Squash Banana Productions is a South African media house based in Randburg, Johannesburg. We built its voice-artist platform for a 5FM host who wanted one credible place to present local voice talent. Our project page sums it up in a line: a platform to showcase local voice artists in Gauteng. The live site is at squashbanana.co.za, and the build sits on our Squash Banana project page.

The brief in plain terms

A radio presenter with a network of voice talent has a simple problem. Clients want to hear a voice before they commit, and they want to compare a few options quickly. A list of links, a shared folder or a run of messages does not do that well. It looks informal, it is hard to keep current, and it puts the work of sorting talent on the person asking.

The client describes itself as a media house that records, produces and publishes voice artists, with services that include podcasting, audio production, radio advertising and copywriting. The platform gives that talent a proper shop window, separate from social feeds.

What a visitor can do on the site

The live site keeps the journey short. The main navigation has four items: Home, Voice Artists, About and Contact.

  • Home page with featured artists. Visitors land on a branded page with a "Featured Artists" section. Each tile carries tags, such as soft sell, corporate or informational, and a short description, with a "See More Artists" route to the full list.
  • A searchable directory. The Voice Artists page lists the talent with a search box and a filter by type: voice artist, producer or filmographer. That matters because the network is not only voices, and a client looking for a producer should not have to scroll past everyone else.
  • Individual artist profiles. Artist profile pages show the artist's role, tags, a short bio and playable demo reels. The reels are named by style, for example Bright, Corporate and Soft Sell, so a client can go straight to the read they need.
  • Several ways to get in touch. There is a contact form (name, email and message), an email link in the footer, a floating WhatsApp chat button, and footer links to Facebook and Instagram.

Why a purpose-built site works better here

For a voice artist, the demo is the product. The most useful thing the platform does is put playable reels on a clean profile, next to the tags and bio that explain what each voice is good for. A client can listen, compare and make contact without leaving the site.

A few points we would highlight for anyone weighing up a similar build:

  1. Structure beats volume. Tags, type filters and named reels let a visitor narrow down quickly. That is more useful than a long page of every recording.
  2. The brand carries through. The site uses the client's black and banana-yellow identity throughout, from the navigation to the play buttons, so it reads as Squash Banana rather than a generic directory.
  3. Contact is never far away. Form, email and WhatsApp give visitors a choice of channel, so nobody has to hunt for a way in.
  4. It speaks for the talent. The site is about the artists, not about us. Our part shows in a small "Made By HARDCODE STUDIOS" credit in the footer, which is how we prefer it.

We are not quoting traffic, enquiry or booking figures here. None are public, and the honest case for the project is what the platform does and how clearly it does it.

Where it fits in our work

Squash Banana is a focused website build: a client with a clear audience, a specific thing to show, and a need to look credible to the businesses that hire voice talent. It sits with our other web development projects, and you can browse more client builds on our projects page.

If you are briefing a similar project, such as a talent roster, a portfolio of audio work, or a directory that needs search and filters, the pattern carries over well. Start with what a visitor needs to hear or see first, make it playable or viewable on the page, and keep the route to contact short.

Next step

If you represent artists, presenters or creative freelancers and want a site that shows their work properly, get in touch with us. Tell us who the site is for and what a visitor should be able to do on it, and we will take it from there.