Recently we posted a link on our Facebook page referencing a great piece of collaborative design between German company ASB Systembau and longtime glass manufacturer Kinon Porz. Called the ASB GlassFloor, this interchangeable court serves as a multi-disciplinary sports environment. The advanced flooring comprises of multiple, highly treated and hardened ceramic glass panels, below these sit carefully placed LED lighting strips. The LED strips form the basis of the courts boundaries and markers. The glass is treated specially to offer the same desired effect as hardened wood or other sports flooring so the playing ball doesn’t decide to bounce in obscure ways and the reflection is not a hinderance. The LED lighting can be toggled remotely via the flick of a switch, adapting to sports such as badminton, basketball, indoor soccer or hockey, and handball or volleyball.

This

idea is so simple it begs the question why hasn’t it been done before? Like many ideas perhaps it has been conceptualised and thought of, worked and re-worked, funded and not, either way it’s a great piece of design. It opens many doors for environmental design and wayfinding and we are sure that more of this technology will find it’s way into experience design in public spaces. The more we intergrate technology and embrace these opportunities with considered design, the more we will find ourselves being inspired by the world around us!

We’ve been exceptionally busy of late, alongside our commitments to our clients we’ve overhauled our brand, values and vision to deliver a comprehensive, professional and inspiring offer… we hope you

will b inspired.

Most importantly, we have strived to align our online presence with who we are as an organisation and the services we provide.

We are now in an even better position to add considerable value to your next project and we’d love the opportunity to show you how.

BrandCulture is a multi-award winning design firm with a passion for branding, environmental graphics and wayfinding so take a look at the 7 things you should know about BrandCulture…

BrandCulture actively participates in social media, you can find our thoughts and news, project updates and industry conversations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. We would like to take you on a wonderful journey, so join us on the BrandCulture ride…

MLC Heritage Stairwell

BrandCulture has had great pleasure in developing heritage works for some of Australia’s leading brands, either as a stand-alone commission or as part of an integrated environmental graphic design project. We have been uniquely positioned (with our deep experience in branding, environments and wayfinding) to uncover, create and deliver both sensitive and inspiring results.

We collaborate with architects, interior designers and other stakeholders to create a surface skin that enhances and educates within the environment and with this have developed working methodologies that enable us to uncover insights that

todays employees and their visitors connect with. We deliver them graphically in ways that recognises the past and brings the environment to life, on time, on brand and importantly on budget.

INTRODUCTION

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 BrandCulture team were lucky enough to check out the Visual Impact Image Expo at the Sydney Convention Centre in September. Among the exhibitionists were large format printers, commercial shop fitters, numerous retail display units and a host of material distributors.

Of all the visually inspiring products that caught our attention, here are a couple of our favourites…

Multicam Systems supply CNC flat bed routers, routing machines and tables for woodworking, aluminium, point of sale, aerospace, metal, engraving and solid surface machining. One of the machines they had on display was the Multicam M-1 CNC Router, see below. This multi-purpose router offers precision cutting on varied surfaces and materials. The example shown is a series of different sized punctured holes on a large aluminium sheet that when viewed at a distance creates a visible portrait. 

Another product we always find interesting, and have used in the past on The Barangaroo Delivery Authority project, was Re-board. A durable, lightweight, water resistant and eco-smart material that

can lend itself to a number of forms and shapes, in the example below a Red Bull sports bike!

BrandCulture creates unique and effective branded environments, wayfinding solutions and brand identity systems that inspire people. In a field that thrives on innovation and creativity, it is nice to know there is constant progress in technology, materiality and processes to help aid ours and your vision. 

BrandCulture’s Managing Director, Stephen Minning was selected to be on the judging panel for this years Wayfinding category in the Sydney Design Awards 2012. Stephen will join a panel of influential and highly recognised elite industry experts, to apraise the designs which will show diversity and culture of the Sydney design industry. Following the success

of the Melbourne Design Awards over the past 3 years, Sydney can now join in with it’s first round and we look forward to being part of the wonderful, high level of design and celebrating those who produce excellent design works.

Key Dates
15 October – Extended date -Entries close

19 October – Judging panel session
30 October – Finalists announced
12 November – Public voting closes

21 November – Awards Night & Design Christmas Party

We all know the loyalty of mans best friend. Should you take care of your dog it will follow you to the end of the earth and back. They learn from us and we learn from them, they do what we ask (most of the time) and we comply with their requests for food and walkies…It’s this reciprocal connection that keeps the owner and his/her tail-wagger together.

