Chaz Bundick talks us through the new digitally personable Company website

Chaz Bundick’s Company encompasses some of It’s Nice That’s very favourite things – part record label and part creative studio, it produces self-initiated and commissioned art projects. It’s a hub of creative greatness and is constantly evolving to take on new challenges.

Chaz of Toro y Moi, established Company Records as an imprint of Carpark Records back in 2014 and worked as both the label’s curator and producer, and latterly founded the multi-disciplinary studio in 2016.

Considering Company do so much, the task of representing itself on a website was a difficult one, trying to show its two halves as equal counterparts. The task was one for Bureau Cool, who coincidentally we wrote about recently, and shows Company manipulate the digital to become personable.

The site is full of nuanced details such as each time you refresh the Company site, an alternate colour palette divided into two halves appears, and once you drag your mouse over it alternative sounds play when each part is touched. To tell us the inspiration, plan, and details hidden in its server, we caught up with Chaz below…

What were your initial ideas for the Company website?

Company initially started as a record label. Later on I started to notice that we had multiple collaborators on art projects and felt like those were as important as the albums we were releasing. In addition to the art direction being done in-house, I felt like we could figure out a way to showcase everything together. The main issue was how do we display this kind of information. 

How did working with Bureau Cool come about?

I met Ben from Bureau Cool through my friend Jason, who plays music as Nosaj Thing. I liked how everything Ben was doing was very forward thinking, I was mainly drawn in by his attention to detail and how a small movement of the mouse could change so much. But, because Company’s image is a bit more classic and not as futuristic, I asked Ben to help us figure out a site that was our voice and image, but with some subtle and effective modifications.

I knew I wanted the site to overall be contemporary in the backend but then easy to interact. Occasionally I would suggest something crazy like having a music player that floats around and then Ben would explain how most people visiting might find that confusing. He has a better understanding on how to approach a site that can be fresh and fun and overall functional. I pulled a lot of our references mostly from online publications. Media sites made the most sense to reference because thats what we make.

Can you talk us through the different characteristics of the Company site?

The biggest breakthrough in developing the site was the idea of a two-sided landing page. It honestly was driving me crazy trying to figure out how to compartmentalise all of the info without things becoming lost or redundant. At first the idea was to have the site completely flip around and be “the label side” and “the art side” but that was still too much for the general public to enjoy.

That then led us to having the landing page split into two sides to help explain what Company is/does. Now, because there was so much free real estate on the landing page, I randomly decided to really challenge the project by suggesting that it’d be fun if you could draw on the site and have it play music. That led to the word ‘Company’ being locked to the mouse movements so it would gravitate towards ‘records’ or ‘studio’. 

What are the sounds that play as you move your mouse across the landing page?

The sounds playing on the landing page is original music I have composed for the site. I started diving into making ambient music a couple years ago and realised the power of music therapy. Really, the landing page is kind of a website version of what’s going on in my brain.

Each time you refresh the website an alternative colour palette pairing appears, why is this?

I like to look at colours as really being behind what makes a brand. Over time, I noticed the colours I like to paint with are in the same general palette as one another and that slowly became a theme with our collaborations. After a few test runs of the drawing feature, Ben suggested to have the colours and brush stroke change when you reload. Once I saw that edit, I was convinced we were onto something memorable, classic, a passion project in itself.

This project really made me realise that I’d like to continue pushing all aspects of a record label in a fun and simple way. A simple approach leaves room for details.