Aria Melody
A performer with an outdated website and a clear brief: a redesign that feels both sophisticated and fun. Two qualities that most sites pick one of, because holding both at once is genuinely difficult.
The problem
The existing site had aged in the way personal sites do — the design conventions of the year it was built, still visible years later. For a performer, that dates the artist as much as the website, and bookers notice.
The brief itself was the harder problem. Sophisticated usually means restrained to the point of cold, and fun usually means loud to the point of unserious. Chasing both without a clear rule produces something that reads as neither.
Welcome to my website.
Conventions of the year it was built
Sophisticated risked feeling cold
Fun risked feeling unserious
The approach
Resolve it structurally: let the layout carry the sophistication and the details carry the fun. Generous space, assured typography and disciplined composition underneath, with personality expressed through colour, motion and small moments rather than through the overall frame.
That split meant the site could feel playful without ever looking amateur, and polished without feeling corporate — which is the balance the brief was actually asking for.
Polished and playful, without choosing.
Layout carries the sophistication
Details carry the fun
Disciplined composition underneath
What we built
Six decisions that shaped the build, each made for a reason rather than an aesthetic.
Generous space, assured typography and disciplined composition — the frame holds the seriousness so the details are free to play.
Colour, motion and small interactive moments carry the fun, rather than the overall layout having to shout.
Media and imagery presented large enough to convey what a performance actually feels like, which no amount of description achieves.
A clear route to enquiry from anywhere on the site, because interest in a performer peaks while watching rather than afterwards.
Deliberately avoiding the visual trends that dated the previous site, so this one still looks current in three years.
New dates, releases and media added in-house, keeping the site current without a developer.
What changed afterwards
“Working with Mikkel has been an incredible experience. He’s both a talented designer and a skilled developer who brings creative insight and technical precision to every project. Mikkel guided me through a modern, fresh design approach and shared valuable best practices along the way. I’m genuinely grateful to have crossed paths with him and look forward to collaborating on many more projects in the future. Thank you, Mikkel!”
Joe S.Aria Melody
Want this for
your business?
Thirty minutes, free. We'll work out what the site needs to do, and whether we're the right team to do it.