So when it comes to the daily grind, do you feel the connection between yourself and the company you work for? Do you feel like staying together? In an article by Padma Iyer of The Australian, it seems like the answer is no, in most cases. As the title suggests, loyalty is passe, we more than ever seem to be in search of a work place that holds our common interests and values at heart. According to the article a good percentage of employees are itching to get out of their organisations and reach out for another workplace who has a corporate culture worthy of working in or another set of values similar to theirs.

BrandCulture have always stressed the importance of aligning the beliefs and values of their employees and clients, to that of

their own. Whether we are working on a wayfinding project, environmental graphics or branding, it is our objective to ensure we not only exceed expectations but make sure everyone involved are on the same page.

Your values and beliefs are important, they are a critical influence in your day to day decision making so it’s no wonder why, you should want to work for a company that understands and respects them.

The above image is by Seth Casteel, a creative photographer specialising in lifestyle pet photography.

The Australian Human Rights Commission wanted the opportunity, when they moved to their new offices, to express what they stood ready passionately for and believed in. If you are going to stand for anything in this life what better cause could there be than Human Rights. BrandCulture were humbled by the opportunity to undertake this project in collaboration with Woodhead International Interiors team, Jones Lang Lasalle Property and Property Advisory Australia.

After the two World Wars and the atrocities that were suffered globally The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written. Quote ‘Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people’.

The above essential text resonates for all employees at this Australian Government department in one way or another. BrandCulture undertook a typographic exploration throughout the new office environment on Pitt Street, Sydney. There was a need for wayfinding and environmental graphics, which came together in a successful branded environment.

The wayfinding concept on the main public floor that houses

the two large hearing rooms references famous Australian Human Rights activists. For the rest of the environment room numbers were integrated into the typographic designs on the entry doors for each room. Utility rooms were identified using typography applied to the end sections of door entries so they could be seen from down the corridor.

Check out more images of this project here, we hope you enjoy it ->> >Every Voice – Australian Human Rights Commission

We are proud to announce this project was recently awarded a Merit Award by the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. There were a total of 452 entries from which 28 projects were selected for recognition read more >>>

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 >>>

Sydney Water moved their corporate headquarters to Parramatta in 2009 and into an iconic building designed by Denton Corker Marshall. It was built by Brookfield Mutiplex, interiors by Woods Bagot and the environmental graphic design & wayfinding by BrandCulture. We are proud to announce this project recently received Highly Commended at the 2013 Heritage Awards hosted by the National Trust of Australia

The environmental graphics capture the companies ‘journey to Parramatta’, not only for the historic move from Sydney’s CBD to Parramatta but also as a visual narrative of Sydney Water’s history from Australian European settlement to the present day.

The Sydney Water brand is focused on three core areas; history, staff and the brand communications within the environment. Sydney Water’s rich cultural heritage features as a defining motif that lends depth and solidity that could easily have been lost in a modern built environment. BrandCulture met with Sydney Water heritage consultant Phillip Bennett, to understand the key historic achievements that would need to be interpreted. We also spent a fair amount of time collaborating with various heritage teams to conduct research of the extensive photographic and document archives. The process uncovered superb images showing the human face behind the company, from candid images of men digging ditches to formal shots of Federation-era board members. Other images show the spectacular equipment and engineering feats being undertaken that were regarded as revolutionary for their time.

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The images received a coarse screen effect to keep photographic consistency and we printed these to optically clear film, which was applied to the vanceva (coloured glass) in the meeting rooms.  The print acts as a seclusion zone between staff and occupants in the meeting rooms. On the roof-top breakout area, a brief explanation of the images appears on a feature wall to add meaning and context to the environment.

Sydney Water’s history is specifically recognised in two locations – the Chairman’s floor, where images of past and present chairmen and presidents feature, and also on the main meeting room and training floor where fifteen key events in the history of Sydney Water are highlighted, from the formation of the Board to the building of Warragamba Dam. Combinations of acid-etched smoky acrylic panels with paint-filled lettering are attached to ink-imprinted anodised-aluminium sheets that sit off the wall, floating to give a gallery effect.

