A message to all; Architects, Graphic, Interior & Retail Designers, Industrial & Digital Designers, Branding & Experience Consultants, Fabrication & Production Specialists and Design Educators…

SEGD – THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE, WORKING AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT…  ARE TURNING 40!

YOU MAY ASK – WHO ARE SEGD?

SEGD (The Society of Environmental Graphic Design) has helped foster the discipline of Environmental Graphic Design globally and as a defining educator delivers public awareness, design excellence, standards of practice, research, collaboration & community.

This forward thinking organisation has more than 1,600 members in 33 countries who work in the planning, design, fabrication, and implementation of communications in the built environment. BrandCulture is a proud member and our work has been recognised through their awards program for the last 3 years consecutively. These include Sydney Water, UTS and Multiplex projects.

We are proud to announce our MD, Stephen Minning has been appointed to the Board of Directors,

along with other elite industry professionals to name a few; Moira Gemmill (V&A Museum), Graham Hanson (Graham Hanson Design) Alex Wood (Holmes Wood), Gary Stemler (Archetype). Stephen is looking forward to embracing this opportunity and collaborating with SEGD’s new CEO Clive Roux.

The MLC Campus is an icon in its own right; once the largest commercial building in Australia and start of the new Central Business District that is now North Sydney. This defining building was designed by Bates Smart Architects and opened in 1957 by Prime Minister Menzies to great fanfare. 

MLC has always embodied a culture of cutting-edge innovation, derived from James P Garvan, the founding father of the organisation in 1887. Garvan’s vision brought life insurance to the masses, it was no longer limited to society’s elite, this sense of frontier-style thinking continues to this day and is very much aligned to Australian popular culture. MLC not only took on the English financial institutions back in the day, but was a foundation block of Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD and key to establishing North Sydney’s CBD. MLC is inherently a patron of modernist architecture, a leader of innovative financial investment products and a champion of modern work place culture. 

In 2000, Bligh Voller Neild Architects introduced glass stairwells through the centre of the building to facilitate vertical pedestrian traffic between floors. The architects also introduced the integration of completely ‘themed’ floors, an innovation of work place environments. Each floor is an extremely different experience, which is refreshing when in such a large building (25,000SqM over 12 floors). Many have attempted to copy this formula with varying degrees of success compared to MLC.

BRIEF

2012 marked the 125th Anniversary of MLC and this coincided with the refurbishment of the building by Woods Bagot Architects. To celebrate this momentous occasion, CEO Steve Tucker chose to acknowledge the importance of the organisation’s heritage. Several individuals were empowered with the challenge and undertook a study tour of other leading workplaces to determine the best practice approach to creating a strong brand culture. 

Woods Bagot recommended BrandCulture to the MLC study tour team for our environmental graphics heritage work for Sydney Water, Westfield and George Weston Foods. We were immediately engaged and underway on one of our most impressive projects to date.

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INNOVATION

The basement of the MLC campus headquarters housed the archives since the company’s inception and before… It was hard to fathom just how much information was stored there. Our team consisting of a content producer, photographer, designer and writer spent three continuous weeks establishing the MLC ‘blood line’ story. 

The two stairwells traverse the height of the building; one is essentially a glass box and the other is open with glass floors. With both stairwells you can look up or down through the building with uninterrupted views but for the stairs. These became the canvas for us to tell the MLC story with a continuous glass wall, 30 metres high by 7 metres wide (approximately  210 Square metres of surface area).

CHALLENGE

At MLC, there are many key people who believe in creating a better brand culture. We collaborated closely with them to define the MLC story. During the project, the 125th Anniversary book (Bounce Books) was underway and a short movie (Solid state) was also produced, for the yearly financial advisers’ meeting in November 2012.

Each floor was re-themed using modern vernacular and the interiors were modernised. There was no need to reinvent the floor themes, just to evolve these very well liked and lived in concepts. Wood Bagot created another world leading environment and Built was engaged to realise the overall vision for the MLC campus. BrandCulture consulted with Woods Bagot and MLC on the best way to interpret the MLC Heritage story using environmental graphics.

