Another Rhythm Records | Communication Arts

Responses by Michael Watson, creative director and cofounder, Project Simply.

Background: Another Rhythm Records wanted to showcase its extensive collection of musical artists and releases creatively, enabling people to browse and listen while simultaneously having a bit of fun. Our brief was broad and gave us an excellent opportunity to be creative and experimental and make something a bit peculiar and adventurous.

Design core: At the site’s heart is an interactive isometric grid of releases that fly around the screen. Initially, we were only going to have a hint of skeuomorphism. As the project evolved, we leaned into this more, creating a strange grid of floating ten-inch vinyl that tilt and spin as the camera moves. Another Rhythm’s brand is super minimal, but the artwork of its releases is quite the opposite, so there’s an interesting mix of clean, neutral whites and chaotic, contrasting colors.

Favorite details: We love how you can move the camera around with your finger or mouse. It’s always great to create moments that surprise, and when the releases first arrive on the screen, you have this peculiar, minimal platform that doesn’t quite behave as you’d expect but still feels natural to use.

Challenges: Building an infinite grid! We wanted to make sure all of Another Rhythm’s releases showed up on a grid, but we also wanted it to be able to repeat into infinity, letting users slide off in any direction and seamlessly see more and more artwork forever. It was a fun challenge, but it certainly led to a good few hours of head-scratching to perfect.

New lessons: The site is built in 3-D, and it was the first time we’d used the wonderful JavaScript library three.js in a while. So, we had to brush up on the latest version of the code and try out a few new concepts to make sure we could make everything performant. We wanted the site to be a smooth experience on mobile, so performance proved critical. Experimenting with anti-alias settings, image compression and a staggering load of content has set us up for complex 3-D projects in the future.

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