Introduction

This assignment required the creation of an Electronic Press Kit to promote my work and generate work for myself as a composer within the creative industries. The aim was to present myself both professionally and authentically, despite currently having a limited portfolio. In addition to the EPK, this commentary outlines the artistic rationale behind its structure, the insights gained from group workshops, and an evaluation of its strengths and limitations. My supporting commentary also evaluates how the EPK can be improved to meet industry standards as I continue to grow as an artist and composer.

In creating my electronic press kit, I am fully aware of its limitations – Due to the fact that my portfolio for official composition is very new and very small, I do not have the content necessary to show off a good portfolio that showcases both the high standard of my work and the versatility that I bring to the table. The same goes for my work in heavier music, where I have only one song named Flight to refer my page viewers to. Despite the lack of many other things that I did not want to exaggerate, such as testimonials for my work or a larger and wider portfolio, I have included what I can. This includes an artist bio, promotional photos of myself taken during live gigs, a summary of my skills, strengths, and experiences, an outline of my musical, creative and technical skills, my interests and ambitions including how I got to where I am and what inspired me, a link to my SoundCloud and a link to the game I have composed music for.

Electronic Press Kit Overview

The EPK was created using Bandzoogle, a website builder recommended in a group seminar. It provided a solid starting point for designing a professional, clean portfolio, despite its free trial version offering limited customisation. The landing page features my name, “Dylan Irvine” in large, white text against a neutral, greyscale background accompanied by a greyscale image of me up close playing guitar. This design choice was intentional: I believe the neutral tones across my EPK reflect the adaptable and versatile nature of my work, whilst also signalling professionalism and a form of simplicity working with me. I also believe that the neutral tones across my pages are made to come off as professional, and to let my work and words speak for me instead of the eye-candy of my page.

As a footer, I have embedded a track player for my song “Flight” on my homepage, designed to immerse the site visitor in my work immediately. On the same landing page is a small “About” section, summarising my musical roles, gigging experience, and video game composition work. I took a journalistic and personal tone in this to create a sense of direct communication, which I believe is important in composition. Compared to performance-based roles, composition is a collaborative, iterative process where I will be spending a lot of time on average with clients.

The second page of my EPK, aptly named “Bio”, contains a more in depth artist biography, covering my creative journey, musical influences, things that have inspired me and where I am at now. This section aims to help potential clients understand who I am and what I offer.

The third page of my EPK is titled “Music”. It is minimal, but contains a link to the game “Aeromania (2025)”, for which I composed a complete soundtrack, a link to my song “Flight”, and a direct link to my SoundCloud profile. While the content is sparse, the structure is clean and offers room for expansion.

Artistic Rationale 

A key artistic choice was the personal tone used throughout the site. In composition, clients often seek someone who can align with their vision and collaborate closely. A friendly, direct and personal tone helps foster this. The clean, simplistic design and neutral colour palette serve a commercial purpose in keeping the focus on the content and avoid overwhelming users with unnecessary visuals.

I referenced the EPK of Mick Gordon to understand how more established composers structure their professional image. His homepage immediately displays the titles he’s worked on, which proves my internal theory – it’s very important to front-load your greatest achievements as a composer. This allows clients to assess relevance and quality quicker. Perhaps this rule should or could be bent for an up and coming composer who doesn’t have the portfolio to front-load, but I believe once I am established to some degree then it is imperative to do so.

An EPK is intended to build trust and is a jumping on point for potential clients to decide if they want to work with you or not. Creating a straightforward, clear one with access to my music off the bat provides an inviting, friendly experience. Provided I decided to keep it, the structure would allow me to integrate new content seamlessly, and it can easily be rearranged to better align with my front-loading vision of the ideal Electronic Press Kit for a composer.

Critical Evaluation and Next Steps

I am aware of my EPK’s main limitation – lack of content. Without a diverse portfolio or client testimonials, my EPK cannot fully communicate my abilities or reputation. One of the clearest things I’ve seen looking at other EPKs is that credibility is more often than not sourced from third party validation and visible past successes, which means I need to resolve this.

To resolve this, I plan to participate in game jams and collaborate with indie game developers to build a varied and demonstrable portfolio. I will also begin requesting testimonials from collaborators on even small-scale projects, to begin building foundations of credibility. Not only will having a large and diverse portfolio showcase a variety and quality of my works, it will also allow me to make the landing page a collage of my body of work complete with testimonials at the bottom. Ideally, when doing larger-scale projects I will eventually be able to get testimonials from journalistic sites that people can immediately trust and understand. 

Additionally, I currently have appended my personal email for contact. In the future, I aim to establish a more professional brand – potentially as a studio identity. With this, I’d use a domain-based email address (for instance, dylanirvine@leviathanstudios.com). This small shift could communicate a higher level of professionalism and consistency to potential clients. Having this studio identity also implies that my work and professionalism is to a standard high enough to warrant backing of a brand identity.

Another planned improvement is to restructure the landing page so that it showcases my portfolio and work first, not my biography. Most clients are result-oriented, and want to hear your music before reading about you. A landing page that immediately showcases compositions, projects, and testimonials would align better with industry standards.

Group Work and Workshop Reflection

The group seminars throughout the semester were very helpful in shaping the content of my EPK and how I would choose what to go in depth on. Bandzoogle was introduced to me by a peer in one session, and using it enabled me to prototype a portfolio site despite the limitations.

I was encouraged to analyse other professional EPKs to understand what they do right. I worked with a friend in the sessions to break down Mick Gordon’s online portfolio, which helped me understand the importance of clarity, social proof and access to previous works.

Whilst I did initially struggle with connection within my group, overall the collaborative evaluation and advice I was given in creation of my EPK was incredibly valuable, and enabled me to create a solid prototype EPK quite early on, further enabling me to iteratively change it over time. 

Conclusion

My EPK represents a solid first step in presenting myself as a professional composer. Its strength lies in its clear, accessible design and personable tone. However, as it is now it remains a prototype that requires a stronger portfolio, professional branding and social proof to truly meet commercial standards. Through group collaboration, analysis of industry standard examples and critical self evaluation I have a clear roadmap for future development. With continued effort in my EPK and growing my portfolio, it will hopefully evolve into a compelling and effective asset to promote my work and craft that aligns with both my artistic identity and expectations of the industries.

In conclusion, I believe that while my EPK ticks quite a lot of boxes, it isn’t wholly appropriate for the role of landing a gig as a composer. It demonstrates a good start, and has an inviting tone, but ultimately needs more tactile tangential work to show behind it. In future, I would like to take the good parts of this EPK such as the simple and easy to navigate nature of it and inviting tone and pair it with a stronger portfolio, strong testimonials and the backing of a concrete, personal brand.

Bibliography:

Mick Gordon (n.d.) Portfolio. Available Online: https://mick-gordon.com/