On the main breakout level, a tribute to staff features at the lift exits, via an image gallery that is visible as people walk through to the breakout area. 15 acrylic displays feature an ever-changing acknowledgement of current staff that have made significant contributions to the company or to the greater community, emphasising the importance of living the everyday values at Sydney Water. The display wall features a multi-layered acrylic wave expressing the key behaviours of the company, educating and reminding staff of their role as Sydney Water brand ambassadors.

In the main building breakout spanning al of the 16th floor minus 3 meeting rooms, a wall traverses the building from north to south features 15 large, 20mm thick polished acrylic panels. These panels are updated quarterly with current brand campaign messaging inserts. Each quarterly theme concentrates on a particular area of the business and educates staff about key messaging, particularly around sustainability issues such as being carbon neutral, recycled water and desalination. BrandCulture created a system of templates for Sydney Water to update and maintain the brand communication displays.

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 >>>

More publications……

segdDESIGN have recently published their magazine, issue 34 which features BrandCulture’s World Square Car Park. Their statement, says ” Whether they’re placemaking, camouflaging, or guiding, these parking garage graphics put the FUN in functional….” here here!!

Multi storey car parks have a complex set of navigation challenges for a wayfinding designer to address. Consideration for the needs of pedestrians and motorists – differentiating between arrival and departure journeys as well as service or vendor routes. Competing distractions vying for driver attention i.e. the hunt for vacant spaces, absent minded pedestrians and reversing cars all need to be taken into account. Unlike many environments where the design brief is for discrete solutions that remain largely invisible until required, a car park of this size needs clear advice that is hard to miss.

Our research showed that the line of sight for the two main users, ie motorists and pedestrians and truly understanding the traffic flow of the space used were key to creating an innovative wayfinding system. These principles ultimately led to a better understanding of how cognitive mapping and circulatory navigation would help the outcome. Using intuitive design featuring full height icons, type and colours viewable over long distances; the second from the more elevated position of a pedestrian standing, the experiential factor then became a differentiator between this car park and so many others around the globe, and helped gain industry best recognition.

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.

Luxottica approached Visual Merchandising consultant and expert Deborah Minning to advise on how to bring a consistent look and feel to the OPSM stores. The Visual Merchandising knowledge Deborah has learn’t from many years working throughout Europe, Asia-Pacifc and the Middle East on fashions premium brands; Calvin Klein, Armani, Alfred Dunhill to name but a new, see Deborahs website for more information and background here…

Deborah approached BrandCulture to collaborate on the production of a complete Visual Merchandising manual for the 500+ stores across Australia and New Zealand. A full audit including staff interviews, brand signage, Point of Sales merchandising and logistics was undertaken across the network of stores. All situations phtographed and a distilled set of guidelines was produced to define the OPSM brand experience all customers would engage with at all OPSM brand touch-points. How staff would set out the POS signage, the marketing displays should look and be positioned around the store to gain maximum impact but not infringe on the overall experience. The detailing and documentation an was immense task over 2 years and is now the backbone of how the stores function.

An important aspect was how to get staff to engage with the new set of guidelines and break their old habits. The store manger would first receive a box containing a folder inside saying ‘ unlock your stores potential’ but it had a padlock on the outside…. in small type next to the lock was written ‘ your individual store code will arrive shortly’ creating a sense of suspense and anticipation. Two days later a card would be received saying ‘discover the secret to a winning combination’ on the outside, and on the inside ‘and reveal how visual merchandising can make our brand stronger’. The manager could then scratch off the 3 circles and reveal a code that could be used to unlock the box containing the Visual Merchandising folder….

BrandCulture created a comprehensive wayfinding system for Australia’s best know casino, ‘The Star’ (formerly Star City) as part of the five hundred million dollar upgrade to the entire complex currently underway. With around two and a half thousand staff navigating the environment day and night a variety of systems and processes are in play at any one time, including the gaming floor, restaurants, hotels, retail, corporate and administrative staff amongst many others…

Over the years a variety of signage had been put up for compliance reasons but in fact this had lead to a high amount of visual noise and confusion within the back of house areas. Our objective was to create a clear concise and sustainable signage system that could be managed and updated internally once handed over. We started with an audit of the existing signage to ascertain exactly what the communication requirements were. Next we documented all environmental influences on the users of the space from site lines, danger areas, congestion points and drop-off zones where the huge amount of goods are transferred between various members of staff on its way to a final destination. Combining these two created a new sense of order within the space where safety was key to many of the sign locations and clarity of reading was a priority not overlooked.

