Header - the main focus of this is the band's name. The font is white in contrast with the dark background to make it stand out. The font is clean and modern looking to link to their futuristic themes in their music. Underneath, the title of the band's new album is apparent. This draws the attention to the band's new works and sells it to the audience.
Links - these buttons link to various social networks and online shops relating to the band. This encourages the audience to 'follow' the band and buy their merchandise. The buttons have very simple symbols that are easily recognised as popular companies (e.g. a bird representing Twitter).
Tabs - The website offers a variety of options for the audience. The news tab keeps the reader up to date on all the latest events from the band. The photo gallery gives an insight into the band's life and tours. It gives the audience a feel for the band and how they work. Videos of their live shows gives the audience an idea of what they are like live. The tour tab allows fans to check where the bands will be on certain dates. The music tab is an obvious one to have on a artist's site as it shows all the artist's works from albums to tracks upon a specific album. The store holds all the band's merchandise for the fans to purchase. 'The Story' tab is something that is a little more specific to Coheed and Cambria in particular. The band's music is based around a graphic novel written by the lead singer. The story allows fans of the music to read up on the novel that inspires the band's songs. This is also a way of getting the fans of the music to become fans of the novel and visa versa. The tabs are in the same contrasting colours as the title (white font upon a dark background). The shapes surrounding the individual sub-titles are quite rough looking around the edges and the font does not fit on some of these shapes as they might do in a more formal website. This dysfunctional look reflects the rock genre in that it is a little rough and informal.
Tours - on the homepage a slide show of different adverts. Some advertise the band's new album on Vinyl and others show exclusive giveaways. The slide show also shows the band's latest tour dates on a regular basis. This alerts the audience to any shows that could take place near to them. 
Artwork - the background of the homepage includes the artwork from the new album that adds extra advertising along with the title beneath the header. The artwork is very futuristic as it features an alien/robot character floating in mid-air. The artwork clearly reflects both the music and graphic novel as they are mainly based on the sci-fi genre. The dark, cracked wall behind the character makes a perfect, clear background to contrast the white font on top. It also links in with the darker nature of the rock genre. This would be completely different to the website of a pop artist where the background would be a lot brighter and full of colour.
Overall Website - The layout of this website is quite bulky. This would be due to the left and right columns - making the website resemble a newspaper. This way, the information is clearly separated into different posts and makes it easier to read. The website contains a live stream of posts from Twitter regarding the band. This allows the audience to be instantly updated in any events relating the band. A number of promotional videos are posted on the homepage to further the marketing of new songs or live shows. Overall, the website embraces a number of different media forms from video to social networking. This provides a high interactivity with the audience and is ultimately designed for news and marketing of the band. The colours and overall design reflect the rock genre with a dark colour scheme and rough text. They also make sure to mirror the themes of the band's music (e.g. futuristic). All of these aspects make this website highly professional and attractive.
What have I learnt:
- From this I now know how important it is for the website to clearly reflect the genre of my artist and the themes within the artist's songs.
- I have also learnt that to create a website requires a certain level of experience and professionalism. However, I can imitate certain aspects of this website to take my own design to a certain level.
- Interactivity with the audience is crucial in gaining and maintaining fans. Keeping them updated on the latest artist news and music keeps them coming back for more.
HOWEVER - I will no longer be making a website for my ancillary task. I feel that to get the most out of my creative potential, a magazine advert would give me a better chance of success.
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