A gallery-style design treatment, for the environmental graphics, was decided on for its ability to flow through the diverse visual language of each floor and remain a ‘piece’ on its own. The main visual narrative applies to one side of the 30 metre high glass wall with information to add context while navigating the stairs, but not to hinder traffic flow. On the office side, the stories are elaborated on and relate to the many images. The history has three main story lines: MLC, Australia’s financial industry and defining moments in world history that changed the way we live.

SUSTAINABILITY

The glass stairwell was built 12 years earlier, so consideration to the application of graphics to the existing structure required innovative and safe thinking. The film itself is a sustainable polyester based material that is optically clear and has a ‘hard’ surface. Black and white inks were printed/backed on using Ultra Violet (UV) heat lamps. This process of transferring images to film does not use solvents and the biodegradable polyester film is more environmentally friendly over using PVC-based vinyls.

We track sustainability three ways: working efficiently whilst being conscious of our carbon footprint at every opportunity, specifying sustainable materials in addition to maintaining ethical work practices in the production of our branded environments and, finally, creating designs that can last for years; ideally the duration of the interior fitout.

The Barangaroo Delivery Authority is committed to sustainability and their new offices in the Sydney CBD overlook the Barangaroo site, and includes a public space with a viewing platform where the entire site can viewed. The office was designed by Woods Bagot who are world leaders in creating these types of environments, their team, led by Tamara White, produced an exceptional outcome.

The office environment features predominately reused furniture and artefacts from the Barangaroo site to demonstrate sustainability. BrandCulture created ‘A Sustainable Conversation’, centred on the metaphorical second life of these once disregarded items.

At the office entry an introduction to the sustainable story is provided via a three-metre display panel made entirely of Re-Board, an environmentally friendly print and display product. The raised wooden viewing platform may initially go unnoticed, but the ‘sustainable’ conversation reveals the wood was once part of the working wharves that are soon to be demolished to give way to a beautiful public park, designed by Peter Walker (also responsible for the design of the National 9/11 Memorial in New York).

The conversation on sustainability within the office comes to life though cubes (made from Re-Board) scattered throughout the office and tags hung off chairs. These create awareness of not only the reused furniture but also provide tips to help achieve the universal goal of a sustainable future. It’s hard not to pick up a cube or not notice the tags aren’t actually furniture labels. Also dotted around the office are reminders of ‘Zero Waste’ ‘Water Positive’ and ‘Community Wellbeing’ in the form of the Barangaroo aerial outline, each one attached to the tops of the desk dividers or sit playfully on shelves and cabinets.

Featured in AGDA Online (Australian Graphic Designers Association) - view the article here…

Featured in Desktop Online - view the article here…

The latest addition of InDesign magazine issue #50 ‘The Future of the Workplace’ features a section devoted to ‘story telling’ by Patricia Nelson. ‘Over the last 50 years Environmental Graphic Design [EGD] has emerged from being relatively unknown into one of the most crucial disciplines in shaping built environments’.

BrandCulture’s Creative Director, Stephen Minning was interviewed about our work on the recent and defining University of Technology, Sydney & CBA developments to offer insight into EGD and how effective it can be in today’s leading environments. He also discussed how branding plays a role in EGD. The process of connecting heritage to the structural layout with graphics and images establishes a space as iconic, as used in such projects such as Sydney Water, George Weston Foods, and presently MLC. This sublime ability identifies adept designers in the field. Often such projects will weave navigational tools into a broader narrative that employs bold visuals -  incisively drawing on the past while remaining resolutely connected to the present future.

Quite simply EGD is communication within architecture and as architecture makes you feel it is a modern and clean environment, there is very little emotive connective……EGD gives it that emotion and to be fare, we all need some emotion in our lives, don’t we??!

The University of Technology are a great brand to work with, given that what we do is a relatively new discipline within the built environment and new on many a universities syllabus around the globe now. The Design, Architecture & Building Faculty for UTS is located in Haymarket in the heart of Sydney. In early 2009 the facility started a major upgrade, primarily in the Fabrication Workshop and Photomedia Laboratory. Gardner Wetherill Associates redefined the spaces into a modern environment more suited to this highly regarded institution. BrandCulture were engaged to make these spaces reflect contemporary technology and culture through the use of environmental graphics.