Research was undertaken of many high traffic locations where large machines and people shared close proximity to one another resulting in a seamless flow of traffic was achieved. Amongst this research, airports and shopping centres featured as key reference points throughout the decision making process. The gained knowledge allowed us to understand the importance of colour, size of typography, height of signage and placement relative to sight lines, and how people overwhelmingly looked in particular elevations within environments and especially corridors.

Materiality played a key role in how the signage system would be manufactured and installed so the system could achieve a sustainability objective set out at the beginning of the project. This meant an overrun of slats were created and an in-house etching and vinyl cutting machine was purchased. BrandCulture specifically designed and produced artwork that could later be manipulated, produced into signage and installed consistently with the visual guidelines to keep the signage system readable and neat. The result was a much cleaner environment (for security reasons BrandCulture was not allowed to photograph this area) with an outcome that the users of the space could navigate the space easily, reducing stress levels and improving efficiency.

Frame Publication have just published a new book: Colour Hunting: How Colour Influences What We Buy, Make and Feel explores the very depths of the subject. BrandCulture have a 3 page spread on the World Square Car Park for Multiplex.

The book is categorized into three chapters. In the first chapter, ‘Commerce’ (buying/ selling), experts cast a light on colour trends and dissect the use of colour in branding messages. The following chapter, ‘Aesthetics’ (making), offers an insight into the conceptual use of colour, as well as the challenges and techniques entailed when applying colour to a wide range of materials. The relationship between body, mind and colour forms the focus of the ‘Wellbeing’ (feeling) chapter. Additionally, facts about colour interspersed throughout the book trace what colour has meant to people and cultures down through the ages in every part of the world.

This book takes us on a colourful journey, hunting out and broadening our horizons into the immense potential of colour. With an appreciation of every nuance, tone, tint and shade, the possibilities are truly infinite.

www.framemag.com

Publication Details
Title: Colour Hunting
Subtitle: How Colour Influences What We Buy, Make and Feel
Release date: June 2011
Author: Jeanne Tan
Compiled by: Hanneke Kamphuis and Hedwig van Onna
Published by: Frame Publishers
Language: English
Size: 200 x 265 mm portrait
Format: 264 pages, full colour, hard cover
Price: €49.90 (excluding shipping costs)

We are proud to announce another award win for BrandCutlure for it’s submission in this years SEGD Awards.

There were a total of 452 entries from which 28 projects were selected for recognition. Once again UTS – Find & Discover, received a Merit award, the SEGD’s second highest award in the program.

The Jury comments:
“An incredibly cohesive environment, with the environmental graphics working hand-in-hand with the architecture and machinery. The floor graphics are appropriate for the user and space, effectively combining wayfinding, interpretive graphics, and safety.”

“Very simply, the environmental graphics work. Color and type and graphics are done sensitively and are appropriate to the environment.”

The Award ceremony this year was at Hyatt Regency, Montreal for the 2011 SEGD Conference+Expo+Awards.

You may ask ‘who are George Weston Foods?’ and if you aren’t involved directly with the corporate world that would be a fair question. Here are two little known facts; 90% of Australians eat one of their products every day of their lives & 75% of Australian wheat is processed and distributed by Weston Miling. This is primarily because 70% of the bakery aisles in both Woolworths and Coles are GWF brands, along with Don KRC small goods and Jasol cleaning products, chances are you have bought or used a product produced by this company. Some of the better known brands are; Tip Top, Abbott’s Village Bakery, Burgen, Mills & Wares, Golden Crumpets, Big Ben, Bazaar, Watsonia, Bagel House, TopTaste, Don, KR Castlemaine, AGB, Weston Milling, Cereform & Jasol. Most of these brands (and more) are sold by the GWF Foodservice division to commercial kitchens, BrandCulture were accountable for creating the definitive set of brand guidelines and brand awareness advertising campaign in conjunction with trade show multimedia reels to promote the offering of this newly formed division.

George Weston Foods was established in 1946 and has prospered since, this strong lineage of excellent food production and marketing has kept GWF ahead of the game in Australia and abroad. BrandCulture were invited to visit two key properties; Tip Top in Chullora is the biggest bakery in the southern hemisphere and an impressive sight to behold with multitudes of lorries in and out of its loading docks every day, and the Enfield milling plant with its giant ‘robotic’ machines shaking flour and hundreds of massive pipes shifting tonnes of flour around the five storey plant with train loads of wheat drop off their consignment relentlessly day and night… you can only imagine the logistics Weston Technologies has to manage and maintain every day. There can be no ‘downtime’ in an operation of this size. This is where the concept behind the ‘string art’ installation in the reception came about; the massive complexity of machines and human resources behind the suited, friendly and passionate executives representing the corporate face of the company who work from these North Ryde headquarters.

