2026
World Design Awards
Gold
Melbourne Recital Centre
A visually dynamic and accessible digital experience that amplifies Melbourne Recital Centre’s daring new brand.
2026
Australian Design Awards
Gold
2025
Melbourne Design Awards
Gold
2025
Good Design Award
Winner
Rich Text Editor
Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) stands as one of Australia’s premier cultural institutions, known for delivering world-class live music experiences. As part of a new brand refresh, MRC sought a website that would bridge the gap between online and onsite interactions, making their digital presence as dynamic and inspiring as their performances.
Key goals included improving accessibility for all users, elevating the presentation of events and artist content, and modernising the technical foundation to support future growth. The new site needed to seamlessly integrate with Tessitura v16 for ticketing and self-service features, while introducing a more intuitive event exploration and booking process.
With an extensive calendar of events and diverse user base, MRC required a flexible and powerful platform that delivered a premium user experience across all devices.
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Our Solution
We researched, designed and developed a fully custom solution that prioritises accessibility, performance, and ease of use, while unveiling MRC's daring new brand to the world.
Research-led
Early discovery activities engaged a wide array of internal MRC stakeholders, as well as in-depth sessions with a cross section of MRC's diverse audience.
Accessible Design
Adhered to WCAG guidelines, ensuring all users can navigate and engage with the site seamlessly.
Enhanced Event Pages
Designed event pages to guide users with storytelling, clear CTAs, and rich media, encouraging ticket conversions.
Dynamic Colour System
Implemented a system that dynamically applies MRC's new brand palette, creating visual consistency across all pages.
Tessitura v16 Integration
Integrated the latest version of Tessitura to support robust ticketing, membership, and donation pathways.
Flexible Content Modules
Empowered MRC's marketing team with an easy-to-manage CMS featuring modular content blocks for showcasing events and artist stories.
Responsive Design
Full device responsiveness across various resolutions for mobile, tablet and desktop.
Development Partnership
Ongoing support, maintenance and hosting for development on Umbraco 14 CMS with custom Tessitura REST API integrations to create a seamless purchase pathway.
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Outcomes
The new Melbourne Recital Centre website sets a benchmark for cultural institutions by delivering a rich, immersive, and accessible digital experience. The fully custom SYOS tool has transformed the booking experience, making seat selection faster and more user-friendly, especially for mobile users.
With dynamic branding elements and a thoughtfully structured CMS, MRC’s team now has full control over how they present their content, engaging audiences with minimal technical barriers.
The platform is built for long-term scalability and is already supporting future plans for further enhancements, ensuring MRC remains at the forefront of digital innovation in the arts sector.
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Application
Discovery
- Digital Strategy
- Stakeholder Workshops
- Audience & User Research
- Current-state Review
- Requirements Definition
- Technical Discovery
- Integration Strategy
- Analytics Review
Design
- Information Architecture
- User Journey Mapping
- UX Prototyping
- Usability Testing
- Visual Design
- Accessible Design
Development
- Front-end Development
- Back-end Development
- Umbraco CMS Implementation
- Tessitura CRM Integration
- Integrated SYOS Solution
- Accessibility Implementation
- Quality Assurance & Testing