Project Overview
Designwest was asked to design and build the website for True Music Travel, a new boutique Irish travel brand built around music, place and connection. The brief was simple to state and hard to deliver: create a website that feels as premium and personal as the journeys it sells.
The result is a full site covering the homepage, the Journeys section, Bespoke Experiences, About, and a detailed FAQ page, all built to introduce True Music Travel to an international audience of culturally curious travellers.
The Client & Context
True Music Travel is a boutique Irish travel brand built on more than 30 years of experience in music-led travel in Ireland. The brand draws on decades of trusted relationships with hotels, musicians, and venues across the country, repositioned for a new audience that wants something more considered than a standard coach tour.
The target audience is culturally curious travellers from the US, Canada and Europe, people who value authenticity and intimacy over volume, and who are willing to pay for a trip that feels curated rather than packaged. For this audience, the website is not a brochure. It is very often the first and only impression of the brand before someone commits to a significant international trip.
The Brief
The brief for this website design project in Ireland was to introduce True Music Travel to the market and do three things at once. First, establish immediate credibility through the brand’s heritage in music and travel. Second, communicate the “True music, true places, true connection” ethos clearly enough that it shapes every decision a visitor makes on the site. Third, make it simple for a prospective guest to understand what a journey actually includes and to enquire with confidence.
Practically, that meant a homepage built to sell the concept in seconds, a Journeys section that could hold detailed multi-day itineraries, a Bespoke Experiences area for private and group trips, an About section carrying the brand’s story and years of experience, and an FAQ page built to answer the practical questions international travellers have before they book
The Challenge
The central challenge on this project was tone. True Music Travel needed to feel premium without feeling cold, and warm without feeling like a generic tourism template. Irish music travel is an emotional product, built on fireside sessions, small venues and unhurried days, and the website had to carry that feeling while still looking like the site of a serious, established operator.
There was also a trust challenge specific to travel. A visitor booking a seven-night journey along the Wild Atlantic Way is often booking sight unseen, from another continent, months in advance. The website design needed to answer the unspoken question “can I trust this company with a trip this significant” before it ever answered a question about itinerary or price.
Our Design Approach
Designwest’s approach started with photography rather than layout. Real, high-quality imagery of the Wild Atlantic Way, fireside music sessions and Irish hospitality was treated as the primary content, with the interface built to frame it rather than compete with it. The homepage hero uses a full-width coastal road image along the cliffs, paired with a confident, editorial headline rather than a hard sales pitch.
Navigation was kept deliberately simple: Home, Journeys, Bespoke Experiences, About and FAQs, with a single consistent “Enquire Now” call to action carried in the header across every page. Every page was designed and tested across desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile, since this audience will move between a laptop at the research stage and a phone when reading a confirmation or itinerary on the move.
Design Rationale & Visual Decisions
Colour
The palette is built around warm, sun-bleached tones: deep gold and burnt amber for calls to action, set against a soft cream and stone background for body content. This is not a generic “travel blue” palette. It reads as Atlantic sunset rather than corporate tourism, which suits a brand built around evening music sessions and golden-hour landscapes.
A deep navy is used as a secondary colour on the mobile itinerary and journey detail cards, giving those screens a more intimate, evening feel that contrasts deliberately with the brighter, airier tone of the main site. Charcoal and near-black text is used throughout body copy for strong legibility against the cream backgrounds, which matters given how much of this site is descriptive, itinerary-driven text.
Typography
The logotype and major headlines use a refined serif, the kind more commonly seen in high-end hospitality and editorial publishing than in mainstream Irish tourism sites. This single choice does a lot of work: it signals “boutique” before a visitor reads a word of copy. Supporting navigation and small labels use a clean, tracked-out small caps sans-serif, which keeps the interface calm and readable at a glance.
An italic serif treatment is used sparingly for emotive phrases within body copy, such as the line “from an idea to a dream” on the homepage. That contrast between upright and italic serif gives the copy a rhythm, drawing the eye to the emotional core of the message without resorting to bold colour or oversized type.
Form & Structure
The layout uses a generous, editorial grid with real breathing room around imagery and text, rather than the tightly packed grids common on budget tourism sites. Content blocks such as “Luxury Stays”, “Exceptional Dining” and “Golf Experiences” are presented as clean three-column cards, each with a simple line icon, a short heading and two or three lines of description, never more.
