Build something legendary.

As one of the most impactful pages on the website, Apollo needed a homepage that was “alive.” It needed to be fresh, modern and reflect Apollo’s immense energy towards boundary-pushing work. With this in mind, we introduced a design that was reflective of the space itself. We switched from a white to a black background, with focused, “lit” areas featuring bold graphics and content, emulating the captivating feeling of stepping into a theater. To support Apollo’s various audiences and promote their countless resources, we restructured the homepage to make the content easily digestible by introducing “card stacking” rather than long lists.

With the growing demand for virtual options, we created a digital stage to both reflect and be a replacement for their physical stage. In order to create a “living” space where audiences can easily explore content, we moved away from lists and created interactive content sections built for encouraging engagement. This included features like  immediately playable video capabilities and navigation menus for continued exploration. Additionally, we constructed robust event detail pages that provide users with further information and easy access to content.

Events were a core component of Apollo, happening constantly both in-person and digitally. They needed a distinctive calendar and ticketing page that worked for their unique schedule. The Tickets & Events page was structured to show cards that presented featured events first and then continued onto a comprehensive calendar. As events at Apollo often lasted more than one day, we ensured upcoming listings defaulted to a calendar view for easy viewing. Lastly we introduced a filtering system which allowed users to sort through numerous events by category, location, genre and more.

People are at the heart of Apollo. The intense passion of all who walk through their doors–emerging artists, creative legends, dedicated team members, and loyal audience members–make the theater iconic. To reflect this, we drastically shifted from a text-based focus to a heavily visual design. Because photos and videos were most impactful in representing the significance of Apollo’s history, current mission and people, bold imagery and photography is integrated across the entire site.

Apollo’s website needed to not only reflect their decorated history and current boundary-pushing ventures, it needed to be equipped to handle future growth as well. With a large amount of content, we created a digital library to present their past work in the most effective way possible through a featured post section, a filterable search function, and more. To support Apollo’s continued upward momentum, we redesigned the Giving and Education pages to simplify the user flow while focusing on the most important components such as program announcements and donation opportunities. For everything else, we provided a robust, flexible template.

From the start, our teams collectively built a foundation of understanding for Apollo’s vision for their digital experience. We dug into the work together with vulnerability, and acknowledged the realities of the work and the world in which it existed. We created a partnership that was human, full of give-and-take, guidance, and care. As our partnership evolved, so did our work–leading to a final product that reflected Apollo’s intense passion towards their values.