Headstand Media

Headstand Media is excited to announce the launch of a brand new online community website for The Blacksmith Project, a recording studio and Christian musician collective based in Bull Valley, Illinois. The site was built around emerging Web 2.0 strategies, and offers in-depth content, photos, music sampling and purchasing, blogs and social media integration for its artists.

Project Strategy

Headstand Media, a Chicago web design company, met with the founders of The Blacksmith Project soon after the construction of the aforementioned recording studio, and provided a comprehensive web strategy that focused on:

• Logo design, branding, and messaging
• Educating the client in regard to Web 2.0 best practices and social media
• How to tell a captivating story and engage the culture
• Developing a dynamic, compelling website

The Blacksmith Project needed a site that was both visually exciting and able to handle multiple user accounts. Since there were a handful of artists involved, it was important that each artist had their own unique area of the site, where they could develop their own content and sell their music. Equally of importance was the building of the site with a technology that would be versatile and scalable for future expansion and additional features.

Project Technology and Integration

Theblacksmithproject.com was built in a content management system called WordPress, the world’s largest blogging and content management platform, using open source technology. For this particular project we used WordPress MU, to facilitate multiple users and accounts. We designed the custom theme that controls the way the site looks and feels, using industry standard best practices in HTML, PHP, SEO, Javascript, and CSS web coding. The site is an excellent example of our balanced approach of creativity + technology—a strategy we consistently employ as we’re solving business problems for our customers.

More About The Blacksmith Project

The Blacksmith Project was founded in 2007 by Duncan Mathieson and Mark Filippi, both longtime musicians with a passion to both teach and empower new artists in their pursuit of recording, performing, songwriting, and promoting themselves and their own original music. The founders met around the time that Duncan was considering retirement from a business career and Mark was an interim worship pastor at Moraine Valley Church.

Since its inception and the completion of the recording studio in Bull Valley, Illinois, The Blacksmith Project has amassed a handful of talented musicians and hosted benefit concerts in their area. One of their big goals is to raise awareness and support for local ministries and meaningful causes in order to impact their local community. Their next free concert will be on February 6th at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois and will begin at 7:00pm. The concert will benefit the Crystal Lake Food Pantry.

For more information on The Blacksmith Project, their artists, and their events, please visit them at www.theblacksmithproject.com!

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