BY STEPHANIA ROMANIUK
In 2018, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra embarked on a bold rebranding initiative that included a comprehensive overhaul of its digital presence. To bring this vision to life, the Calgary Phil tasked Frank Fowler, founder of Sland Studios — a boutique web design and development agency based in Calgary — with leading a new website build.
Although only seven years old at the time, Sland had already developed a strong reputation for website planning, design, and development, and a particular talent for highly technical coding and software integrations.
The ask was straightforward: support the rebranding and colloquial re-naming of the Orchestra from “the CPO” to “the Calgary Phil” by rebuilding the website and seamlessly integrating a new ticketing and client management software known as Spektrix.
The website re-design had to provide a singular user experience and to visually match the new branding, as if one designer had completed every element of the organization’s materials, from the season brochure to the website’s ticketing platform.
Fowler’s team investigated which web tools they might leverage for this type of integration, but none existed. “There were no pre-existing plug-ins or web components that would achieve the Calgary Phil’s ask of a full, seamless site integration,” Fowler says. “So, we decided to figure it out on our own.”
Sland knew that rebuilding the website and building these connections between software platforms would take several months. They worked steadily, their team connecting daily with the Calgary Phil to discuss concerns and progress. Throughout the project, Fowler’s lead web developer ran into significant challenges: accommodating project specifications alongside various requests for customizations. A pattern began to emerge and a new dynamic plug-in was created with a focus on scalability and unlimited customizations. The result was the launch of a new website in 2020 that reflected the updated brand, was fully integrated with ticketing and client management software, and resonated the values of the organization.
“The Calgary Phil was one of our biggest clients to date, and completing the project on time, to spec, and on budget was a big win,” shares Fowler. “As a music and theatre kid growing up, it was a dream come true to work with a major North American performing arts institution.”
Fowler was raised in Rossland, BC — where the studio name “Sland” comes from. He took piano lessons growing up and participated in drama courses and local theatre productions in high school and university. As part of their work together, Sland began offering in-kind donations to the Calgary Phil. “We provided our not-for-profit rate,” Fowler describes, “and then a further credit in exchange for concert tickets for our friends, family, and clients.”
Their in-kind sponsorship, a full circle moment for Fowler, has continued to this day.
Shortly after the website launched, Sland received a call from Spektrix on behalf of Performing Arts Houston who were looking for a similar website integration service. Fowler realized his WordPress-based Spektrix plug-in, newly dubbed Maestro Press, could be the solution to a broader challenge within the industry. Since then, Sland has grown into a North American Spektrix Integration Specialist, recently hiring additional web developers and team members to support their expanding work demands. Clients include major performance venues (Performing Arts Houston, the Wilson Center in North Carolina) off-Broadway theatres in New York City (Theatre For A New Audience, The New Group) and traditional performance institutions like Pacific Conservatory Theatre, Honens, and the Calgary Phil. “We want to continue to niche in the performing arts industry within North America by building robust solutions to support more organizations who are ready to scale,” Fowler states.
In many ways, the composer and web developer are similar: both labour outside of broader public awareness to bring to life an experience that once lived only in their imaginations. “It’s all of us using our areas of specialty — or that music in our head — to hear the solution to a problem. What is obvious to me from a business development perspective, and what is obvious to my account managers and designers and web developers is different, but it’s the unique experience of each of us that’s allowed for new ideas to happen. I guess my role in that has been saying, ‘Let’s go for it. Let’s build that.’ But it’s the team’s inner experience which has been guiding all of this, which I love to be a part of.”
A good website must build trust and sustain growth. Whether it’s a seamless checkout flow, multi-instance event support, or dynamic filtering by concert series, every feature can enhance or detract from the customer experience, which nowadays starts online. “Music and the arts bring the same value to society as any other profession or trade, and they should be given the same tools to help them become financially sustainable,” Fowler shares. “Discovering what makes an organization unique and bringing them in front of more people — helping make this vision a reality is our passion.”