{"id":73,"date":"2004-09-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-18T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laaker.com\/cms\/?p=73"},"modified":"2007-11-15T22:48:47","modified_gmt":"2007-11-16T06:48:47","slug":"defjamcom-redesign-launches-laakers-new-information-design-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/press-releases\/2004\/defjamcom-redesign-launches-laakers-new-information-design-efforts","title":{"rendered":"DefJam.com Redesign Launches Laaker&#8217;s New Information Design Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ednote\" class=\"prbodycopy\">\n<div id=\"ednotetitle\">Editor&#8217;s Note<\/div>\n<p>Check out a <a href=\"..\/works\/w_defjam.shtml\">case study of the new site design<\/a> in the Laaker.com Assorted Works section to see images and learn more.<\/div>\n<p class=\"prbodycopy\">(New York City) &#8211; After years of visual stagnation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defjam.com\/\">Def Jam Recordings<\/a> had it&#8217;s online ride &quot;pimped&quot; by Micah Laaker and the Fearless Concepts&#8217; creative and development teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"prbodycopy\">Known as the home of hip-hop&#8217;s earliest stars (such as LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Slick Rick, and Public Enemy), Def Jam Recordings has maintained its brand value of being <i>the<\/i> definitive hip-hop recording label. Now featuring stars such as Method Man, Ghostface, Jay-Z (via Roc-a-fella Records), and Ja Rule (courtesy of The Inc. Records), the label continues to define where the rap industry is heading. Unfortunately, the label&#8217;s website was not communicating the prestige of the music powerhouse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"prbodycopy\">Leading the development of the information architecture and visual design efforts for the site, Laaker focused on moving the music label&#8217;s content to the forefront of the site&#8217;s pages while providing a visual framework that suggested &quot;street elegance.&quot; Instead of the grafitti-laden imagery and &quot;blinged-out&quot; decoration adorning other hip-hop sites, the new site was designed from day one to subtley suggest Def Jam&#8217;s DJ culture while being framed in a sophisticated, platinum-level grid structure. The design is also the cornerstone of Laaker&#8217;s focus on information design, serving as a strong example of creating a usable and useful resource for the entertainment industry. <\/p>\n<p class=\"prbodycopy\">Using the site&#8217;s users&#8217; feedback to help guide content naming, organization, and design approach, Laaker and his group developed an entirely new website for the label featuring an integrated storefront, a user polling system, an entertainment\/lifestyle focus, and integrated community features. Launched on Thursday, September 16th, the site now enters development for considerably more extensive community features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor&#8217;s Note Check out a case study of the new site design in the Laaker.com Assorted Works section to see images and learn more. (New York City) &#8211; After years of visual stagnation, Def Jam Recordings had it&#8217;s online ride &quot;pimped&quot; by Micah Laaker and the Fearless Concepts&#8217; creative and development teams. Known as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[155,82,195,156],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-def-jam","tag-hip-hop","tag-information-design","tag-universal-music-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laaker.com\/micah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}