For this week’s project we were tasked with creating a promotional email newsletter, and a simple one-page website. I chose to create my project around a company called “Native Instruments”. As soon as a learned about this project, I instantly knew that I wanted to create a piece with this company in mind because 1. It would be a great company to work for as their visual designs are compelling and attractive to consumers in the market for digital audio plug ins, samplers, and instruments, 2. Native instruments have been on the forefront of digital music technology for decades. Their instruments are second to none in quality and most producers, musicians, DJ’s, engineers all have worked or continue to work with their ever-expanding line of digital software and hardware for music production, mixing/engineering, and live performance/DJ products. Their work to create futuristic and extremely well-crafted instruments doesn’t stop at just creating and developing these products, they have an incredible team of graphic and Ui/UX designers that take the visuals and the UI for these products to the next level, as well as constantly staying futuristic and modern when it comes to their online store and platform. “For more than 20 years, Native Instruments has been at the heart of musical innovation. Our audio technology has revolutionized how people make music, opening new creative horizons for amateurs and professionals alike and giving rise to thriving creative communities”. (Native-instruments.com) Needless to say, I am a fan.
For this promotional email and special sale one-page website, I decided to create a campaign for a “New Year 2022” sale, which features 50% off on all digital products across their store. Native Instruments is known for their flash sales especially during the end/beginning of the year and during the holidays. As a consumer myself, I usually wait to upgrade my software until one of these sales hits, so it’s been really cool to actually build one out myself as a potential portfolio piece.
For creating the email promotion, I stuck with a standard width of 600px, and a 12 point grid system centered in the middle and expanding out, but not far enough to hit the boundaries or edges of the frame. “A grid’s main goal is to create a connection of unity within a design, which in turn makes web page content flow better, producing a more readable and enjoyable web page design”. (Callum Hopkins).
I created the bare bones wireframe first and ensured that by using the grid system, I lined up all the content boxes and picture frames needed for the email in a uniform way that had a structure (Intro/header, body text boxes, and a footer) that was visually appealing and familiar to the end users who would get this promotional email. “Why is the email template size so important? Why are there so many questions on this topic and no quick answers? To put it simply, the email design size affects whether your email will be delivered at all. It also defines whether your customer will read your message and take the desired actions. There is the standard template width (600 px), but still, there are intricacies you should be aware of”. (Diana Lepilkina)
After I created the wireframes for both the promotional email, and the one-page website, I began looking for resources and assets from native instruments that I could use. That turned out to be a challenge when looking for a transparent .png of the logo as I had to remove the background from one of the many logos I found in photoshop. Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t a logo online that was a transparent .png. After I found all the assets I needed, I found a Background image that I thought would fit perfectly with the uniform dynamic present in all of their platforms and products. The final result for the promotional email and website is something that I am proud of, and think can stand next to what they have out officially now.
Sources
“About Us.” About Us, www.native-instruments.com/en/company/about-us/.
Lepilkina, Diana. “The Right Email Template Size: Mailtrap Blog.” Mailtrap, 19 Aug. 2021, mailtrap.io/blog/email-template-size/.
Hopkins, Callum. “An Introduction to Grid Systems in Web Design.” SitePoint, SitePoint, 5 May 2018, http://www.sitepoint.com/an-introduction-to-grids-in-web-design/.
Design By Angel Vazquez 