McDonald Records

Introduction

Walk by House of Wine on a Friday evening, and you might hear a series of beautiful piano notes. In the seat, you will find David McDonald, a local Grand Rapids, Michigan singer, songwriter, and pianist. McDonald blesses those around him with soothing tunes that hit home.

Kevin and Michael from Launch Kit joined David at House of Wine for a drink to learn more about the musician's business, goals, and strategy. As an artist, McDonald loves to record in the studio and perform live. He's about to release his second album on Apple Music and Spotify.

What began with a walk down Ionia Ave turned into a partnership that began with brand development and has since moved into developing a unique website.

Scope of Work

1. Brand Development - Logo Kit.
2. Website Development - Web Membership Program.

Brand Development - Logo Kit

David McDonald was looking to develop his branding as a musician and lay the groundwork for the future development of his record label. Launch Kit came on board to tackle the logo design process.

We began with a thorough questionnaire workshop to learn about what motivates David and what makes his music unique. We learned about his style, taste, and vision. This gave us the insights we needed to develop a unique stylescape.

With approval on direction we began crafting logo concepts that spoke to David's aesthetic. We pursued a concept that visualizes a musical note, an audio wave, and the letter M.

The mark and wordmark come together to create a full lockup that flows smoothly just like the notes in David's music.

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Web Design

With the Brand Development items in place, the team moved on to step two in the marketing machine - Web Design.

• Brand development = foundation.
• Website = framing of the house.

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All roads lead back to the website so we need to make sure we have a solid home base that guides users in the right direction.

For David McDonald, the website serves a few purposes.

• Display upcoming events.
• About David information.
• Contact information.
• Links to social media pages
• Links to music profiles like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

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Launch Kit web designer, Mackenzie Broekstra took Michael’s brand development assets to the drawing board to create a unique website that totally embodies David’s classy style.

“McDonald Records is a sanctuary for artists to freely express their musical visions without the constraints that often come with the industry.” - David McDonald.

Designing the website was just the beginning of our web partnership with David. Going forward, Launch Kit will maintain the website by keeping it updated with David’s events, press, and music releases.

Launch Kit is honored to be partnered with David McDonald and we look forward to being part of his team as his career in the music industry builds.