Apparently, this is what happens when my designers work late without me.

This week we launched two website redesigns, one for Sean Paul and one for Estelle. Both sites were designed in house by Ian Foster and Edith Levin respectively, project managed by Crystal Anderson, and built by the WEA D2C team. These are the first of several new sites we are building in early 2012 so stay tuned for more launches soon.

Check out Sean Paul here.

Check out Estelle here.

Yesterday the Atlantic Records digital team launched a mini site to promote the release of the new Shinedown single “Bully”. The page showcases the new music video and allows fans to share specific lyrics from the song by selecting them with their mouse cursor. Selecting a lyric will spawn a popup allowing fans to share the lyric via Facebook or Twitter. The campaign in one day has produced 5x more traffic than the first week the last single was available.

Check out the video and lyric sharing app here.

Earlier this year WEA, Atlantic Records and Warner Brothers Records teamed up with Bolt Peters to conduct user research across three of our top artist websites. On these sites we conducted automated tests using Usabilia, as well as moderated interviews – all with actual fans coming to our websites.

Check out the full case study on the Bolt Peters website.

Today we launched a small reskin for Paramore.net along with our partners at Fueled by Ramen. The architecture of the site has remained largely unchanged, but we updated the theme to reflect the band’s new branding. Design by Edith Levin and build by the WEA D2C team.

Check out the new Paramore site here.

Over the last 5 years at Atlantic I’ve gone from being the sole web designer, to running an amazing creative team made up of designers, developers and project managers. We’ve launched hundreds of websites (this is reality not hyperbole) and at least as many digital marketing campaigns. Everyone involved works at a breakneck pace and there are single weeks when we launch three or four new websites.

This portfolio is the beginning – collecting and showcasing the work we have done over the last 5 years. It’s by no means exhaustive and will continue to grow over time. Special thanks to everyone on my team (and everyone on the WEA D2C team) for making all of this work possible.

DESIGNERS

Edith Levin
Rob Beatty
Lina Gonzalez
Ian Foster
Tiffany Ahee
Amy Stein
Priyanka Batra

DEVELOPERS

Michelle Lamoureaux
Mike Mignano
James DeBlasse
Sean Enright

PROJECT MANAGERS

Jeremy Kutner
Crystal Anderson

Check out the Atlantic Records Prosite here.

Check out the Atlantic Records Digital Media portfolio on Behance.

You’ll be joining a team of 25+ digital creatives working in a fast-paced, exciting environment where your work will be seen by millions of people. The Atlantic Records Digital Media team develops and markets all digital initiatives at Atlantic Records including label and artist websites, interactive promotions such as contests and eCards, mobile apps and websites as well as bespoke online marketing projects.

REQUIRED SKILLS

• Ability to design and build for the web, with a desire to learn more about both from senior team members

• Solid Photoshop and Illustrator skills

• Ability to hand code HTML, CSS and Javascript

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

* Strong attention to detail and an eye for design* Strong desire to explore new technology and make recommendations on best practices and usage* Ability to communicate effectively to technical and non-technical staff

* Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Web/Graphic Design, User experience or equivalent experience

BONUS ROUND

• Knowledge of PHP, JQuery, Actionscript 3.0 and audio/video editing/encoding

* Experience working for or interning at a major entertainment company

Please note the job is ON-SITE and full-time freelance. Pay rate scales accordingly with candidate’s applicable experience.

Interested parties should send resumes and cover letters to careers@atlantic-records.com with the subject line “Freelance Web Designer/Developer”.

Today I was awarded the Robert M Montgomery Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from Illinois Wesleyan University. I was presented the award at the annual alumni lunch at the Shirk Center on the IWU campus. The other award winners and I were also announced at halftime at the Titan homecoming football game with the rest of the homecoming court. Yesterday I taught the “Back to School” class “Connecting Fans with Bands” where I outlined my progression from IWU student to VP at Atlantic and how we use design and technology to promote our artists. Overall, it was an amazing experience and I’m extremely honored to be recognized from a university that has given me so much.

Read more about the events on WJBC.com.

The new AtlanticRecords.com website has been getting a lot of press since it first launched early this year and now has been nominated for or won a few major awards. Last week the site won 3 WC3 Awards including Best in Show for Music Websites, and two awards for Community and Navigation.

Gold: Website – Website Features – Structure and Navigation

Best in Show: Website – General Website Categories – Music

Gold: Website – General Website Categories – Community

The site was also nominated for redesign of the year by .Net Magazine.

Check out the .Net Magazine entry here.

Special thanks to our partners at Code and Theory as well as everyone at Atlantic who put long hours and continue to make this site the best label website on the internet.

There is a great recap of the presentation “Data-Driven Bottom Line Results: Making Social Media Actionable A Real World Case Study” that Carmen Sutter and I gave at the Web 2.0 Summit on the Informationweek website. The presentation was about our strategy around social media and how we use analytics and data to convert music fans to customers.

Read the full InformationWeek interview here.