As a leading guitar shop for pros and beginners alike, Tone Tailors needed a website that reflected their expertise while also being inviting to visitors. With a high bounce rate plaguing their existing site, they knew it was time for a change. Tone Tailors turned to the team at Pixel & Hammer to completely revamp their online presence.
By combining custom design, development, and WordPress integration, Pixel & Hammer was able to create a website that tells the Tone Tailors story while keeping users engaged. The result is an intuitive, visually appealing website that has become a valued resource for the music community.
Project Information's
Client
Tone Tailors Guitar Shop
Category
Website Development, Custom WordPress Theme
Date
2022
Location
Lititz, Pennsylvania
Understanding The Client's Needs
Pixel & Hammer started by getting to know the Tone Tailors business and audience. Owners John LeClair, JP Painton, and Chad Taylor have built Tone Tailors into a trusted destination for the highest-quality guitars, amps, and music accessories. They also offer lessons, repairs, and custom builds.
With deep music industry connections, Tone Tailors provides pro musicians with the gear their performances require. At the same time, the shop has an welcoming environment perfect for beginning players too.
Clearly, Tone Tailors needed a site that appealed to pros and newcomers alike. The content had to speak to both audiences by being informative yet easy to digest. A seamless user experience was also crucial for an eCommerce site.
Planning the Site Architecture
With a strong understanding of the Tone Tailors brand and audience, Pixel & Hammer mapped out an effective information architecture for the new website. This included:
- A welcoming homepage introducing the shop’s offerings at a glance
- Product category pages featuring guitars, amps, pedals, accessories, lessons, repairs, rentals, and more
- A “Tips & Resources” section with articles on guitar maintenance, pedalboards, recording, and other music topics
- Pages highlighting the Tone Tailors difference, experts, and workshop events
- Strong calls to action to contact the shop, book lessons, or make purchases
This architecture allowed users to easily dig into the content most relevant to them.
Building a Custom Design
Pixel & Hammer knows first impressions matter online. They focused on building a design for Tone Tailors that felt warm, personal, and full of musical energy.
The color palette features warm hues like burnt orange that contrast nicely with cool grays. Colorful guitar photography and illustrations set an upbeat tone. The logo was moved to the top left to be consistent on all pages.
Sans serif fonts were chosen to aid readability and create a contemporary look. Key information is called out through strategic use of size, color, spacing, and more. This hi-fi design aligned perfectly with the Tone Tailors brand.
Optimizing for the User Experience
With a great foundation in place, Pixel & Hammer turned their attention to user experience optimization. They ensured each page had a clear purpose, relevant content, and intuitive navigation. Forms, CTAs, videos, and images were designed to load fast.
On product pages, detailed descriptions, specs, pricing, and imagery allow customers to make informed purchasing decisions. Shopping cart and checkout flows are seamless while also providing opportunities for upselling.
Overall, the site provides an experience that engages audiences from beginning guitar players to touring musicians. Users can seamlessly find information to play their best.
Building a Custom WordPress Theme
To make the website vision a reality, Pixel & Hammer engineered a custom WordPress theme from the ground up. Their clean, efficient code optimized performance while also being SEO-friendly.
The custom theme provides Tone Tailors with an intuitive CMS to manage website content. New products, lessons, and resources can be added with ease. Blog functionality also allows the business to boost its organic reach over time.
The Future-Proof Foundation
By maximizing speed, security, responsiveness, and accessibility, Pixel & Hammer built a site poised for long-term growth. The website functions flawlessly across all devices and screen sizes.
Built in a modular way, the custom theme makes it simple to add new sections or features down the road. Tone Tailors now has a solid technical foundation and CMS for their online presence moving forward.
A True Partnership
For Tone Tailors, the new website delivered by Pixel & Hammer was transformative. The engaging user experience and branded designtell the Tone Tailors story in a memorable way while also driving conversions.
Thanks to a true partnership approach, the end result is a site that represents the Tone Tailors brand beautifully online. Musicians looking to hone their craft now have an invaluable resource to turn to anytime at ToneTailors.com.