Polaris Canada: entertainment website design for a shared-reality venue brand

Polaris builds 26.5-metre LED domes where live sports, concert films, immersive cinema and light art wrap around a room full of people. The Canadian edition keeps the US architecture and rebuilds the content around four Canadian cities: Toronto in King West, Vancouver on Mount Pleasant, Waterloo and Montréal in Mile End. Prices are in CAD before tax, the copy is in Canadian English, and the legal layer moves from ADA and CAN-SPAM to AODA and CASL.

Project facts

• Client: Polaris Entertainment Inc. (fictional)
• Sector: Location-based entertainment, sports and live events
• Markets: Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo and Montréal, with Montréal still on the waitlist
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Entertainment venue website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 7 page templates shared with every Polaris edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Same dome, Canadian addresses

The US site sold a shared-reality platform city by city. For Canada we kept the eight templates and seven content blocks and changed what a Canadian visitor checks first: the city, the price with tax stated plainly, the transit stop and the language of the show. Toronto replaces Chicago as the flagship venue page, King West replaces the West Loop, and St. Andrew Station on Line 1 replaces the L stop. The palette cools from after-dark ember to spruce, slate and a restrained coral, and the type moves to Source Serif 4 with Inter so the site reads civic and calm rather than Hollywood.

Designing for Canada

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Cities - US edition: Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami · Canada (en-CA): Toronto, Waterloo, Vancouver, Montréal
• Flagship venue - US edition: Chicago, West Loop · Canada (en-CA): Toronto, King West, two minutes from St. Andrew Station
• Neighbourhoods - US edition: Wynwood, Inglewood, East Riverside · Canada (en-CA): Mile End, Mount Pleasant, Old Montréal
• Currency - US edition: USD, tax added at checkout · Canada (en-CA): CAD before tax, with a GST/HST note
• Measurement - US edition: 87-foot dome · Canada (en-CA): 26.5-metre dome, metric first
• Legal - US edition: ADA, CAN-SPAM, state privacy · Canada (en-CA): AODA, CASL, PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25
• Language - US edition: English only · Canada (en-CA): English with French closed captions; a disabled FR toggle in the footer
• Look - US edition: After-dark ink, ember-to-amber gradient, violet glow · Canada (en-CA): Slate ink, cream, spruce and one restrained coral; Source Serif 4 + Inter
• Origin story - US edition: A dome in a Texas parking lot · Canada (en-CA): A 6-metre inflatable dome in a Waterloo parking lot
• Entity - US edition: US corporation · Canada (en-CA): Polaris Entertainment Inc., with a Canadian chapter of the Better Business Bureau

Brand adaptation

The same Polaris, with a local accent

The identity keeps its concentric-arc mark and its Be there. Without the plane ticket. line, but the surface changes. Slate ink and cream carry the interface, spruce green does the structural work and a single restrained coral is reserved for italic emphasis and the booking action. Source Serif 4 gives headlines a civic, editorial calm; Inter keeps event rails and showtime panels plain and legible.

Homepage and key journeys

The homepage opens on a full-bleed dome hero and a live stats row, then hands visitors to Upcoming at Polaris Toronto, a drag-to-scroll rail with date badges and CAD prices. City cards cover Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo and Montréal, with Montréal marked Join the waitlist. The distinctive flow is the event detail page: a sticky showtime panel follows you down the story, quick facts list runtime, ages and English · French CC, and the FAQ answers accessibility and arrival questions before they reach the box office.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under PIPEDA, with Quebec Law 25 noted for Montréal guests and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as the complaint route.
• Email consent under CASL: the enquiry and newsletter checkbox starts unticked and states its purpose.
• Accessibility statement under AODA, matching the venue's step-free access, sensory-friendly sessions and assistive listening.
• Prices shown in CAD before tax, with GST/HST added at checkout.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For an entertainment venue group with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 7 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 30 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board