We’d already been working on a couple of large digital projects with the Royal Exchange team when we began their new website project.

We felt we knew them well, but we’re never complacent and we know how important it is to bring the whole team along on the journey together. So we organised one-to-one discussions alongside an open workshop where staff from across the organisation were invited to contribute.

Alongside the anecdotal exercises from workshops, we delved into all of their analytical data (from Google and Spektrix), and we produced a comprehensive peer analysis looking at how other venues manage similar challenges.

And of course we went to their brilliant shows, ate in their restaurant, drank in their bar and hung out in the space.

If we’re honest, we were probably a bit in awe of the history of this incredible venue when we first worked on design ideas. We tried to work within their existing visual identity, using their fonts, colours and tone of voice. But between us all, we quickly realised that approach wasn’t working.

We took a step back and started again, this time with a clean palette – we selected new fonts and a refreshed colour palette, and we made full-screen images a key visual motif throughout the site.

We kept their logo as that had a lot of brand recognition, and we animated it to give punch to the pages.

Lots of that work has now been adopted back into their visual identity, print and digital marketing.

The site is filled with subtle animations and interactions that all add to the overall feeling of professional play.

Perhaps the most arresting feature is the ‘locked’ homepage.

The homepage is essentially a slideshow, but the animated transition packs a punch and elevates the aesthetic. Images fill the page and users can only navigate away by using the menu or the two key navigation headings (or clicking on any of the buttons within the slides).

The content of those slides allow the client team to use their brilliant advanced publicity images, production images for the current shows, and additional messages about memberships, participation partnerships etc.

The ‘burger’ menu allows users to access any other area of the site, via landing pages or drilling down another layer to more content.

Event pages (like the rest of the site) are constructed in blocks of different content types, allowing our clients total flexibility whilst retaining a tightly regulated overall visual framework.

There’s lots of clever Spektrix integration going on in the background, including all of the usual capacity calculations and pulling through of accessibility tags.

And we’re doing some smart things with messaging around advanced booking periods and upselling memberships.

This can be seen in the video, where we’re showing the states for:

1. Before the on-sale period with messaging about the ‘priority on-sale dates’
2. During the priority on-sale period, when not logged in – showing the option to login as a member or buy a membership along with tickets
3. During the priority on-sale period when logged in as a member

The rest of the site is deceptively simple but packed with an impressive depth of content.

Landing pages guide users to areas of interest from which they can delve deeper and cross reference between topics.

Each page is designed from a hugely flexible template so our clients can build their content, block by block.