On the itinerary and journey pages, day-by-day content is broken into clearly labelled sections such as “Day 2 — Along the Wild Atlantic Way” and “Day 3 — The Spirit of Galway”, so a long, detailed multi-day trip never reads as a wall of text. The FAQ page uses a simple accordion pattern, keeping the page short on first load while still holding a full library of answers underneath.
Symbolism & Content
Every icon and image on the site is tied to something concrete a guest will actually experience: a bed for accommodation, cutlery for dining, a flag for golf. There is no abstract iconography or decoration for its own sake. The imagery itself, traditional musicians playing fiddle and guitar by firelight, cliffside roads along the Atlantic coast, colourful streetscapes in Galway at night, was selected to be specific to real Irish places and real Irish music culture rather than generic “Europe” stock photography.
Practical Application
The site had to perform as well on a phone in an airport as on a desktop during research. Journey detail cards on mobile carry the price per person sharing and two direct actions, “View Journey” and “Enquire Now”, placed high enough that a guest never has to scroll to take action. The same consistency applies across every device shown in the final mock-ups, from a single iPad through to a full desktop and laptop pairing.
Final Outcome & Applications
The finished True Music Travel website gives the brand a homepage built to sell the concept in seconds, a Bespoke Experiences section explaining how private and group journeys are built, an About page carrying 30 years of heritage in a few confident lines, and a fully responsive FAQ section addressing the practical concerns of an international audience.
Every page was built and checked across desktop, laptop, tablet and phone, since a booking journey for a trip like this rarely happens on a single device. The result is a website that can carry a premium, story-led brand from first impression through to enquiry, without ever feeling like a template.
As website design specialists working with tourism and hospitality clients across Ireland, Designwest built this site to hold detailed, multi-day itinerary content without ever feeling cluttered or generic.
Why Choose Designwest for Website Design in Ireland
Designwest is a Mayo based design studio working with clients across Ireland, from tourism and hospitality operators to public sector organisations and national brands. The agency’s website design work is led by designers first, with development built around the visual concept rather than the other way round, which is exactly what a story-led brand like True Music Travel needed.
Declan Foley, Creative Director of Designwest, has over 30 years of experience in graphic design, branding and digital media, and has led website design projects for Irish tourism, hospitality and SME clients nationwide. That experience matters on a project like this one, where the website has to carry a premium brand story as confidently as it carries booking information.
Whether the brief is a boutique tourism brand, a hospitality business, or a national organisation, Designwest’s approach to website design starts with the story a client needs to tell, then builds the site around it.
Looking for website design in Ireland for a tourism or hospitality brand? Contact Designwest, email info@designwest.ie or call 094 9382000, or reach the Dublin studio on 01 699 1777.
Declan Foley is an Irish Creative Director with over 30 years of experience in graphic design, branding, print, and digital media. As Creative Director of Designwest Creatives Ltd, he leads design projects for Irish businesses, government departments, and organisations nationwide, from brand identity and publication design to large-scale print campaigns. Explore the portfolio at designwest.ie.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much does website design cost in Ireland?
Website design costs in Ireland vary depending on the number of pages, the complexity of the content and whether booking or enquiry functionality is required. A brochure-style site for a small business will cost less than a multi-page tourism site like True Music Travel, which needed detailed itinerary pages and a full FAQ library. Designwest provides a fixed quote after an initial consultation so there are no surprises later in the project.
2. How long does a website design project take?
A typical website design project with Designwest takes between six and twelve weeks from initial brief to launch, depending on how much content needs to be written, sourced or approved. Projects with a lot of original photography, like a tourism brand, can take longer if imagery is still being gathered. Clear content and quick feedback at each stage keeps a project moving.
3. What is included in a website design package?
A typical Designwest website design package includes strategy and page planning, custom visual design, mobile and tablet responsive layouts, on-page SEO structure, and a content management system so the client can update the site after launch. For a project like True Music Travel, it also included itinerary page templates and an FAQ accordion system.
4. What files will I receive after a website design project?
Clients receive a fully built, live website on their chosen hosting platform, along with any source design files agreed at the outset. Designwest also provides guidance on how to log in and update content, along with any documentation needed to manage the site going forward.
