On a fork in the road in business

In the first two years after sales started, we didn't earn anything, but we were stubborn enough to keep producing and promoting the devices.

On the way we faced a massive chunk of work in finding new audiences and communication channels. We clearly saw two main tasks: to create content that tells people why they need our product and how they can use it, and to create pages to sell those products.

In general, we are uncompromising about how the devices should look and optimistic that people will buy these circuits for a good deal of money. We realized that for anyone unfamiliar with the product, $100 is a substantial amount. Also, they don't always know how wide the interaction with Playtronica devices can be: people can play on our synthesizers, use them for composing and live performances, add to music therapy, and even meditate through intuitive contact with music.

Essentially, there’s always a fork in the road in business: you either do something profitable and understandable or take the more complicated, experimental route. We chose the second way, and at some point, things worked out.

What is Playtronica?

Playtronica creates non-conventional musical devices that change the way we relate to and interact with sounds.

The company's best-known products are the Playtron and Touchme circuit card-like synthesizers.

The tool to combine aesthetics with functionality

When business took off, we started to look for a tool to design landing pages and editorials. I worked on magazine editorial boards for a while, as did our designer Aglaya Demidenko, but we’ve never created visuals for websites.

However, we often flipped through classy magazines and saw the difference between polygraphic and web design. We at Playtronica always wanted to be snazzy and eye-filling, combine photoshoots with live and non-live elements, and add graphics and animation to our visuals—on the whole, tune in with our unique and intuitive synthesizers. We knew for sure that we needed a robust tool that could combine aesthetics with functionality. What attracted us to Readymag was its openness to experiences.

Readymag is a tool where I can jot down a simple sketch matching my skills from scratch, then together we can polish it into something big and more specific that fits the format.

In recent years, the store became our priority and we were poised to sell a lot of devices. So we gradually moved from beautiful, catchy web pages to more simple but functional ones. And most importantly, the design was no longer defined by aesthetics only—it was based on the numbers. At the same time, we continue to create editorial art projects and co-productions not related to business and sales, which look more like exclusive avant-garde landing pages.