and build not only the design team but the platform from the ground up. It has been an unreal experience filled with many lessons, challenges and iterative success.

History

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Launched in 1998 eMusic was the first to sell digital mp3 downloads online and had evolved over time to be known as the #1 independent music source.  But a combination of forces worked against the company: the domination of Apple’s iTunes in the world of downloads; the rise of streaming services like Spotify; and a carousel of management/ ownership situations had taken its toll – by the end of 2015 the dream had decayed – what remained was a WordPress website offering subscription-based discounts on music.

Even in this state, TriPlay, a next-gen cloud company, saw the opportunity to tap into audiences underserved by streaming models.  Combining the cloud with the catalogue, TriPlay saw the opportunity to create a comprehensive “collector’s paradise” for enthusiasts of eclectic tastes and the long tail of music.

LOGO AT LAUNCH 1998 (TOP) & AFTER THE 2004 RE-BRAND (BELOW), ADVERTISEMENTS & DIFFERENT STATES OF THE LANDING EXPERIENCE 2004-2013

Visual Brand

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The eMusic brand was stale and had long passed its best before date.  Working closely with the team at Franklyn, the eMusic brand was refreshed and re-worked as a brand system that in the future would branch out into other products (more on that in a later case study about eStories).

The result is a mature, modern, irreverent re-brand that embraces the gritty imperfect world of independent music, all without turning its back on eMusic’s nearly twenty-year history. The new brand and product suite focused on the experience of collecting, curating and consuming music from any connected device. This new focus was partially accomplished by combining the next-gen cloud services of TriPlay, completely rethinking the eMusic product and technology stack and finally introducing native iOS and Android apps.

TYPOGRAPHY

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The unique pairing of the modern systematic Maison Neue and classic Georgia was selected for use across both product and marketing materials. Complimented by two display faces the quirky and irreverent custom brand typeface “TriPlay” (created by Franklyn) and the hand-drawn Crystal Sky.

COLOR

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One the only stakeholder requests that he had to design for was that black could not feature predominantly in the new colour palette (the old branding had overused it). So with a brand system in mind, our Midnight Blue and Livid grey were selected to be cross-system colours, and each sub-brand would have a primary spot colour. In this case, eMusic is Rouge Red.   

ICONOGRAPHY

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In many ways, iconography was initially a significant weakness for our team. We lacked a cohesive icon style and had different icon sets across multiple products. It was not until well into the implementation of our design system that we were able to pull everything together, which lead to the redrawing of many of our early icons.

GENRE HEADERS

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Often tedious and overlooked, we wanted to inject some life and creativity into ours and use them prominently at the top of the browse page with user-specific recommendations. To draw the eye and add an editorial feel expressive type marks were created for each top-level genre.

Going Mobile First

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As a team we wanted to design for how people were accessing and experiencing music on their phones, tablets and smart TVs today; but as we discovered with user research and customer outreach that was not necessarily what our ageing customer base needed. Operating for years as a bulk discount download warehouse left our customers needing a sync agent and portal with which to access the downloadable content.  We needed to educate our user base on the benefits of storing their collection in the cloud and pairing it with our mobile applications.

BRYAN FAREVAAG
Product • Brand • Design & Art Direction
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