Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct launched its visually stunning Drupal site with new branding, a dynamic 'What’s On' section, and an advanced editorial experience designed for flexibility and ease of use.
- Client
- Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
- Industry
- Government
Highlights
- Implemented unique Visual Identity Guidelines
- Reusable, beautiful & flexible components
- Artifax events integration
- Custom forms integration
- Delivered on time and on budget
Deliverables
- A striking new visual identity
- Editorial simplicity and flexibility
- Flexible and adaptive events listings
- Compliant PII data handling
- Premium security and hosting
Context
A relatively recent NSW Government initiative, the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct serves as a physical and digital focal point for arts companies and patrons in Sydney.
The freshly launched website, alongside their social media channels, is key to their communications with the general public interested in the precinct.
The Solutions
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct began by collaborating with Sydney-based branding and design agency Enigma to develop a new Visual Identity Guidelines document (aka VIG).
Design
We utilised the VIG, encompassing the overall brand language, fonts, colours, and logo usage, to create website designs that used the NSW Government Design System in Figma.
During this phase, we conducted regular alignment sessions with Enigma and the Walsh Bay teams to ensure that all visual elements accurately represented their vision.
We also worked closely with the design team at the NSW Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport (DCITHS) to create additional assets, including a homepage map and homepage video banner.
A joint effort between teams at Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, DCITHS, Enigma and PreviousNext finalised the designs, then we dived into development.
Layout Builder
It was essential to create maximum flexibility for the Walsh Bay editorial team. Layout Builder is a powerful tool for building engaging pages, such as Home, Eat & Drink, and Visit Us.
Pliability is incorporated into the site’s visual design. This facilitates the use of stable and visually engaging, reusable CMS components that don’t require ongoing developer support.
Flexible event listings
The key section, 'What’s On', provides a streamlined and user-friendly experience, with filtered event listings and links to ticket sales for performances run by Walsh Bay’s Resident Companies.
‘What’s On’ was integrated with Artifax, a booking management platform, and adapted to support the nuances of each event and company.
Artifax integration
The Artifax importer runs overnight, consolidating public events from all of the separate platforms so that a visitor can easily see what’s coming up at the Precinct.
Various combinations of data input are supported, including:
- Events presented by and linking to the same Resident Company, e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bell Shakespeare;
- a unique presenting company linking to an existing Resident Company, e.g., ‘ABC Events presents Kitty Flanagan at Sydney Theatre Company’;
- and multiple Resident Companies showing events for the same festival, e.g., the Sydney Festival.
We also implemented fallbacks. If an event link or image isn’t available, the system reverts to the resident company’s logo or link.
Contact Forms
The WBAP site features two contact forms: Contact Us and Venue Hire. These forms submit data directly into a secure NSW Government CRM system for follow-up and response.
Crucially, data is not stored in the CMS, meeting all Personally Identifiable Information requirements.
Hosting and security testing
The WBAP site is hosted securely on our platform, Skpr, which provides highly available, scalable and adaptable hosting.
Before launch, the site underwent external penetration and security testing, passing all requirements.
The results
The Walsh Bay Arts Precinct website reflects a strong collaborative effort across agencies, seamlessly combining visual identity, flexible content tools, and external system integrations.
The result is a secure, future-proof platform that empowers WBAPs team and showcases the vibrant arts and culture of the precinct.
The development of the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct website was expertly delivered by the PreviousNext team led by Griffyn Heels.
From the start of the delivery process the project delivery timelines and deliverables were clearly identified and expectations, roles and meetings were established. PreviousNext afforded regular opportunities for us to feedback on the process and design outcomes.
They were a pleasure to deal with, always responsive and managed the many stakeholders professionally throughout. We are thrilled with the outcome.
Heather Clarke, Precinct Manager, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.