5. What is the difference between a website design and a website redesign?
A new website design starts from a blank page, building brand, structure and content from scratch, as with True Music Travel. A website redesign works from an existing site, keeping what performs well and rebuilding what does not, usually to modernise the look, improve mobile performance, or better reflect a brand that has moved on from its current site.
6. Does Designwest design websites outside Mayo?
Yes. Designwest works with clients across Ireland, including Dublin, Galway, Sligo, Donegal and Cork, as well as internationally. True Music Travel is one example of a national tourism brand built by the Mayo based Designwest team for an international audience.
7. Can Designwest design a website for a tourism or travel company?
Yes. Designwest has direct experience designing websites for tourism and hospitality clients, including the True Music Travel project, which required detailed itinerary content, imagery-led storytelling and a booking enquiry journey suited to international travellers.
8. Will my website work properly on mobile phones?
Every website Designwest builds is designed and tested across desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices. For a tourism brand like True Music Travel, mobile performance is particularly important, since many guests research on desktop but check pricing, itineraries and confirmations on their phone.
9. Can I design a website myself using an online website builder?
It is possible to build a basic website using an online builder, and for a very small budget that may be the right starting point. However, template builders struggle to carry a premium or story-led brand the way a custom design can, particularly for tourism, hospitality or professional service brands competing for trust with an international audience.
10. When should a business consider a new website rather than a redesign?
A new website design usually makes sense when launching a new brand, as with True Music Travel, or when an existing site is built on outdated technology that limits growth. A redesign is more appropriate when the underlying brand and content still work but the site itself feels dated or performs poorly on mobile.
11. Does Designwest write the content for a new website?
Designwest can write or refine website copy as part of a project, working from a client’s brand voice, brief and any existing materials. For True Music Travel, copy needed to carry a confident but warm tone consistent across the homepage, journeys and FAQ sections, which Designwest helped shape throughout the design process.
12. How many pages does a typical tourism website need?
Most boutique tourism websites need a homepage, a journeys or itineraries section, an about or story page, a bespoke or private experiences page if relevant, and a detailed FAQ page. True Music Travel followed this structure, with each section built to answer a different stage of a prospective guest’s research.
13. What is the best colour palette for an Irish tourism website?
There is no single correct palette, but the strongest tourism websites choose colours that reflect the actual experience being sold rather than a generic “travel” look. True Music Travel uses warm gold and amber tones drawn from Atlantic sunsets and firelit music sessions, which ties the palette directly to the product rather than to tourism convention.
14. Why does typography matter on a tourism website?
Typography sets the tone of a brand before a visitor reads a single word of copy. On True Music Travel, a refined serif typeface signals a boutique, premium experience, while a clean sans-serif keeps navigation calm and easy to scan. Getting this pairing right is often the difference between a site that feels premium and one that feels generic.
15. Does Designwest offer ongoing website support after launch?
Yes. Designwest supports clients after launch with updates, content changes and technical maintenance as required. This is particularly useful for tourism clients like True Music Travel, where journeys, pricing and availability need to be kept current throughout the season.
16. Can a website help build trust with international customers?
Yes, and for a business like True Music Travel this is one of the website’s most important jobs. International guests booking a significant trip need to see clear evidence of experience, real imagery, and a professional, well-structured site before they will commit, particularly when booking months in advance from overseas.
17. What makes a tourism website design different from a standard business website?
A tourism website design needs to do more emotional work than a typical business site, since the product being sold is an experience rather than a service or product. It also needs to hold more detailed, structured content, such as multi-day itineraries and pricing, without ever feeling cluttered, which is why layout and content hierarchy matter more than on a simple brochure site.
18. How does Designwest approach a new brand’s first website?
For a new brand like True Music Travel, Designwest starts by understanding the story the brand needs to tell and the audience it needs to reach, then builds the visual identity of the site, including colour, typography and imagery, around that story before any page layout work begins.
19. Should a tourism website include pricing information?
Including clear pricing, such as “from €2,999 per person sharing” as used on the True Music Travel journey pages, builds trust and filters enquiries to genuinely interested guests. Hiding pricing can create friction and reduce enquiry quality, particularly for a premium, considered travel product.