The workshop is divided into three main areas; a 24 hour studio, the laser room and the main workshop floor. For OH&S requirements, the 24 hour studio workshop and laser room were required to maintain a clear line-of-sight across the workshop. It also required a level of seclusion so occupants would not be continually distracted by other activities. As a visual tribute to modern architecture (Herzog & Demeuron), the stretched form was created with a large dot screen running throughout to allow for visibility.

‘We are interested in the surface,” Herzog explains, ”not as pure decoration but for its capacity to have an impact on the space.” With the addition of pattern or, at Dominus, of texture, a building takes on a different character under different conditions, emerging or receding as the light changes, becoming more solid or less substantial. ”So that it’s not the geometrical space you give it once and for all as an architect,” Herzog explains.

Despite the wall that has divided fashion and architecture, their progress in our time has been remarkably parallel. ”Clearly, all things in contemporary culture are related,” Herzog says. In clothes and in buildings, transparency has become one of the hallmarks of the 90’s, as fashion designers utilize chiffon, mesh and other sheer materials, and architects turn to glass, screens and scrims. Herzog speculates that in both cases the fascination is the same. ”It is always the curiosity about what lies behind or beyond or beneath the surface,” he says. ”The transparency creates a certain ambiguity, an interplay between the inside and the outside.”

See Herzog & Demeuron reference

The main workshop floor required a clearly delineated walkway for safety, this feature became the key graphic wayfinding interpretation. The system had to resolve two issues: to find machines by number; and to lead the eye to several displays celebrating the students work. The result pays tribute to modern iconic graphic styling with an engineering influence, featuring bold use of the flooring area.

BrandCulture have since collaborated with GWA once more on the new Digital Labs environment.

This work has been published in:
Asia pacific Design#6 in 2010 read more >>>
Follow me in 2010 read more >>>
ArchiWorld Sign A to Z in 2011 read more >>>

The above image is the founding members of the Justice League, an organization comprised of the world’s most powerful super-heroes dedicated to fighting crime and injustice! Sure super hero stories are aimed at guiding our youth, but they contain the core beliefs and values that make the world a better place.

So what’s the protocol when you work for a business, large or small? Where do we draw the line in the sand so to speak, is your conscience a clear reflection of the business you work in, can a corporation have a social conscience?

CSR – Corporate social responsibility or otherwise known as corporate conscience is a major influence in not only the design industry but the way we operate on a day-to-day basis. In a perfect world corporations would all employ a CSR policy that would not just ‘sugar coat’ business activities to make them look good but would implement effective policies that in turn would influence the way they do business and thus have a positive bearing on todays major issues such as poverty, education, sustainability, ethics, globalisation, governance, responsible finance etc… However this is not a perfect world and profitability is the driving force and ultimate goal of most CEO’s, which is scary considering some organisations hold more power than most governments. They are better synchronized, faster to make decisions, and possess more tools to influence and change the economy and in turn effect all of us, now more than ever before.

We highlighted the importance of good design (previous post – ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’) and the ability to incorporate creative thinking to solve a common problem, ‘sustainability’ being the number one priority in the public eye right now, and for good reason. Good design equals a smarter choice, better internal and external support and solid longevity of these decisions being made in the process. For a long time, and speaking very generally here, companies would keep their CSR policies private and feed the masses with propaganda through the media which was in a big part controlled by those exact companies (partly through their advertising budget). Over the last decade or so, the power of the media is slowly filtering back to the individual, people power is on the rise and the ‘little guys’ have a voice through social media where we get to decide on what’s interesting and important. This is making companies take CSR much more seriously, anyone can be a whistleblower and the smallest problem can shoot to the top of the media in hours.

We are in a world that questions company motives, there was a time where the end product was all that mattered, the process was their intellectual property, and over saturation of big brands seemed imminent, Nike was made cool through celebrities (looking for yet another pay cheque), but did we ever question where and how our football boots were made? Some of us maybe but most were just happy to be wearing the same shoes as Michael Jordan. If you’re actually interested in Nikes CSR check out their website, they’ve designed a page dedicated to their efforts on creating a more sustainable brand.

