Designing for classical music streaming startup IDAGIO, told by Ant Orant
“Our first concern is to be ourselves. We start with our goals and core values and build out from there.”
You were one of the first hires at IDAGIO in 2015. What were the first steps you took when you started?
At the beginning [Louis] and I worked together on IDAGIO. We formalised the existing visual language into a system which we could apply to our work building the different apps. Louis worked on improving and adding features to the iOS app — our only real product at that point — and I helped to design and build the first parts of our web app.
How do you try to distinguish the IDAGIO brand from other music streaming services?
Our first concern is to be ourselves. We start with our goals and core values and build out from there. It can happen that we find ourselves making similar decisions to our peers, and although this presents a challenge, it often confirms that our reasoning was sound. In such cases we try to distinguish ourselves by returning with increased focus to the thought processes behind the decision, with the aim of refining and clarifying the visual outcomes.
What are you currently working on?
Marketing is a constant focus — trying to convey what makes IDAGIO special in a way that sparks interest in the minds of the right people. We’re also developing our recent rebranding, and building a more structured design system.
What makes IDAGIO special in your eyes?
Our data model is the backbone of our product — it’s the framework which enables our apps to to traverse and deep-dive into the universe of classical music. Seeing its complexity up close, and knowing the people who build it and the work they put into it only makes it more impressive.
On top of that (and cheesy as it sounds) there is some phenomenal talent in our design and technology teams and working with such people on a daily basis is a genuine pleasure.
What drives you to get out of bed every morning? (hope that’s not too personal?)
Sunrise, if I’m awake early enough to see it. I closed my Instagram account because it was 90% sunrises and sunsets.
What is good design in your eyes?
Black, white, sans-serif, geometric logo. Invoice.
