Noelia Quiroz is Shakira’s official impersonator in Chile. She has had some appearances on TV shows like Don Francisco's and alikes, and does regular performances for business corporative events at reknown hotels, theaters, etc. Since her representatives already offer her services by other means different than the Internet, and the signing of her contracts run through other promotional formats, the commercial reason for her to have her web site done was rather to get to the common people who has seen her in her shows, but not necessarily appealing to the taste of those who really pay for her services (producers, marketing managers, etc). So I kept that very much in mind while thinking of the type of image I was going to portray of her and the tastes of the eventual users of the web site I was to design. I was certain that it had to be something with high contrasts, high levels of saturation and with a “spirit” appealing to what people are rather used to see on TV: motion, reflections, lights, etc. In other words, a very pop type of imagery and not a mere abstract designer's exercise.
Eventhough I was first asked by my client to only do a take off on the real Shakira’s web site, I proposed him we could do something a little bit more interesting, since we didn’t have so much to say about Noelia and her web site was not going to have as many items on the menu as the real Shakira does. So if we did a take off, Noelia’s site was going to look only like a boring copy of Shakira’s. I told him them that we could use the sentence “Doble de Shakira” (Shakira’s impersonator) in a literal way and from there I could develope an attractive imagery to go along with the so reduced menu Noelia had for showing. In Spanish “Doble the Shakira” also sounds as if saying “double album by Shakira”. If one listens to the sentence it becomes then a game of words meaning one obvious thing on one hand (the impersonator), but another different meaning at a second thought (an album).
So, that came out as the final reason for her web site to start by showing a CD case that opens up and shows 2 Cd’s on the inside (like a double album) and that’s the reason for all the reflections on the floor (as if getting closer to the idea of mirrors). And that’s the reason why i keep an image of Noelia at the background all the time, so that when a user surfs through an item of the menu, Noelia will end up being present on the scene twice. The “twiceness”, so to speak, was my undercover concept behind every detail of the page. Eventhough it's a web site that can be entirely surfed in just a few minutes, it has lots of motion and sound effects that may last very little, but each one of then was accurately done so as to make the viewer somehow feel like watching something more like a "commercial" instead of seeing a stiff design work. I didn't really want to go too far on the effects though, because I didn’t want for it to look too kitch, since the saturated colors, and the whole composition was already playing an important role on doing that. My client ended up very satisfied with the results and, up to now, it seems that those who visit her web page too. Based on that, we developed other promotional material for printed formats. My client is still working out the rights to some other soundtrack to play on the back while surfing the site. Once that’s finished, I believe it’ll give even more strength to the perception of motion.
Eventhough I was first asked by my client to only do a take off on the real Shakira’s web site, I proposed him we could do something a little bit more interesting, since we didn’t have so much to say about Noelia and her web site was not going to have as many items on the menu as the real Shakira does. So if we did a take off, Noelia’s site was going to look only like a boring copy of Shakira’s. I told him them that we could use the sentence “Doble de Shakira” (Shakira’s impersonator) in a literal way and from there I could develope an attractive imagery to go along with the so reduced menu Noelia had for showing. In Spanish “Doble the Shakira” also sounds as if saying “double album by Shakira”. If one listens to the sentence it becomes then a game of words meaning one obvious thing on one hand (the impersonator), but another different meaning at a second thought (an album).
So, that came out as the final reason for her web site to start by showing a CD case that opens up and shows 2 Cd’s on the inside (like a double album) and that’s the reason for all the reflections on the floor (as if getting closer to the idea of mirrors). And that’s the reason why i keep an image of Noelia at the background all the time, so that when a user surfs through an item of the menu, Noelia will end up being present on the scene twice. The “twiceness”, so to speak, was my undercover concept behind every detail of the page. Eventhough it's a web site that can be entirely surfed in just a few minutes, it has lots of motion and sound effects that may last very little, but each one of then was accurately done so as to make the viewer somehow feel like watching something more like a "commercial" instead of seeing a stiff design work. I didn't really want to go too far on the effects though, because I didn’t want for it to look too kitch, since the saturated colors, and the whole composition was already playing an important role on doing that. My client ended up very satisfied with the results and, up to now, it seems that those who visit her web page too. Based on that, we developed other promotional material for printed formats. My client is still working out the rights to some other soundtrack to play on the back while surfing the site. Once that’s finished, I believe it’ll give even more strength to the perception of motion.
