Dead Northern

The challenge

Dead Northern is an events and entertainment brand with a cult following. Their events blend horror, immersive theatre, and social experiences into something genuinely unique — and their web presence needed to match that energy.

The existing site had three critical problems:

It didn’t feel like Dead Northern. The brand’s identity is dark, cinematic, and atmospheric. The old site looked generic — it could have been any events company. Visitors weren’t getting a taste of the experience before buying a ticket.

Event management was a bottleneck. With a packed calendar of events, screenings, and special experiences, every update required developer involvement. The team needed to publish events themselves, on their own schedule, without waiting days for a code change.

Ticket sales were underperforming. The path from discovering an event to buying a ticket was clunky. Too many clicks, unclear calls to action, and slow page loads meant potential attendees were dropping off before completing a purchase.

The approach

I spent time understanding what makes Dead Northern tick. This isn’t a corporate events company — it’s a brand built on atmosphere, community, and a love of horror. The website needed to feel like stepping into one of their events.

Design philosophy

The design strategy centred on three principles:

1. Dark-first — Not just dark mode as an afterthought, but a design language built on deep blacks, with content emerging from darkness like the events themselves
2. Cinematic imagery — Large, full-bleed photography and video that puts the audience inside the experience
3. Urgency without pressure — Clear ticket CTAs that create excitement rather than sales anxiety

Technical decisions

• Astro with Svelte components — Astro’s static-first approach with Svelte UI components for smooth interactivity, important for the immersive feel
• Payload CMS — A powerful, self-hosted headless CMS for structured content. Events have complex data: dates, venues, ticket tiers, performers, image galleries. Shares a multi-tenant instance with Odyssey Gaming Festival
• Vercel — Edge deployment for fast loading, critical when promoting events on social media drives traffic spikes

The solution

Immersive homepage

The homepage is designed as a single immersive scroll. A full-bleed video hero immediately establishes the atmosphere, with the next upcoming event prominently featured. As visitors scroll, they encounter featured events, past event galleries, and social proof — each section pulling them deeper into the Dead Northern world.

Event management system

The Payload CMS setup gives the team complete control over their events calendar. The CMS is shared as a multi-tenant instance with Odyssey Gaming Festival, keeping infrastructure costs low while giving each brand its own content space. Each event is a rich document with structured fields for everything they need:

• Event details — Title, date, venue, description, and custom slug
• Ticket tiers — Multiple ticket types with individual pricing and availability
• Media gallery — Upload and arrange event photography for each listing
• Performer profiles — Reusable content blocks for recurring performers
• SEO fields — Custom meta titles, descriptions, and Open Graph images per event

The Payload CMS dashboard is customised to match Dead Northern’s workflow. Creating a new event takes minutes, not hours, and the team can preview changes before publishing.

Event detail pages

Individual event pages are designed to convert browsers into ticket buyers. The layout follows a deliberate sequence:

1. Atmospheric hero — Full-width event imagery that sets the mood
2. Key details — Date, time, venue, and price immediately visible
3. Event description — Rich content area with the full event narrative
4. Ticket selection — Clear tier breakdown with prominent purchase button
5. Related events — Suggestions for similar upcoming experiences

Performance with rich media

Despite heavy use of photography and video, the site loads fast. Key optimisations:

• Lazy-loaded media — Images and video only load as they enter the viewport
• Responsive images — Multiple sizes served based on device, saving bandwidth on mobile
• Video poster frames — Static images shown while video loads, preventing layout shift
• Preloaded hero assets — The above-fold content loads first for a fast initial paint

Gallery

The results

The new site transformed Dead Northern’s digital presence:

• Authentic brand representation — The site feels like a natural extension of their events, not a separate entity
• Self-service content management — The team publishes new events in minutes without developer involvement
• Increased ticket sales — Clearer pathways from discovery to purchase, with direct attribution from the website
• Reduced bounce rate — The immersive design keeps visitors engaged longer, exploring more events
• Social media amplification — Event pages are designed to be shared, with optimised Open Graph previews that look striking in feeds