Zone 6 Management | Varyer

Zone 6

An exercise in simplicity for music that’s anything but
Premise

Clean, intuitive, and straightforward were our main objectives. We created Zone 6’s music management portfolio site with enough personalized flourishes to stand out from an out-of-the-box platform.

Partner
Zone 6
About

Zone 6 is an independent artist management company based in Brooklyn, NY

We meet you where you are

There is no one-size-fits-all response to a project brief or to what we propose we can deliver for a client. We pride ourselves on our ability to communicate empathetically and with understanding, ascertaining specific priorities for different individuals. The launch of the Zone6 website is an example of problem solving that supported a unique, individual need.

Drawing inspiration from early botanical illustrations

Working with constraints

Zone6 is an ongoing curatorial venture from Caleb Braaten of Sacred Bones and Brandon Stosuy of The Creative Independent. We understood their need for a website that could be created and updated without the need for development while not sacrificing on style. We settled on the Cargo Collective platform and created a sitemap and wireframes with its limitations in mind.

Auditory visions come to life

Visually, Zone6 has an aura that resonates in a similar frequency to that of its musicians; dark, evocative, and purposeful. Perfectly edited and with nothing out of place. We designed the homepage animation as an extension of the plant in their logo, hinting at growth and the future. Knowing the client's proclivity towards minimalism, we wanted to stay true to this ideal but include something unique. We opted for hover states to create unexpected moments: a blur for all images, and a photo popup on each artist in their roster. These touches are programmatic, requiring no design for future images uploaded to the website.

Above all else, be friends

For this project, being a collaborative partner in the design process was crucial. Decisions that we made would affect the functional ease of the site when completed. We provided documentation on how to make material edits and scheduled training sessions to ensure a smooth transition from our agency to the Zone6 staff.

In an industry of algorithms, we’re more interested in fostering community.

—Zone 6