BrandCulture were invited to present our work and later that day we were awarded the project. Two pioneering thinkers; John Wardley (Director of Innovation) and Caroline Egan-Strang (then – People and Culture) made the decision to put forward our creative services with the aim to influence and promote the evolving culture within George Weston Foods. The branded environment we created for  Foxtel owned xyznetworks was referenced for its unique approach to recognising the multiple stakeholders in the environment and their individual brands. Read more about the xzynetworks project here…

George Weston Foods is made up of seven divisions each containing multiple departments all with bespoke needs of their own. Wendy Lenton (Human Resources Director) previously at Vodafone, was another driving force behind the evolving culture and approved work on the refreshed GWF Identity with subsequent guidelines and associated internal comms collateral. Creating a better place to work was essential for GWF to become an employer of choice (as was the case with our Sydney Water project) and this starts with a strong internal brand with an awareness of it’s vision and values. Essential when you consider that GWF’s parent company is the corporate giant Associated British Foods Plc , one of the world’s leading food companies.

By mid 2010 George Weston Foods (GWF) were underway in their commitment to move into a new office of nearly 10,000 Square meters. The location of choice was North Ryde on Talavera road, the location of choice for many of Australia’s well known companies and their brands. The space was secured by Colliers international, a leader in global real estate services, bringing a ‘best practise’ approach to the design of the office environment as part of the evolving culture at GWF.

The George Weston Foods offices at North Ryde comprise of two relatively large floors, each around 5,000 Square meters. The new open plan environment was geared towards the changing mindset from siloed business units into an integrated open culture. Apart from the impressive meeting rooms and breakout spaces, there is a serious commercial grade kitchen that would impress any budding MasterChef! This state of the art kitchen facility is testament to the GWF innovation drive, it not only allows for new recipes and ideas to be explored but also houses a tasting room adjacent to the kitchen. The reception area is generously proportioned and leads you through the heart of the building using an interconnecting staircase.

Approach to the concept

From the reception you are greeted by the floor to ceiling ‘string art’ installation sandwiched between two glass walls, you can see straight through to the reception area from the lift lobby. On the front is the GWF Identity and it’s 6 divisions listed with lines emanating across the wall and tracing the strings inside. Behind the reception you see the Identity recessed into vertical white beams protruding from the wall and just below on the front of the desk it reads ‘The Best Food in the Business’ – the new Brand Positioning line BrandCulture workshopped with the executive leadership team to clearly communicate GWFs commitment in peoples minds when they come to the office.

The boardroom is covered in phrases taken from a company-wide employee interview programme undertaken initiated by Wendy Lenton to ascertain the general sentiment the workforce had for GWF. There was a overwhelming sense of PRIDE (an acronym for the values; Passion, Responsibility, Integrity, Drive and Empathy) that comes though when you walk the corridors at GWF, the people who work there are committed to what they do and the HR team is making sure they know just how much they are appreciated with an excellent recognition programmes, workplace flexibility & other incentives. The main workplace positioning statement is’ people are our best ingredients’ and he HR team is living up to expectations!

We approached the everyday touch-points in the environment with ‘consumer moments’ in mind, after all they are the life source of the company. The breakouts & study pods throughout the office are adorned with subtle images of consumers ‘in the moment’; East is breakfast, North is lunchtime, south is family dinner time and west is evening snacks.

Every division has a floor to ceiling pin board to workshop it’s current thinking in the new collaborative work space, printed into the pin boards are iconic images from the brands, a great backdrop and reminder of what their consumers are connecting with. This works in conjunction with vertical signage attached to the power blades (conduit taking cables from ceiling to desk) to identify the start and end of each corporate division, maintaing the sense of pride within the groups.

