Michael Baugh. Composer

The story of how I helped composer Michael Baugh promote his business with a new website that reflects his personality.

Michael Baugh is a British composer and multi-instrumentalist who works with some of the biggest names in music. He asked me to design and develop a new website that reflects his personality and helps him attract new clients.

Michael has a passion for classic science fiction, particularly the work of Isaac Asimov, and he wanted that influence to come through in the design. I studied vintage science-fiction book covers for colour and typographic inspiration and then created a bespoke series of original illustrations incorporating amplifier and guitar parts rather than falling into pastiche.

Instead of adding a typical theme switcher, I designed a palette of colours that shifts during the day, becoming darker at night and lighter in the morning. That gave the site a distinct atmosphere and helped it feel more alive.

Finally, I developed a static HTML/CSS prototype and integrated a simple-to-use CMS so Michael could manage his content without friction.

The outcomes

• Bespoke design and original illustrations
• Integrated audio files and SVG graphics
• Eleventy CMS for easy content editing

The details

I frequently have the pleasure of working with clients who are interested in graphic and user-experience design, want to be deeply involved in their project, and are willing to explore where the creative process may take them. Michael was one of those clients. Not every design demands the level of graphic design included in Michael’s website, but there are still questions to answer whatever the project.

Inspiration from science fiction

There’s so much that designers can learn from and be inspired by in other media, be they book jackets, magazine and newspaper layouts, packaging, or even record covers. Over the years, I’ve become a compulsive collector of graphic design. I scour secondhand book and magazine stores wherever I go, looking for materials that might spark an idea in the future.

Michael loves science-fiction novels, so I wanted to bring some of the feeling of vintage book jackets into his design while still making the final work feel contemporary and personal to him.

How do you make a design which stands out?

Page layout is a crucial element in visual storytelling. Still, far too many websites use grids from Bootstrap and Google’s Material Design frameworks. Those frameworks—and plenty more besides—include a generic grid with twelve even-width columns. The result is an endless sea of carbon-copy products and generic-looking website designs. Brands have individual stories about their products, work, and themselves; designers can use layouts to tell them. Just as colours evoke feelings and typefaces have tones of voice, layouts–including compound, modular, and ratio-based grids—make similar statements.

Bespoke HTML markup and CSS stylesheets allowed me total control over the layout of Michael’s website. Instead of a generic even-ratio 12-column grid, I chose a compound grid layout combining a 4-column and 5-column grid for a distinctive look that is flexible and responsive.

I searched long and hard for a web designer to create something unique, that stands out, and is more than a website. Andy delivered precisely that. If you’re looking for attention to detail, collaboration, quality, seamless execution, and maximum creativity, look no further.

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