Ryan Van Etten @ryanve
Design Portfolio

Websites

virtualmusic.tv

I launched virtualmusic.tv in 2009 as a resource for indie musicians in modern digital times. I wanted to feature quality content in creative, visual ways. I experimented with various layouts and social features over the years. The current site uses responsive design and is stripped down into pure content without crud. Its most popular post was a data visualization that has had 60,000+ views. Other popular features are vibrant photosets, interviews, and story-driven articles.
basbasbas.com/thesis

Bas Grasmayer's asked me to convert his innovative thesis paper about marketing music through non-linear communication into vivid mobile-friendly webpages.
A thesis about non-linear communication should probably not be read in a linear way. I had the help of the great designer Ryan Van Etten to turn this thought into reality. He did a great job adapting the paper version into the site you see before you now.
amplifiedny.com

Amplified NY is an independent NYC photo blog that I launched in 2010. For the site I curate exceptional NYC photos from contributors in the accompanying Flickr group. The site features a vertical rhythm that was inspired by The Big Picture but done in an urban street style that better depicts NYC. Photos are complete with detailed captions and credits.
survitals.com

Survitals is a website I'm building with friends that aims to centralize modern-day survival and emergency knowledge. It works to present essential emergency and survival tips in practical ways that appeal to the mainstream.
My design concept for this site is bold, fast, and simple. It needs to be super readable and easy to navigate quickly even in stressful situations. I chose a simple rotated triangle as the logo to resemble a compass needle.
vibe.airve.com

vibe is one of my opensource projects. It deals with CSS classes, hence the dot syntax in its logo. I like to make logos to give my opensource projects stronger identities. I use simple shapes and bold balanced color combinations to look like stickers.
I've experimented with different ways to display project pages and documentation. vibe.airve.com, verge.airve.com, and responsejs.com are examples of this.
undertheflood.com

Under The Flood needed a clean simple responsive homepage to spotlight their A Different Light album release. Key components of the page are a SoundCloud player and an iTunes call to action.
I had done previous work for the band and their label including digital strategy, store design, and graphic editing. By this point I had a great feel for the band's identity and what they needed on their homepage.
Eckankar NJ

Eckankar NJ asked me to help build the future version of their website. Their existing site is hard to use and hard for them to update. I helped architect content strategy for their future site and developed WordPress plugins (access, homie) to meet complex needs like member access and local events.
Using the organization's colors, I prototyped a functional semantic responsive theme designed for readability and easy navigation via deep menus or search.
aaronirwin.com

Aaron is a Jazz musician whose website I first built in 2006. 6 years later I converted it for him to WordPress to make it easier for him to add and edit content. I designed a gray responsive theme to a achieve modern classy urban feel that suited his style and his music. Sound samples on the site use HTML5 audio.
galynkerphotography.com

Galynker hired me to build and host his photography website. He grouped his photos into portfolios by theme. The homepage features the cover photo from each portfolio. We designed with an understated design tone to showcase the impact of the photos.
crimsonroad.com

Music was my original reason for getting involved in web design. It all started in 2003 with indie-music project Crimson Road. I did web design, creative direction, music production, and digital distribution to music websites. I learned much along the way that helped my later to do freelance strategy for other artists.

Websites

Eckankar NJ