20. What is the role of photography in website design?
Photography often carries more of the brand message than the written copy on a tourism website. On True Music Travel, real imagery of Irish music sessions, the Wild Atlantic Way and local hospitality was treated as the primary content, with the website design built to frame and support it rather than compete with it.
21. How do I find a website designer near me in Dublin or Mayo?
Designwest is based in Mayo with a studio presence in Dublin, and works with clients throughout both counties as well as nationwide. Businesses searching for a website designer in Dublin or Mayo can contact Designwest directly for a consultation and quote.
22. Can Designwest build a website with a booking enquiry system?
Yes. True Music Travel’s website includes clear enquiry calls to action on every journey page, directing prospective guests to make contact rather than attempting a full online booking transaction, which suits a bespoke, consultative travel product better than an automated checkout.
23. What is a bespoke experiences page and why does a travel brand need one?
A bespoke experiences page explains how a company builds private or custom journeys outside its set itineraries. For True Music Travel, this page reassures groups, families or special occasion travellers that a tailored trip is available, not just the published Wild Atlantic Way journey.
24. How does Designwest ensure a website reflects 30 years of brand heritage?
For True Music Travel, heritage is communicated through content and tone rather than through dated design choices. The About page carries the brand’s decades of experience in music-led travel in confident, concise language, while the visual design itself remains contemporary and premium.
25. What is the Wild Atlantic Way and why does it matter for tourism website design?
The Wild Atlantic Way is Ireland’s signature coastal touring route along the west coast, and it is a major search term and drawcard for international visitors. A tourism website targeting this audience benefits from featuring the route clearly in imagery, itinerary content and page copy, as True Music Travel does throughout its journeys section.
26. Does Designwest design websites for hospitality businesses as well as tourism operators?
Yes. Designwest works across the wider hospitality and tourism sector in Ireland, including hotels, restaurants, tour operators and travel brands such as True Music Travel, applying the same design-led approach across each project.
27. What technology or platform does Designwest use to build websites?
Designwest selects the platform and technology best suited to each client’s needs and budget, prioritising a content management system that is straightforward for the client to update after launch. The specific platform is agreed with the client at the outset of every project.
28. How does an FAQ page help a tourism website perform in search results?
A well-structured FAQ page, like the one built for True Music Travel, answers the specific questions international travellers are already typing into search engines and voice assistants. This makes the page valuable both for visitors deciding whether to book and for search visibility around long-tail, question-based searches.
29. Can a small or new brand compete online against larger tour operators?
Yes. A smaller, story-led brand like True Music Travel can compete against larger tour operators by leaning into depth, intimacy and heritage rather than trying to match them on scale or price. A confident, design-led website is a key part of making that positioning credible online.
30. What is the “True music, true places, true connection” concept and how was it used in the website design?
This is the core brand ethos behind True Music Travel, built around genuine musical experiences, authentic Irish locations, and real connection with people rather than a packaged tourist experience. Designwest carried this ethos through the homepage messaging, the About page and the tone used across the site.
31. How important is navigation simplicity on a tourism website?
Very important. True Music Travel’s navigation is limited to five clear items, Home, Journeys, Bespoke Experiences, About and FAQs, alongside a single consistent Enquire Now button. Keeping navigation simple reduces friction for visitors who are still deciding whether to explore further.
32. Should a tourism website use stock photography?
Wherever possible, real photography specific to the brand and destination performs better than generic stock imagery. True Music Travel’s website uses imagery tied directly to real Irish music sessions and Wild Atlantic Way locations rather than interchangeable European travel stock photos.
33. What is the benefit of showing a website across multiple devices during the design process?
Reviewing a website design across desktop, laptop, tablet and phone mock-ups, as was done for True Music Travel, ensures the layout, imagery and calls to action work consistently regardless of how or where a prospective guest is browsing.
34. How does Designwest handle revisions during a website design project?
Designwest builds structured review points into every website design project, allowing clients to give feedback on layout, copy and imagery before development is finalised. This keeps the project efficient while still giving the client full input on the finished result.
35. Can a website be updated after launch without a developer?
Yes, provided it is built on a content management system suited to the client’s needs, which is standard practice for Designwest website projects. Clients are shown how to update journeys, pricing and content themselves once the site is live.
