MusicLink Foundation

UI + Visual identity design — Academic project

Overview

MusicLink Foundation connects low-income students with volunteer music teachers. However, their existing website and brand identity were outdated and cluttered, making it difficult to communicate their mission or build trust with users.

They needed a complete rebrand that would resonate with their core audiences:

  • Promising young students

  • Parents seeking affordable music opportunities

  • Volunteer music teachers looking to give back

Task

Complete a rebrand for Musiclink Foundation that targets it’s target audience: students, parents, and volunteer music teachers.

Research

I began the project by conducting an audit of MusicLink Foundation’s current site.

For example, their old site had an outdated logo and visual identity, their site featured too many links and buttons that made navigation unclear, and they didn’t have a style of photography that was unique to their brand.

User Personas

I created user personas based off of the foundations offerings and found that they’re main goal was to target promising students, volunteer music teachers, and parents who wanted to donate or sign their child up for MusicLink lessons. From there, I knew that the brand had to not only showcase their professionalism but show that they were approachable and fun as well.

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Brand guidelines & touch points

A mini brand guideline was made to help guide the client how to utilize their icons and assets, as well as explain typography choices and how to implement and maintain the brand’s voice and feel. The touch points shown are t-shirts, buttons, music folders, business cards and posters.

Reflection

This project helped me grow as both a visual and UX designer. I learned how to merge strategic user insights with clean, scalable design, and how to build a cohesive brand that resonates across audiences and platforms.

Responsive landing page

Once I established the user personas, I focused on an identity that would appeal to each of these users in a cohesive way. Since it is a music foundation, I leaned into the classic black and white color palette often used in music visual identities. I focused on a sleek and professional style of photography that paired well with the new and modern look of the foundation’s identity, and utilized deconstructed music notes as the “pattern” for the brand which kept the identity easily adaptable for website usage, social media, and touch points.