The soul of songs: The Electric Bass
Improving Electric Bass Information Through Design Thinking (2/2).
This article consists of two parts. Right now, you are reading the second one:
1️⃣: Research and Analysis Phase (First Part)
2️⃣: Idea Generation and Implementation Phase (Second Part)
Before we begin, let’s quickly recap that the main theme of this project is to bring the electric bass guitar closer to a wider audience with engaging and entertaining information.
After the first phase, it was time for brainstorming: what can be done to promote musical culture in Spain regarding the bass guitar?
Then, to organize them better, we grouped them within the viability-desirability matrix to make decisions more easily:
Ideation
Focusing the project based on all the information obtained, the idea had to be as simple, audiovisual, and interactive as possible.
During the research, we discovered a relatively recent trend in museums with immersive exhibitions full of color and sound, and as an idea, it was the most suitable for the main objective of the problem. And that’s when the project has its goal set: to create an interactive and immersive exhibition about the electric bass.
What is an interactive and immersive exhibition?
An interactive exhibition is one in which we can physically participate, for example, through touch screens or buttons that, when pressed, perform an action. An immersive exhibition, as the word itself suggests, involves a complete sensory experience that engages all five senses, including sounds, images, etc.
Both types of exhibitions share the characteristic that the user becomes part of the exhibition, creating a much more dynamic experience and, in our opinion, fostering a deeper understanding of the subject matter we aim to convey.
Sound and color
Since it’s an interactive experience where you can touch the instrument and interact with other screens throughout the exhibition, the immersive experience will be characterized by a display of colorful videos and images. Just like music, color also holds great significance in our lives, and we often don’t realize it. Our clothing style, home decor, and more are influenced by color.
Both music and color have significant psychological meanings in our lives, and by creating a fusion of both through this immersive and interactive exhibition, we aim to bring the bass guitar even closer to people.
Conclusion
Therefore, both to provide better information about the electric bass and to reach a much larger target audience, from children to adults, in other words, for all possible audiences, it is very suitable for understanding the importance of the instrument as well as having all the basic knowledge about the bass. And even if they want to play the bass, it won’t be difficult for them to decide on one instrument or another.
I also contribute to this idea to give recognition to bassists, as in Spain, they may not be as “well-known” as guitarists. For example, bassists could work there by giving lessons, playing songs, or even teaching, etc.
Benchmarking
Here is when we once again proceed to analyze the competition in the market through benchmarking of 6 exhibitions of different types to gather as much information as possible about the idea:
🔵 MIMMA (Museo Interactivo de Música de Málaga).
🔵 VanGogh (Immersive Experience).
🔵 Frida Kahlo: Vida y obra. (Immersive Experience).
🔵 Klimt (Immersive Experience).
🔵 Music, Makers and Machines (Google+YouTube online exhibition)
🔵 Radiohead — Kids a Mnesia Exhibition (‘Epic Games’ immersive/interactive musical exhibition video game).
With this benchmarking, we get much closer to what we want to achieve and learn a lot more information about this type of exhibitions, such as the types of events that are held, ticket prices, schedules, etc.
MoSCoW
Now it’s time to prioritize the idea further using the MoSCoW method in order to focus on the key functionalities of our exhibition:
Product definition
Finally, we have managed to crystallize the idea, and we have the definition of the product that I want to develop:
Bassic is a temporary immersive and interactive experience about the electric bass intertwined with the significance of color.
It features collaborations with bassists, music teachers, instrument manufacturing companies like Fender, Rickenbacker, Yamaha, and Thomann, as well as concerts and workshops. The exhibition space would consist of two floors (if the space allows for it). It’s temporary, meaning it wouldn’t always be in the same established city. I believe this approach would be much more profitable, allowing it to move between different cities to continue raising awareness about the electric bass, even across countries.
Business Plan
With the product defined, let’s develop the business model. I emphasize the importance of users’ proximity to the instrument in a physical, auditory, and visual way.
As sources of income, I have considered major partnerships with instrument manufacturing companies as well as stage assembly, sound, and lighting services. It would also be interesting to partner with musicians who work as teachers or who give occasional concerts during the exhibition. Other sources of income would come from the leisure and consumption area, merchandise shops within the exhibition, as well as ticket sales.
Exhibition Layout
Although the exhibition is designed to be temporary, with the flexibility to be relocated to various locations within and outside the country, the physical layout within a museum would follow this plan: on the left, the first floor, and on the right, the second floor, if the museum or venue has the space available.
