Overture · Royal Opera House
A digital platform and daytime events service that takes a 3-hour Royal Opera House performance and expands it into a full-day themed production — online and offline. Learn the opera, attend small events through the day, and immerse yourself in the full spectacle
Opening the doors of a world-class opera house
The Royal Opera House is opening their spaces to the public, and partnered with the Royal College of Art on the 2018 Open Up Project. The brief: enhance the existing ROH offering with a world-class opera experience that brings behind-the-scenes stories to life, attracts a wider audience through the door, encourages lingering outside performance times, and creates moments to be shared
“How might ROH create affordable, accessible pre- and post-performance experiences — that turn potential visitors into loyal daytime regulars, across both physical and digital channels?”
A guiding question for the service design
An untapped audience — and a brand that’s everywhere and nowhere at once
Desk and field research surfaced a clear opportunity: ROH's spaces sit largely empty during the daytime. The Populus audience segmentation pointed to upcoming 65+ women as a high-potential group — they have time during the day, and just as importantly, they're the access point to children and grandchildren, opening a path to attract a much wider audience over time
The ROH already has a huge surface area — SoundCloud, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, digital screens, newsletters, cinema events, online shops, BBC partnerships, websites, bars, restaurants, foyers, magazines, billboards. The problem isn't scarcity — it's that these channels are disconnected, telling fragmented stories on parallel timelines
Don’t make more. Orchestrate what’s already there
Overture sequences ROH's existing offerings into one coherent themed day per performance — bridging digital and physical channels through a single conductor
The ROH didn't need more channels — it needed a conductor. Overture sequences existing offerings into one coherent day
Each evening show anchors a full daytime programme — talks, workshops, foyer encounters and digital content all themed to that night's opera
A single service running across desktop, mobile and the physical building — discovery online, immersion on site
A mark that carries the spirit of the house
Brand identity rooted in the ROH visual language — a wordmark and system designed to sit comfortably alongside the existing house identity
A digital platform tied to a calendar of daytime events
The platform lets potential visitors browse upcoming themed days, book affordable small-format events, and arrive at the house already inside the story — turning a single ticketed evening into a full day of encounters
The conductor’s score — mapped end-to-end
Journey and service-system map — designed as a collaboration artefact across ROH teams