Where do we fit in, Brandculture that is?  We constantly strive to impart wisdom through our design process, our objective is to add heart, soul and culture into an environment, resulting in the observer to stop, think and understand the importance of the companies identity and their own, building brand values through story telling. Brandculture has a solid CSR model in place, we understand the importance of having one, we continue to utilize sustainable design when it comes to all of our projects through sharing knwledge, choice in materiality and production processes. We endeavour to instil a better level of social conscience and try to encourage lateral thinking through our work, actively engaging all employees to be a part of the outcome.

One hundred percent sustainability in a business is unattainable, however good design and creative thinking are both valuable tools in the composition of Corporate Social Responsibility, both powerful ingredients in the fight for a more sustainable future. We were humbled by the opportunity to partake in work for the AHRC – Australian Human Rights Commission, the project was titled ‘Every Voice’, a powerful testament to what they do as an organisation. Most of our projects incapsulate these ideals in communicating good brand values to create a better work place and social conscience.

You are responsible for your own actions, don’t abdicate responsibility, you have the ability to create change for the better, small and large. Your voice might is not insignificant but one of many, you can alter our world for the greater good of mankind……

Manipulated image referenced above is a Tex Avery illustration (he made Little Red Riding hood sexy, think of  ’Who Framed Roger Rabbit’)

It’s time to re-evaluate the status quo, time to tap into our roots and discover what it really means to design…So the destructive process of planned obsolescence isn’t really getting us anywhere (see last post ‘how long will it last…) let’s discuss the importance of good sustainable design. Design that is no longer about ‘patching’ up a problem (physical or economical), design that isn’t focused on consumption as its primary objective but design that concentrates less on the material and more towards lateral thinking.

We mentioned a couple of products in the last post that were good examples of ‘Heirloom Design’, products built to last and attain their desirability over time, however it should be noted that when creating such a product a certain type of thought process is implemented. We at BrandCulture understand the importance of creative thinking, we know design has the ability to transcend beyond a physical object and in to the subconscious. Design is more than just the aesthetic, it must be functional, evoke emotion, adapt and ultimately solve a common problem with a sustainable solution.

Take the two projects we did for Sydney Water for example. Without going into the jobs in to much detail (Potts Hill & Parramatta) the objective was to not just create ‘pretty’ pictures on any given wall, sure it’s nice to have something to look at it in the work place but there has to be meaning behind it, it has to have purpose. This purpose should then give birth to emotion and help the observer find the connection or relationship between his or her environment. It instills a sense of identity and thus highlights the importance of culture and context.

BrandCulture ‘s objective for every environmental branding project is to encourage creative thinking through the built environment; a work-place (habitat) that stimulates senses, thought and behaviour resulting in thinking laterally about ones surroundings, continuing the practice of good design that is Semi-permanent and inturn sustainable. Think less visual noise and more about the brand story that will be owned by the people who inhabit those spaces.

Above (left to right): Sydney Water – Potts Hill ‘Memoirs’ and Parramatta ‘The Journey’.

Over the last decade there has been significant change in many matters, from Global Warming to Health and Security,  now design is slowly reverting back to its origins, no longer preoccupied with creating stylish, popular objects but more focused on longevity, identity and sustainability. BrandCulture believes this should’ve been and should always be the case. We must not only concentrate on creating physical products that last, but also strive towards designing working and social environments that encourage and arouse the creative thinking process, through smart and innovative design we can truly make the world a better place to live in.

Ingrid is the President of the International Association for Community Development and is committed to fostering an international dialogue about designing innovative methodologies for sustainable development.

If you’d like to take some time out, we suggest you watch this interesting TED talk from Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO) on the subject at hand.

What a great way to start the year, BrandCulture have just received their brand-new, shiny copy of “Follow Me – Wayfinding & Signage System” by SendPoints Publishing which includes four of our projects; Sydney Water Parramatta, World Square Car Park, Mirvac Perth and UTS – Find & Discover.

As we believe, wayfinding is ultimately a science: the science of helping people find their way around. But just as importantly, there is an art to creating appealing, logical wayfinding systems as key opportunities to connect and communicate. When done successfully, wayfinding is a discipline that understands how individuals make decisions and perceive the environment when navigating unfamiliar spaces, and then responds with intuitive, aesthetically appealing results.