In cases where there isn’t sufficient space, the layout would be reorganized, focusing on the most important rooms, which are the interactive and immersive ones that are closely related to the electric bass.
Floor 1:
🎶 Three interactive rooms for playing the bass in person + immersive color experience on screens. These rooms are essential because they allow people to physically play a real bass and experience the emotion of music. The basses will be positioned horizontally so that the strings can be played without picking up the instrument, making it safe for even children to play. When one of the bass strings is played, a song that starts with that string will begin to play, and at the same time, the screens around the person playing will display all the colors that the song conveys. This creates a completely sensory and unforgettable experience.
Each week, 3 different basses will be brought in (one for each room), and this information will be available on the website.
📷 A shop room with music merchandise and information panels about the history of music, with a focus on the electric bass.
Floor 2:
🥽 One virtual reality room to simulate playing in a concert with any band you like, being the bassist of the group.
🎧 One interactive room; “Better with or without bass?”. In this room, you will have headphones and tablets where you can interact and listen to iconic basslines, as well as answer quizzes related to them.
🔁 A room that would be available for workshops and lessons (where you could pick up the instrument as there would be a professional to assist with playing) and concerts, depending on the day’s events. All the information about events and concerts is also available on the Bassic website. There will also be a historical room with information displayed on screens about bass-centered music.
🍸A food and beverage area for leisure and relaxation in a musical atmosphere.
There will also be guided tours, so you can choose to explore the rooms on your own or be guided through the exhibition. The hallways will have information on the walls about music history, fun facts, famous bassists from history, etc.
Tickets can be purchased on the exhibition’s website, where you can also find information about events, concerts, detailed room descriptions, the basses brought to the rooms each week, FAQs, etc. Since it’s opening in Madrid, the focus is on the location, tickets, etc., in Madrid.
Let’s move on to the visual part!
Brand
Bassic emerged as something very simple and easy to remember. “Bass” in English means both “low” when referring to the “low frequencies” in music and “bass” as in the electric bass guitar. By combining “bass” with “basic” as in fundamental information, the name Bassic was created.
Colors and Typography
We aim for a simple, functional aesthetic with a touch of color that stands out from the ordinary to resemble the style of exhibition interfaces. We will use shades of green mixed with black to create a strong contrast.
Regarding fonts for Bassic:
🅰️ Acta Power for the logo and headings. This font is characterized by the finishes of the characters, which reminded me of musical notes.
🅰️ Aeonik for texts. This is a clear and simple font that enhances readability and legibility.
Architecture
To have a clear idea of what the exhibition website should contain, I created a sitemap:
And finally, considering that we often use our smartphones while on the go, I created a mobile version of the website.
I quickly designed 4 simple wireframes and two high-fidelity screens for the exhibition website. I also developed screens adapted for the mobile version since we tend to check information on our phones while walking or at home.
Web version
For the web version of the exhibition, we have the essential information that the user needs to know to purchase tickets, understand what the exhibition is about, get address and schedule details, access FAQs, and more.
Mobile version
The mobile version of the Bassic website serves as a support for purchasing tickets in cases when you are on the go and accessing it on your mobile device. It would have the same information as the web version:
To conclude, I’ll show you the promotional video of our Bassic museum:
Final conclusions and future prospects
- Bassic is a project that would have great profitability in the future as it would be a mutual benefit for music companies and musicians, providing audiovisual and entertaining information not only for musicians but for all types of audiences.
- The idea of a temporary exhibition, as mentioned from the beginning, would be because it would be more profitable to go from city to city on certain dates and even internationalize it to make it known worldwide and create a trend of immersive musical experiences that reach the level of recognition of art, which is currently most used in this type of exhibitions.
- If it were to reach a high level of recognition, new rooms for other instruments could even be created, not just for the electric bass, such as the drums, which are closely related to the bass. In fact, the concerts that would be held at Bassic would always feature a bassist and a drummer, as they are the foundation of any song. Additionally, bassists would receive much more recognition both professionally and personally.
- In addition to the mobile-adapted version, I believe it would be interesting to turn it into an app in the future, as it would be more convenient to save a personalized session with options to buy concert tickets, stay updated on which basses are available each week, or who they invite each week to teach how to play. For example, to receive email notifications linked to the app.
If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for the time you’ve taken to read this article, and long live music! 🤘🏻
