Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company


This nationally-known company pushes the boundaries of theatre, just as we do with our web work. So we took on their redesign pro bono to align ourselves with folks we respect creatively and philosophically.

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Awards

  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: Davey Awards: Silver Award: Branding (2008)
  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: W3 Awards: Silver Award: Entertainment (2007)
  • Web Marketing Association WebAwards: Arts Standard of Excellence (2008)

Tags

Graphic Design, Interactives / Games, Programming / Database, Site Architecture, Third Party Tools, Usability / Accessibility, User Interface Design, Museum & Performing Arts

<p>When we first began our redesign work, the Woolly site had dark, cluttered layout that didn’t do much to brand them as a world-class theatre company. Now, the new design is light, edgy and highly compelling—just like their performances!</p> <p>We paid special attention to the layout of performance pages so that patrons can easily access and glance through show overview, cast, schedule and other information. Using a tabbed navigation structure and embedded content, we “chunked” information in a logical fashion while eliminating clicks to multiple pages to provide the full picture for each performance.</p>

Case Study

Challenges

Woolly Mammoth is the darling of the DC theatre scene, known as the “hottest theatre company in town” (Washington Post) and lauded for “the highest profile of any small theatre outside of New York” (Playbill).

While they are renowned for taking innovative risks in their productions, when we first connected about the redesign project, the Woolly website was cluttered, lacked clear organization and didn’t represent the high level of performance seen at the theatre.

In addition, having recently moved to a stylish permanent home in the heart of downtown Washington, DC, Woolly needed an online brand that reflected their position at the epicenter of challenging new theatre in America.


Solutions

Our designers collaborated closely with Woolly and their ad agency to create a site that was befitting of the Woolly Mammoth brand – edgy and creative while sophisticated and classy. Our designers started with their cool, quirky logo and bold performance artwork to create an online look and feel that emulated the theatre’s environment as well as the vibe of their performances.

The redesign also included an enhanced user interface structure, designed to provide visitors with easy access to key performance  information. Each performance  page now has overviews plus discrete content tabs (ticketing, scheduling, cast, etc.) to minimize clicks and scrolling for content.

Subsequent phases of development include an enhanced store to streamline subscriptions and donations.


Results

The redesigned site is certainly fitting of the theatre’s hip, risk-taking performance style. And, as a typical first point of contact for theatre-goers, the website helps set the stage (pardon the pun!) for an innovative experience.

To celebrate the launch of its new website, we conceived of the Woolly-est Washingtonian contest to celebrate those that are bold, daring, edgy or stand out from the herd in some unique way.

The contest garnered attention, creative submissions and cultivated a new crop of Woolly fans, which has helped them translate the theatre experience to social media outlets such as their successful Facebook fan page.


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