The requirements for this pro bono project were straightforward: create a website for Diet Strychnine Records to assist in the promotion of its artists and their music, while also providing a unique presence online for the music label itself. It was our belief that the best way to encourage people to purchase the music merchandise (CDs and 12-inch vinyl) was to let visitors listen to any of the tracks online, as non-downloadable streaming audio, making the site (dietstrychninerecords.com) essentially function as a jukebox.

In terms of the structure and design of the site, we favored a fairly bare-bones approach, in which imagery would be limited while ASCII text and audio would be predominant. From an architectural perspective, we were adamant in our belief that the user should be able to access any section of the site, regardless of where they currently were. It seemed that the best way to achieve this goal was to have the site manifest itself as ubiquitous landscape. Fixated on this notion of the landscape, and taking inspiration from an early David Hockney painting, we settled on a very crude two-dimensional topo/graphic representation of mountainous terrain, from within which access points to all products, bios and the like are depicted as individual objects populating the space.

Fresh blood. Irreverent and not trying too hard. It feels like it is talking to its audience. A simple idea that is effective. Unpretentious and unassuming. We were drawn to the charming un-slickness. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is admittedly a strange choice...