Fifty years of fearless theater deserves a purchase path with no intermission.

When Steppenwolf migrated ticketing to TNEW, on-page ticket selection disappeared—patrons were handed off to a separate environment before choosing a date, a price tier, or sometimes even a show. Discovery revealed that every other problem on the site was downstream of that hand-off. So we anchored the whole project to one principle: every decision before seat selection happens on the marketing site. The rebuilt production detail page carries the weight. Performance dates, times, starting prices, and accessibility indicators pull live from TNEW and display natively, in Steppenwolf’s visual language. A persistent right rail holds running time, content advisories, and logistics. A sticky Get Tickets button follows the scroll. We restyled TNEW’s own templates to match, so the final hand-off feels like a continuation, not an interruption.

Steppenwolf already had a bold, distinctive identity—black, white, red, a big wordmark, and production photography that can carry a page on its own. The problem wasn’t the palette. The site was adding noise instead of amplifying what was already there.

So we did. The design system gives that photography room to dominate. Sofia Pro carries the identity—bold all-caps at display size, a looser hand for logistics and editorial content. One component system covers everything from main stage productions to education programs; the visual intensity dials up or down, but nobody needs a second system.

The old site worked for people who already knew Steppenwolf. Longtime members and frequent patrons could navigate it—they’d done it before. Everyone else was largely on their own. Discovery surfaced the reason: Steppenwolf’s default answer to “who are you building this for?” was everyone. When all audiences are equally important, none of them get what they need. Getting clear about audience priorities was the work that made everything else possible—navigation hierarchy, content emphasis, homepage real estate. Productions come first. Plan Your Visit answers the practical questions first-time visitors actually have. Education & Community gets its own section instead of being filed under About. What’s On is a week-ahead view of what’s playing—as easy for someone who’s never been as for someone who has.

Steppenwolf’s old CMS was bare bones—most content updates funneled through one person because other departments didn’t have the access or the tools to manage their own sections. Content lived in silos. Updating a production meant touching it in multiple places, and nothing kept the site consistent. Part of discovery was helping Steppenwolf evaluate platforms and pick one built for how they actually work. They landed on Craft, and we organized the build around a single principle: create once, publish everywhere. Connect a cast member to a production once and they show up everywhere they belong. Update a venue once and every connected production reflects it. The handoff included more than a working CMS. Every department got clear editorial ownership of its sections, plus content strategy documentation covering best practices for keeping it that way.