The design for Willy T Bryant’s new customized MySpace Music page is inspired from the artworks and photos we recently created for his upcoming rock n’ roll record “The Remission Sessions.”

An overhead shot of the Los Angeles downtown grid, centered on the LA river trench, forms the background.  A weathered border sets off the main page area which has a background of weathered old paper.  A generous header at top shows a great side shot of Willy looking over the train tracks in the downtown rail yard, plus a small thumbnail of the record (which will later have links to purchase locations when available), and links to email Willy or become a friend of the band.

A customized name title and contact table, a centered comment area, and a few other tweaks complete the page.

Kea Ho is the daughter of Hawaii’s most famous son Don Ho, who in many ways singlehandedly exposed Hawaiian music (with “Tiny Bubbles” at the fore) and the much admired Hawaiian aloha attitude to a global audience.  Though many members of his family performed with him regularly in his nightly shows, Kea is only the second of his ten daughters to pursue a mainland singing career, after her famous half sister Hoku (who had a major label career and sold a lot of records in the late 90s).

Kea’s new music is cabaret themed, as is this MySpace design.  She told me about growing up in the backstage areas at her father’s fancy showrooms, which were bustling areas filled with performers getting ready in front of the classic light-ringed dressing mirrors.

That’s all we needed to hear.  We took a photo of her and added it to a shot of a classic cabaret makeup mirror, complete with boa, and then put her actual signature and kiss mark in lipstick next to her on the mirror as a page title.  A link at the top of the page takes visitors to her official site, which is under construction.

The site continues with a light-studded mirror border, which has a few choice snapshots tucked into the edges like a real mirror.  A custom contact table, reduced size video links, and a slideshow complete the design.

A new custom MySpace Music page for the Los Angeles new wave rock band Fight Friendly.

Background is a picture from a typical back alley in Los Angeles brightened up with a large Billie Holliday painting and a quote “Life Is Beautiful” — a great bit of street art that deserves more attention.

The header is designed like a giant billboard with semi-transparent framing and supports that run down the page on either side, showing off a cool band photo.  A line of band website link graphics runs along the bottom right of the billboard, allowing visitors to get quickly to those sites or to contact the band directly.

Lower on the page, the background behind the text is darkened so the picture still shows through yet the text is still very readable.  Band member photos in frames that match the distressed background run down along the left side, just below a custom contact table with text and colors that match the page. The background tiles to infinity down the page, allowing the content to grow over time.

Overall, a clean, fast loading professional page for a great band.

A nice clean MySpace website customization for songwriter Michael McClellan, including a confident  shot of him in a studio.  The pic was created in two stages: pics of him were shot at our photo studio, and then placed in the studio background.  A contact link at bottom right connects potential contacts with him.

Presents a very professional image without eating up a lot of bandwidth.  Loads fast and looks good.

A custom design for model/television host Casey Durkin incorporating photography from her archives into the background and the header.

Photos are displayed in a film strip as well as in full form on top and sides.

A button link at top leads viewers back to Casey’s own site.

The contact table is also customized.

Simple neutral design that lets the photos speak for themselves; loads fast and reliably as well.

One of the most fully featured MySpace customizations we’ve ever done.

The band wanted to include a large amount of info “above the fold,” making this practically the equivalent of a full featured website.  In addition to the usual attractive header, there’s pictures of each band member, a bio, banners for fans, contact info, endorsement links, links to social networking sites, a Twitter feed, and video slot, and a full set of Reverbnation widgets including a player, gig info, and email collector, and more.

While this takes some time to get through, the music plays the whole time so the MySpace experience really isn’t interrupted.

We generally advise bands to go more simply, because depending on the visitor’s internet connection there might be a lag while all this material loads.  But this was an interesting one to put together.

For a detailed portfolio of work prior to 2009, please visit:

DUFFOTO.COM