Step into an 1898 saloon before you leave the cruise ship.
Red Onion Saloon is a historic brothel museum and saloon in Skagway, Alaska, dating from 1898. I redesigned its website and rebuilt its brand identity for one audience above all: cruise passengers browsing on a phone over patchy ship Wi-Fi. Pages target a load time under three seconds.
The direction was “Modern Vintage. Cinematic & Bold.”: dark, atmospheric tones, frosted-glass cards, parallax photography and GSAP scroll animations that put you inside the saloon before you arrive. Booking runs through FareHarbor in a lightbox on the same page, so going from “looks interesting” to “booked” takes under a minute.
Design System
Color
Typography
Tech Stack
Key Features
Cinematic Glassmorphism
Dark-toned cards with backdrop-filter blur, gradient fills, and gold accent borders. Review cards shift to bordello red on hover. The entire UI evokes stepping into a dim-lit 1898 saloon.
GSAP Scroll Animations
ScrollTrigger-powered reveal animations, parallax photography, staggered hero entrances, and smooth section transitions, all tuned for performance on slow cruise ship Wi-Fi.
FareHarbor Booking Integration
Lightbox modal with calendar, time slot selection, guest counter, and real-time pricing. No page redirect: from interest to confirmed booking in under 60 seconds.
Bento Grid Experiences
12-column asymmetric grid showcasing four experiences (Museum, Dining, Ghost Tour, Shop) with image-backed cards that scale and shift on hover.
Gallery Lightbox & Timeline
Masonry-inspired 5-image gallery with keyboard navigation (arrow keys, Escape). Tour pages feature a 4-step timeline with gold accent line and dot markers.
Cruise Ship Wi-Fi Optimised
Mobile-first with 48px touch targets, lazy-loaded images, lightweight code, and sub-3-second load targets. Designed for one-handed thumb browsing on unreliable connections.
Full Brand Identity System
Logo system (primary, horizontal, logotype, icon) plus sub-brands (Saloon, Museum, Shop). Complete guidelines with CMYK/RGB/HEX specs, type hierarchy, and patch designs for merchandise.
Conversion-Driven UX
Visible pricing with gold accents, 5-star reviews from TripAdvisor/Google/Yelp, “3-minute walk from cruise dock” proximity signals, and duration-first tour cards.