36. What is the ideal homepage structure for a boutique travel brand?
A strong boutique travel homepage, like True Music Travel’s, opens with a striking hero image and a confident headline, followed by a short explanation of the brand’s core offering, then a clear breakdown of what a journey may include, before closing with supporting imagery and a call to action.
37. Does Designwest offer logo or brand identity design alongside website design?
Yes. Designwest offers full brand identity design alongside website design, and can develop a new brand from logo through to a complete website, or design a website around an existing brand identity supplied by the client.
38. How does website design support a brand’s credibility with first-time visitors?
For any new brand, especially in travel, the website is often the first proof point a visitor has of the company’s credibility. Clear structure, professional photography and confident typography, as used on True Music Travel, all contribute to that first impression before a single word of copy is read.
39. What should a travel company’s FAQ page cover?
A strong travel FAQ page should cover practical questions around what is included in a journey, group sizes, accommodation standards, booking and payment process, and what makes the brand different from competitors, all of which are addressed on the True Music Travel FAQ page.
40. Is website design different for B2C tourism brands compared to B2B businesses?
Yes. A B2C tourism brand like True Music Travel needs to sell an emotional, experience led product directly to individual travellers, which means imagery, tone and storytelling carry more weight than they typically do for a B2B or professional services website.
41. How does Designwest decide on colour palettes for a new brand’s website?
Designwest bases colour decisions on the actual product and experience being sold rather than on generic industry convention. For True Music Travel, the palette was drawn from the warm, golden tones of Atlantic sunsets and firelit sessions, directly reflecting the journeys on offer.
42. Can Designwest integrate a blog into a new website?
Yes. Designwest can build a blog or news section into a new website design, which is useful for tourism and hospitality clients wanting to publish journey updates, seasonal content or destination guides to support ongoing SEO performance.
43. What is the typical process for a new website design project with Designwest?
Designwest’s process typically begins with a discovery consultation to understand the brand and audience, followed by page structure planning, visual design across key pages, content development, build, and a final review and testing stage across devices before launch.
44. Does Designwest design websites for government or public sector clients as well as private businesses?
Yes. Designwest works across both private sector clients, such as True Music Travel, and public sector organisations and government departments, applying the same design led approach adapted to each project’s tone and requirements.
45. How does website design differ for a bespoke or luxury travel brand?
A bespoke or luxury travel brand needs a website that feels considered and unhurried, with generous spacing, high-quality imagery and refined typography, rather than the dense, offer-led layouts common on budget travel sites. True Music Travel’s design reflects this throughout.
46. What is the benefit of using real imagery of musicians and sessions rather than generic tourism photos?
Real imagery of actual musicians, sessions and locations, as used throughout True Music Travel’s website, builds authenticity and trust in a way generic stock photography cannot. It shows a prospective guest exactly the kind of experience they are considering booking.
47. Can a website design help justify premium pricing for a travel experience?
Yes. A polished, well-considered website design signals quality and justifies premium pricing before a prospective guest even reads the itinerary details. True Music Travel’s design, from typography to imagery, was built to support its positioning as a premium, boutique product.
48. Does Designwest work with clients based outside Ireland?
Yes. While Designwest is based in Mayo with a studio in Dublin, the agency has designed websites for clients in the UK and further afield, and regularly works with Irish brands whose primary audience, like True Music Travel’s, is based in the US, Canada and Europe.
49. How long should a homepage take to load on a tourism website?
Fast load times matter for both user experience and search performance, particularly on image-heavy tourism websites. Designwest optimises imagery and page structure during build so that a photography-led site like True Music Travel’s still loads quickly across devices.
50. What is the difference between a brochure website and a booking-led tourism website?
A brochure website simply describes a business, while a booking-led tourism website, like True Music Travel’s, is structured to move a visitor from interest through to a specific enquiry, with clear pricing, itinerary detail and calls to action built into every relevant page.
51. Can Designwest help a new brand launch its website alongside a marketing or PR campaign?
Yes. Designwest can time a website launch to align with a client’s wider marketing, PR or social media activity, as is common with new brand launches such as True Music Travel, ensuring the site is ready to convert interest generated elsewhere.
52. How do I get started on a website design project with Designwest?
Getting started is straightforward. Contact Designwest by email at info@designwest.ie or by phone on 094 9382000 in Mayo or 01 699 1777 in Dublin to arrange an initial consultation and discuss your project.