This project was shortlisted in the Identity/Branding category of the 2011 Create Design Awards and published in the August 2011 issue of desktop magazine also published in APD #7, 2011: www.sandu360.c0m

Wayfinding is ultimately a science: the science of helping people find their way. But just as importantly, there is an art to creating appealing, logical wayfinding systems that add context to your journey. The function of wayfinding is to inform people about their surroundings in the (unfamiliar) built environment. It is important to show information at strategic points to guide people in the right directions. See more on Wayfinding…

BrandCulture have been involved since the preliminary stages of the upgrade to StarCity – Tabcorp and recently completed and installed a sustainable wayfinding system (see the directory map above, which was the core of the wayfinding design). The aim was to reinvigorate the Back of House area where thousands of staff service large areas of retail, commercial and entertainment spaces every day. The wayfinding system needed to be flexible and sustainable to accomodate future changes, and this was considered in the selection of materials and manufacturing processes. The key objective in designing this system was legibility in such a high traffic environment where people and machines share the same complex, monotonous and confusing space in the belly of the complex. There are no windows or reference points to recall and navigate by and new staff are recruited every day by the many divisions.

The Sydney Water – Paramatta Headquarters core concept reflects the ‘journey to Parramatta’. The journey begins on the ground floor in the building lobby and arrives at the destination on Level 16 breakout. Each lift lobby features a graphic representation of the river sections, listing the meeting rooms for easy navigation, as shown in the image below. While the environmental graphics are a strong feature adding context to the building and the Sydney Water brand, the wayfinding information is clear and concise directing you to the meeting rooms.

The car park below the building continued the graphic styling of the environmental graphics used in the wayfinding thoughout the building, as you can see in the image below.

Landmarks, orientation and navigation are the characteristics which influence the way we interpreted the built environment with many of our Wayfinding projects; World Square car park, University of Technology – Find & Discover, Mirvac Perth, to name a few. The research process was a huge, important step to understand the built environment and where information was needed to maximize legibility of wayfinding systems, as shown in the image of the Sydney Water car park.

Dopress Publishing recently published a book entitled Find Me! It includes 4 of our projects and shows great examples of environmental graphic design and wayfinding, worldwide. Check it out!

Glass graphics and Environmental Branding are becoming increasingly popular within corporate and retail cultures. Utilising the latest in printable materials BrandCulture create designer screen graphics and glass graphics, perfect for office environments.

Our designs are bespoke to each project. As shown above in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry project, glass graphics featuring monochromatic super-graphics form the centre-piece that interconnects floors throughout the building, and the wayfinding system.

With the University of Technology Sydney – Digital labs – in the Design, Architecture and Building faculty, the use of space is visually open. Glass graphics are applied to full height glass walls continuously over forty metres in length to maintain visual connectivity throughout the learning spaces and central collaborative area, eventually leading you through to the print shop and tutors private rooms.

Origin Energy’s Melbourne office, was translated across five levels throughout the entire office complex. The ‘energy circles’ glass graphics, subtly printed on semi-translucent film act as a seclusion zone from either side of the glass but keep the areas open.

Bringing brands to life. BrandCulture is an award-winning design consultancy that works with clients across three key disciplines to ensure their brands live in the hearts and minds of their employees, stakeholders and customers.

To increase engagement, brands need to demonstrate – not just communicate – their positioning, values and heritage. We help you do just that by creating unique opportunities for people to connect with your brand.

While we are strong in brand research, strategy and identity design, our speciality is creating branded environments that build brand equity, increase employee engagement and improve customer experience. Please explore our services, view some of our work or find out which leading brands we’ve worked with.

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.

The University of Technology – Find & Discover – view pics in our portfolio section here >>>

BrandCulture submitted this project and made to a finalist position. Three of us attended the awards ceremony at Southbank in Brisbane and had a really enjoyable evening. Seeing the talent Australia is putting out and attracting is very empowering and motivating and we wish everyone who was there the best of luck for the next awards in two years time.

Tony Bacic (BrandCulture – Design Director) & Sarah Estens (Frost – Senior Designer) in front of the award finalist boards at the entrance. Center pic is the bar upstairs in  Cloud Land that was frequented both night by the BC reps, great bar a bit like the Ivy in Sydney but pushing it a bit further. Right pic is the day after, Gordon Eckel (BrandCulture – Business Director) & Stephen Minning (Creative Director).

Walking about Brisbane the day of the awards ceremony we came across a few interesting buildings, this one reminiscent of the air flowing over a grassy field definitely caught the eye.

Another interesting building facade that must of taken an enormous amount of effort to produce, looks like a topographic map.

Mirvac WAs new office is an inspired, engaging and hospitable environment to do business. Mirvac-Fini only recently released its namesake connection with the heritage of Fini Group when this new office was built. Fini was a brand well known for a tradition of producing high-quality construction, making it a perfect fit with the Mirvac brand, BrandCulture took this as the cue to creating the branded environment.

