A New Look for Vinyl, Me Please

When we initially had the idea for Vinyl Me, Please back in the summer of 2012, I took it upon myself to design our first logo and website. We didn’t have any money to pay anyone else to do it, and I was just starting to learn the concepts of design and web development. I figured this would be a good project to put those lessons to use.

Our first logo was simple. After beating our heads against the wall over a variety of more complex concepts, we basically said, “Screw it” and put “Vinyl Me, Please” inside an oddly-shaped rectangle and ran with that. It had no direct connection to the service and we didn’t even think it was that cool. I don't think we were even expecting to use it for as long as we have.

Our first website was even less cool. We took a WordPress portfolio theme and hacked it together. The theme wasn’t meant for what we were using it for but we were able to drop in a few buttons and embed a signup form and it worked well enough. It wasn’t until mid 2014 that we overhauled the site, still with the focus on the ROTM and welcoming new members to the club. We introduced our blog in mid-2015 and have been continuing to grow the content side of the brand since then.

Despite both the logo and the site being put together somewhat haphazardly, they successfully laid the foundation of what VMP became. They created an ethos that helped us establish an identity. That’s what you would hope any good brand would do.

As we near our four-year anniversary we all wanted something new from our brand. We wanted something that would capture the essence of the service, and more importantly, the community. We wanted a facelift. More than that, we wanted a website that gave members a reason to come back and could be something that would support the future of VMP and its community.

So, we got to work on redesigning the look of VMP earlier this year and are thrilled to be rolling it out today.

The most obvious change is a new logo. After considering a variety of concepts, we wanted something that was extensible so that it represented the entirety of Vinyl Me, Please. The thought behind this logo is to show myriad of details that come together to represent a single thing. There are a lot of things happening at VMP and the icons that make up the logo consist of attributes or parts of the service; they are the things that make up Vinyl Me, Please as a whole.

The next obvious piece is our redesigned website. As you may have noticed, we’ve focused a lot on content this year. We’ve been doing this to give more context to the ROTMs we’re featuring, as well as picking out interesting stories to highlight more music that we think is worth your time and attention.

Our mission is to help people explore, experience, and enjoy music on a deeper level and using brilliant writing to connect you with more music is a huge part of our emerging focus. We want to have talented people writing about the things they care about to give you a deeper look into the things that matter. Read Andrew’s Letter From the Editor for more on this.

With this redesign, we’re hoping that it gives you -- our members and our readers -- a reason to come back to our site more often. A reason to read a little bit more and, hopefully in that process, discover something you wouldn’t have otherwise found.

We’ve sat with this for a while now and feel as if it’s best foot forward for what VMP is today and will become in the future. We think the brand accurately represents who we are, as people, as a company, as a community, and we hope that you do too. We still have a lot of work to do in making VMP the most incredible music service out there, and we’re working our asses off every day to make that happen. We’re excited you’re with us in this journey and are looking forward to our future together.

**We’d love to hear your feedback so please feel free to hit us up @vinylmeplease on your favorite social media platform. **