Wayfinding can be defined as spatial problem solving. It is knowing where you are in a building or an environment, knowing where your desired location is, and knowing how to get there from your present location. A good wayfinding system gives strong indicators of where the user is and how to get to her destination from her present location. Wayfinding problems occur when decisions cannot be executed.

With each project we take a scientific and creative approach to designing Wayfinding systems that have meaning and impact. This publication contains 126 applications and 49 concepts, sharing international knowledge and pioneering new concepts and designs for wayfinding, in the built environment.

Students use the 7 storey atrium to congregate, share ideas and basically hang out between classes – in short they collaborate on projects in their own way. The space is impressive with huge acrylic balls in a variety of neon colours by lighting installation artist Emrah Baki Ulas. BrandCulture considers the space as a journey where questions were opened up in the minds of the students in the teaching labs, the central area is where they collaborate on the development of those ideas and answers are found.

A continuous line, loops through itself at the start of the back wall to form a ‘Q’ and continues the full length to meet up with the feature laboratory to spell out the word ‘collaborate’ and eventuate as the letter ‘A’. As we are all aware, all answers are found in the Q&A section of any good website…

BrandCulture has recently completed an installation design at Commbank Place at Darling Harbour that has roots influenced by the Swiss artist Falice Varini. The key messaging for Commonwealth Bank was to welcome the cus

tomer into their new branch and to display one of the most recognisable and trusted brandmarks in the Country to their clientele, a reminder of why they choose to bank with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. BrandCulture was asked to work on a zigzag feature wall within the space that could display information to people both leaving and entering… Longtime fans of Varini’s work, BrandCulture set about to integrate the Commonwealth Bank messaging and branding into the environment.

The following is a excerpt from Varini’s site…“My field of action is architectural space and everything that constitutes such space. These spaces are and remain the original media for my painting. I work “on site” each time in a different space and my work develops itself in relation to the spaces I encounter. I generally roam through the space noting its architecture, materials, history and function.”

BrandCulture looked closely at how the customers would move through the space, making use of the traffic workflow and spaces… Personal banking areas equipped with iPads, telephones and printers are located along the main feature wall. If more assistance is needed the teller location at the back of the office does away with security screens and a more personable experience with relaxed tables and offices. Turning to exit the space, an automatic foreign exchange converter and coin counter sit opposite the feature wall. These locations create a natural viewpoint for the feature wall, part of an “inevitable route” within the space, a perfect opportunity to view the installation.

Varini goes on to say “From these spatial data and in reference to the last piece I produced, I designate a specific vantage point for viewing from which my intervention takes shape. The vantage point is carefully chosen: it is generally situated at my eye level and located preferably along an inevitable route, for instance an aperture between one room and another, a landing… I do not, however, make a rule out of this, for all spaces do not systematically possess an evident line.It is often an arbitrary choice. The vantage point will function as a reading point, that is to say, as a potential starting point to approaching painting and space.The painted form achieves its coherence when the viewer stands at the vantage point.”

Entering or exiting the space gives the viewer multiple viewpoints of the branding, the messaging and the images that focus on the inter-dependant relationship between the bank and their clients. The imagery of these moments represent the customer and also the development of our communities right across Australia by capturing local imagery to the branch. Whilst the Entry and Teller points highlight these assets, the real experience is had moving through the space and seeing the movement and construction of the logo, the development of the typography and the visual moments featured along the wall.

Lastly, Varini deals with the changing view points… “When he* moves out of it, the work meets with space generating infinite vantage points on the form. It is not therefore through this original vantage point that I see the work achieved; it takes place in the set of vantage points the viewer can have on it. If I establish a particular relation to architectural features that influence the installation shape, my work still preserves its independence whatever architectural spaces I encounter. I start from an actual situation to construct my painting. Reality is never altered, erased or modified, it interests and seduces me in all its complexity. I work “here and now”. Felice Varini

To view the Commonwealth Bank Darling Walk Branch, please click here

This work has also been published at the Desktop Magazine’s and AGDA Website