The new OndaRock homepage

Ten years later…

A brand new showcase for OndaRock. As of today, a completely revamped homepage is online, thanks to the project by Gabriele Brombin, graphic designer and longtime member of our Forum. An essential turning point after 10 long years, aimed at presenting ourselves in a more engaging, functional and stimulating way.

Our historic logo remains, albeit in an updated version, but almost everything else changes. Starting with the opening slideshow, which is still the key space showcasing all the latest content (features, interviews, specials, reviews, live reports) but becomes decidedly airier and more dynamic, with bigger images, more readable fonts and smoother scrolling. The design choices for the content below follow the same logic, and there's now much more of it on display. The days of a static, cramped homepage are over: new devices, mobile browsing and scrolling now make it possible to showcase a far greater number of articles. It's also a way to show off the full richness of our archive, so that the latest important content doesn't get buried after just a few days.

Great emphasis is also placed on podcasts and multimedia content in general, with the video corner section now also featuring the latest episodes of our jukebox, dedicated to individual songs. The reviews section has changed too, with bigger cover art and easier browsing of our “picks of the month”, the hottest records of the moment.

The news section has also been given a more engaging makeover, and we hope this will be the chance to relaunch it, so as to cover current events and news even more promptly.

With an eye toward ever-greater integration with our sister site OndaCinema, a dedicated area has also been created featuring the latest reviewed films, which should certainly bring more visibility and interest from readers.

In short, we want this to be a home in the truest sense of the word, one that makes you feel right at home. But this is only the first step of a graphic overhaul that will affect the entire site. What comes next? For now, the update of the review pages, features, interviews, live reports and specials. Then it will be the turn of the section homepages too, our “little homes” for fans of rock, pop, electronic, dark, singer-songwriters, jazz, and other sounds. And we're confident that, after the inevitable settling-in period and adjustment to the changes, our new look will make your time spent on OndaRock's pages even more enjoyable.

This isn't, however, a simple restyling. Along with the look, the content changes too, and our vision for the site evolves as well, updating itself to stay true to the goal – the one thing that never changes – of being the best musical point of reference for our readers. We hope and aspire to become an ever richer, more dynamic, more multimedia webzine. With one eye on the present and one on history, as has always been the case. And with the essential contribution of you, our readers, an endless source of advice and suggestions that have helped us improve over the years. Happy browsing, welcome home!

(Claudio Fabretti)

New consistency for the brand

I've been following OndaRock for twenty years, so when the Editor contacted me about the idea of refreshing the design, I approached it with the utmost respect. But while he mostly had in mind new ways of experiencing the homepage and its content, I was aiming more broadly at giving the brand new consistency, on the site and beyond, without losing its history, to give it a presence befitting the storytelling of contemporary music. The process has only just begun with this homepage, and I trust that by the end it will leave the site ready to face the next twenty years of "wait, wasn't this ondaROCK?"

Special thanks to Anna Quaranta, the developer who wasn't intimidated by the pointless graphic details I flagged for her, and will keep flagging. Send in your own too, I'll happily pass them along to her.

(Gabriele Brombin)

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