Tristan Jakob-Hoff

Tristan is a composer for television and film, the stage, and video games. He approached us to design and develop a new website that reflects his unique style. I spent time with Tristan, discussing his goals for the new website, the messages he wished to communicate, and to whom he wanted his work to appeal. We discussed his passion for classic movie posters, particularly the iconic work of American designer Saul Bass.

Tristan is passionate about mid-century graphic design and wanted to incorporate that style. Like many designers, I’m familiar with Saul Bass’s work and the modernist style that influenced mid-century design. Rather than create a pastiche of a Saul Bass design, I created a bespoke series of original graphic illustrations incorporating piano keys which Tristan plays. I designed a striking colour palette of black, white, and a single accent colour. Then, I paired that with a bold sans-serif typeface from which I used several weights between hairline and heavy.

Finally, I developed a static HTML/CSS prototype before integrating a simple-to-use CMS for easy content editing.