Protocol VIP's

Background

From February through June 2024 I worked with Protocol Recordings, Nicky Romero’s dance label, with six releases per month. The project started as a branding-focused brief and grew into service design: developing a new service for artists so emerging talent stays connected to the label longer. This project was my graduation project for Communication & Multimedia Design.

Problem Statement

Design question: How can Protocol build a stronger relationship with artists, so that artists benefit from a longer collaboration and emerging talent wants to stay with the label?

Many promising artists move on to competitors. In the existing situation there was little reason for an artist to stay: comparable services are often delivered elsewhere with more resources. The label needed a differentiated offering that personally supports artists and builds a long-term relationship. That means not only reach, but also clarity, identity, and involvement in the process.

Research & Development

The process was guided by the triple diamond method and design thinking, so the project could diverge, converge, and iterate when new insights required it. In an early phase, the starting question was reframed from “an effective campaign plan” to why artists don't stay, using a stakeholder map, competitive comparisons through the 5E Experience Model, and testing new content around releases to see if there was potential.

In the second phase of the project, interviews with artists at different career stages, validation with experts, and a full service design blueprint showed that the current journey is mostly linear, with little happening to keep contact with artists involved.

Together with artists and the team, we developed guiding principles to change this: more personal support over a one-size-fits-all pipeline, a circular process, more ways to be involved with the label, and solutions that align with the label's workload. These would become our starting points to develop a solution.

The outcome was Protocol VIP's: an exclusive service that helps artists with a long-term career vision through collaboration on visual identity, a promotion framework, and a style handbook, combined with regular touchpoints so the process stays transparent. Operationally that is a five-step flow: first contact, brainstorm, develop concept, campaign direction, and publish, worked out in a pitch deck for artists, a workbook with optional steps, and an advice report for longer-term follow-up.

Results

With French DJ and producer Almero as the pilot artist, I turned the process into a concrete visual experience for his Break Your Heart EP in June, with mood boards, three concept directions, and campaign assets to promote it. Insights from earlier content tests fed into the campaign build, for example a planned teaser series to build curiosity before the announcement.

After handover, Protocol continued the line with Almero and we extended it to Kosling, with both moving toward a recognisable, artist-led style instead of only the default logo artwork. Both artists have been recurring names on the label since then. For example, Almero has had more than ten releases since this project.

Deliverables included the pitch narrative, the style handbook structure (story, principles, typography, colour, applications, don'ts, campaign build linked to the 5E model), social teasers and announcement/release visuals, and internal process documentation so the team can run the full journey or part of it flexibly.