The Rehearsal Orchestra was founded in the 1950s as a way of giving instrumental musicians the experience of playing in an orchestra. Courses are run throughout the year and across the United Kingdom, helping musicians gain crucial skills.
Over the years the Rehearsal Orchestra has helped thousands of musicians excel, whether they are current or recent students, retired professionals, or amateur players. Virtually every professional orchestra includes players who have passed through a Rehearsal Orchestra course.
The new website needed to highlight the work of the Rehearsal Orchestra, including the breadth of courses in terms of repertoire, location and focus (such as conductors and instruments). This included showcasing previous courses, testimonials of previous participants and the quality of the people involved (conductors and staff).
The call to action was two-fold, with sign-ups to courses being the main focus. But also, as a charity, generating donations was a key objective.
With no dedicated marketing and web team, only volunteers, the website needed to be easy to manage and update. From a user point of view, the site needed to be clear to navigate and take action on all devices, as well as being as inclusive and accessible as possible.
From typography selection and letterforms, to line spacings and colour contrasts, accessibility formed the groundworks for the site’s new visual aesthetic, helping create an inclusive site for all. Atkinson Hyperlegible, originally designed for low vision readers, was selected for its distinctive characters which aid in its readability. Among many features, unambiguous letterforms and distinct character pairs ensure legibility at all scales. A modified and extended version of the existing colour palette ensured visual flexibility and variety, while adhering to colour contrast recommendations to ensure readability across the board.
