The Albany is a performing arts venue and creative centre located in Deptford, South London, UK. It plays host to numerous acts including comedy, theatre, music and many more.

I came across their site this week after seeing it displayed in a CSS gallery and I liked it so much I thought I would have a further look at it for you now.

The First thing that caught my eye about the site was the unusual layout. The reason for this is the huge mixed media centrepiece that houses a slideshow of upcoming acts. I really like their choice to have a large ‘billboard’ as the main attraction of the site as it quickly and clearly shows the viewer what sort of things they can see at The Albany.

The fact that this slideshow is placed slightly off centre also adds to the overall composition of the page. There has been a decision made to make this site look ‘imperfect’, which gives the whole thing a softer personality. Not only are things asymmetrical, there are also wonky boxes, handwritten notes and crumpled paper, to name a few.

There is a very stark black and white colour theme running through The Albany site. However, they have used a bold yellow within this colour scheme to place emphasis on certain important areas. One excellent example of this is the box office phone number, which has not only been expertly placed at top of the page (making it one of the first things you notice) but has been entitled in yellow, which ensures it stands out and is very easy to find when you want to. It could have been very easy to over use this yellow but luckily it is used sparingly throughout the site. Every time you add another striking element to a web design you lessen the effect of the existing calls to action.

While the designers of this site have expertly used yellow to make certain information stand out, I must admit that I feel they have used the wrong colour for their navigation. The grey they have decided to use is struggling to stand out on top of the subtle grey gradient that it sits on. While they have made the font very large the lack of any contrast means that I find myself ignoring it time and again. I would recommend that they try using black for this font and changing the hover state to the grey they have now.

One other problem I have with the navigation is the fact that there seems to be 2 placed very closely together. The aforementioned navigation is accompanied by another one directly above it. This is very confusing for a user, as there doesn’t seem to be any distinction between the types of content that fit into each section.

To summarize, The Albany site has a vibrant sense of personality, which seems to fit well with the type of performances that go on in the venue. There is a lovely use of colour and a fabulous centrepiece that highlights the upcoming performers.

I’d love to know what you think of the site, please comment your opinions and feel free to tell me if you think I’m wrong. Alternatively, if you think I’m possibly the best web design writer on this planet and everything I have said here is spot on then I’d love to hear that to.

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