Welcome To Our New Online Home

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A screenshot of the old Fevered Sleep website

Ashleigh Armitage and Patrick Walker in the Dust studio. Photo by Andy Brown.

We began thinking about what our new website might look like in mid-2017, and much like everything we do, it started with a period of research.

There were the internal questions we had to answer as an organisation; what do our users want? What works and doesn’t work about our current website? How much content do we have? What does each department need the website to do? How can we ‘future-proof’ it? What’s our budget? Can we fundraise for it?

Then there were the more artistic and philosophical questions; how can our website represent the spirit of our work? Can we create a distinctive online home for each of our 30+ (very different) projects? How can we make it as accessible and inclusive as possible? How do we make it feel like Fevered Sleep?

What was certain was that our website, a customised Wordpress site built almost 10 years ago, was no longer serving our needs. We also had 7 (!) microsites created for individual projects.

We began with a process of mapping out the website and its pages using Google Sheets, testing its performance on a website grader to benchmark our progress (we’ve gone from a 54 to an 89 out of 100!), surveying each team member on their needs, and using Pinterest boards to decide on what kinds of colours, fonts and websites we liked.

Our early colour references on Pinterest

We went through a long process to decide which drag and drop CMS platform to use. It was between Squarespace, Craft, Semplice, Cargo, Readymag, Divi, Webflow, Kirby, Readymag, Wix, or sticking with Wordpress. I’m not a fan of sites that have been coded from scratch because they tend to go out of date so quickly.

We chose Squarespace because I use it all the time to build smaller websites, but also because we wanted a platform that would let us keep creating beautiful and bespoke pages for our projects after the designers handed over the site, and so that it wouldn’t look dated in a few years time.

The hardest part of all was deciding on who to work with. Over 100 very diverse applicants responded to our brief from all over the world, and it took far longer to narrow them down than we’d originally anticipated. If you’re looking for recommendations we’d be happy to send some your way!

We eventually chose Dust, a design collective based in Sheffield. Their work for various arts organisations and on Feast Journal inspired us, the fact that they could achieve anything we asked because they work as a collective was appealing, but most of all, we chose them because they got us.

After a phone call with Dust’s founder Patrick Walker and designer Ashleigh Armitage I knew we’d found the right team. They’re deeply lovely people and endlessly patient - which is perfect because we have endless questions and ideas.

Patrick came to Malmö in Sweden to see a performance of our project Men & Girls Dance, and Ashleigh came to visit our This Grief Thing shop in Manchester.

Initially we worried this was an extravagance but quickly learned in subsequent design meetings this had actually saved us a lot of time. Right from the very early stages we loved their design ideas, their provocations, and their gentle nudges in the right direction because we understood each other.

When Patrick said that our new branding should reflect the fact that Fevered Sleep creates space for things to happen, something clicked and we had a roadmap.

9 girls and 5 men holding a large sheet made of newspapers up in the air

Men & Girls Dance in Malmö 2018, photo by David Thibel

A very optimistic early timeline

Brilliant DVD by Fevered Sleep modelled by Rita, photo by Paul Akinrinlola

Initially Dust suggested we use Craft, a CMS platform they usually use, but after a side by side comparison we stuck with Squarespace which I felt was very brave and open-minded of them. They worked with us for months, meeting almost every week to run through pages and pages of design ideas and decoding what we meant by “not too boxy” or “more playful”. They’re such great listeners that when they put their foot down, we could trust it was for good reason.

Dust also found developers Noughts & Ones, who are Squarespace magicians quite frankly. We didn’t start speaking to Adam and Tom until what felt like the very end of the process. They began work when everything had been designed and all of our content was uploaded and ready for them to build, but we still asked for changes. Luckily for us, Noughts & Ones are also very patient: we still haven’t thrown a challenge their way they couldn’t achieve perfectly within a couple of hours.

We realised as the website began to take shape we wanted every part of it to achieve the same level of quality. This meant putting together a photoshoot so that the items in our online shop reflected the thought we’d put in to making them.

The lovely team at Method studios in north London, lead by photographer Paul Akinrinlola, worked with me to style and shoot a huge number of items and our wonderful models in one day. The photos were then edited by Luis Peña Bacalao at Macolla Visual in Colombia. I can’t begin to recommend either of them highly enough.

Our biggest challenge has been decision making. We love to test different ideas until we’re sure we’ve made the right choice.

That meant a lot of meetings about everything from colours (so many colours!) and fonts to language and accessibility. Every part of this website and our new branding has been carefully considered. At times that made us worry we might never actually launch, but we’re so happy with the outcome it feels worth the effort.

This website would not have been possible without the generous support of Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, UK Fidelity Foundation and Wellcome Trust. We’re incredibly grateful.

If you’d like to take a look at our new branding guidelines you can download them below.