Case study · Foshan · Electronic music club
CLUB GALAME is a club in Foshan, in southern China, that made the DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs list every year from 2018 to 2024. In 2023 the venue was torn down to be rebuilt. We built its website for the time in between: a walk through five stations around a turning gold crown, with an email address waiting in the last room.
Project at a glance
2023
In 2023 CLUB GALAME placed No. 43 on DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs, its highest ranking. That August it stopped regular nights, and the old venue was torn down to be rebuilt.
That made the website an odd job. A club site usually lives on photos of the dance floor and next month's lineup. There was no floor to photograph and no lineup to post.
People opening the link would want to know where this place came from and why it is worth waiting for. The client gave us two things to work with: the venue's theme, The Last Cathedral, and a flat crown logo.
2009–2024
CLUB GALAME started in Foshan in 2009. In 2013 it moved into an old factory building in the Foshan creative industry park, and after a full refit it reopened there in 2015.
In 2017 the club began an international upgrade. The next year DJ Mag put it on the Top 100 Clubs list for the first time, at No. 91, and it stayed on the list every year after.
Before it was torn down, the venue had four rooms and held 2,000 people. The main room was about 12 metres high, with L-Acoustics sound, large LED screens and CO₂ stage effects.
Armin van Buuren, Marshmello, Zedd, W&W, KSHMR and Paul Oakenfold all played there.
Positions are from DJ Mag's yearly Top 100 Clubs list. Each row opens the club's DJ Mag entry for that year.
The Last Cathedral
When DJ Mag wrote about CLUB GALAME, it compared the main room to a church in 2020 and called it cathedral-like in 2021. The client's own theme for the venue is The Last Cathedral.
So we laid the site out as a walk through that building in five stations: Rite of Entry, the Nave, the Altar, the Reliquary and the Sacristy. The Nave is about the venue, the Altar about sound and the Reliquary about membership. The Sacristy, furthest in, is where you get in touch.
The crown is the client's logo, and it was drawn flat. We built it out as a 3D gold crown that appears in all five stations. It lights up in the middle of the screen at the entrance, moves to the right in the Nave, the Altar and the Reliquary, and returns to the centre in the Sacristy. Each time you move on, you see it from a new angle.
On a computer, you scroll to walk forward one station at a time. In the three middle stations, a short list on the left headed CATHEDRAL MAP lets you jump between Tonight, Sound Rite and Union Pass, with a link back to the entrance.
There isn't much to read. The crown takes up most of the screen, and each card holds a line or two.
Rite of Entry
First a silver crown gate: tap ENTER / 入堂 to push it open, and the gold crown lights up in the dark. Lower left: DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs 2024, No. 64, then Foshan, four rooms in a converted factory, 2,000 capacity, fully rebuilding and returning soon.
The Nave
The TONIGHT card is about the venue: four rooms in a converted factory, room for 2,000, some of the international acts who played there, and a line saying it will be back after the rebuild.
The Altar
The SOUND RITE card covers the stage, the lights and the music. Here you can see the detail on the crown.
The Reliquary
The membership card: VIP booths, brand events, member status and entry, all on one pass.
The Sacristy
ASK THE VERGER, one email address, and the club's Instagram, Facebook and YouTube accounts.
The phone number stays off the page for now, at the client's request.
The Ordo
The five stations run in order, but not everyone wants to walk them one by one. Some visitors only want to see the rooms; some only want a table.
So every station keeps THE ORDO in its top right corner. It opens a screen headed SEEK, AND YOU SHALL FIND., with all five stations set out on a diagonal stair, and any of them is one tap away. The three middle stations also carry a REQUEST A TABLE button; until the booking system opens, it takes visitors to the Sacristy.
On a phone
Most people open a club's link on their phone, so the phone version has a layout of its own.
With the phone held upright, the crown sits in the top half of the screen and the card in the middle. The station list and the table button sit low enough to reach with a thumb.
Moving between stations works differently too. One swipe up takes you to the next station, and only the next one, so a quick flick never carries you past the room you wanted. With THE ORDO open, swiping leaves the page behind it where it was, and closing it puts you back on the same station.
When a phone is working hard, there is less light around the crown. The crown still turns, and you can still move through the stations.
Before the reopening
The Rite of Entry page currently reads "fully rebuilding, returning soon". Whenever the venue has news, we update the words on the site, and when the reopening date is set, that one line is what changes. The crown and the five stations stay as they are.
Booking and membership are already built and held back at the client's request, so for now the site only shows the contact email in the Sacristy. When the client decides to open them, we switch them on; nothing has to be built again.
CLUB GALAME: the venue theme, The Last Cathedral; the crown logo; the venue's history.
Ascend Tier Tech: the website concept and five-station route, the copy for each station, the 3D crown built from the logo, development and launch. We maintain the copy now.
Opening soon, already open or in the middle of a refit, we can talk either way. Tell us where your venue stands and what you want the website to do, and we will work out the approach with you.