The brief was to differentiate the environment to reflect the local culture and independence that Perth has within Australia and consider a new way to reflect the ‘living line’ and brand values. The office required an independent identity whilst remaining true to the Corporate Brand, geyer created the interior and worked with BrandCulture to bring the brand into context through the environment. This was important for the employees at Mirvac after being rebranded and relocated within a short period of time, keeping the culture strong was paramount to the company.

The ‘living line’ concept had been used in the Sydney office to great effect and again formed the backbone to this branded environment albeit in an edgier, more graphic form. In the lift lobby two stainless steel logos on 2-pac polyurethane and raw timber walls lead you into the reception where you find a wall of awards.  The ‘living line’ starts in the reception and leads you through the office across tiled and carpeted floors traversing walls, wooden beams and glass meeting rooms to ceiling tiles and down pin boards creating a sense of connectivity. The line connects all of the meeting rooms and spaces, each named after a landmark project.

Throughout the environment the brand values are infused in the use of finishes and materials. The names of meeting rooms are cut into the carpet as you enter. The meeting tables located within the main working spaces are denounced by graphics on the ceiling moulded into the ceiling tiles. The large floor to ceiling pin boards and timber ceiling beams in the breakout incorporate laser cut anodised aluminium inlays and wraps that reveal the raw materials.

We constantly strive to push boundaries and deliver world-class solutions to our clients’ business challenges. The brief is always to deliver a tangible result, never to win awards, which makes it incredibly rewarding when our efforts are recognised with prestigious nominations and accolades.
From time to time, our work is also featured in international annuals, magazines and blogs. Here are some recent awards as well as excerpts and links to articles and case studies featuring our work:

BrandCulture is a multi-award winning design firm with a passion for branding, environmental graphics and wayfinding.

We think you should know these seven facts about who we are, what we do and how we do it:

At its essence, wayfinding is the science of understanding how people perceive the environment and make decisions while navigating unfamiliar spaces and then responding with intuitive signage and information layouts. However, we take wayfinding one step further.

Using a scientific yet creative approach, we design wayfinding systems that subtly communicate your brand values, enhance your interior design and create memorable experiences.

By utilising cognitive mapping and circulatory navigation principles, we help create a welcoming environment that’s simple to navigate and easy to understand. And by taking a strategic branding approach, we ensure your wayfinding system creates a positive brand experience through clear communication. We’ve developed wayfinding systems for many of Australia’s leading companies and government departments.

We bring our unique perspective to collaborations with award-winning interior design and architecture firms, creating innovative spaces that balance the need to look good with the need to make sense.

BrandCulture collaborated with Davenport Campbell (Interiors) to create a fresh branded environment for Barclays Global Investors, spanning two floors of the Grosvenor Place building in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. BrandCulture’s holistic design solution focuses on positioning Barclays Global Investors as one of the largest asset managers in the global financial markets, and exploring this concept through an expressive global motif.

The design leads the user into the Barclays environment through a global graphic and journeys through representations of the global then concentrating the focus to national, and eventually to the local.

Lift lobbies feature the globe motif, emphasising Barclays’ strong brand values and position within the international market. Employing the latest printing technologies, the Lift Lobby door seclusion graphics are printed as white on ultra-clear film, which then reflects across the tiled lobby to create a classic, engaging point of entry.

The wayfinding system segments the overall floor plan into coloured sections, uniform across the two floors in order to assist cognitive mapping and ease orientation.

The Front-of-house narrows its focus to reflect aspects from each major Barclays hub across the world, giving clients a broad impression of the company’s scope and influence. The powerblades and meeting rooms reflect aspects from Barclays locations in Tokyo, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Toronto, London, New York, and Sydney.

The meeting rooms are named after each city, with seclusion graphics echoing the colour-scheme and globe motif that spans the environmental graphics on both the powerblades and offices. They portray significant landmarks from the international cities named on corresponding meeting rooms, creating an engaging environment and an effective wayfinding system.

This approach is then extended through the Back-of-house offices and meeting rooms, however the focus of the graphics is narrowed once more to reflect local, Australian locations and landmarks.

BrandCulture’s holistic design explores each level of operation within Barclays Global, to finally create a strong reflection of its identity, influence and values that reach across the whole organisation.

Working in collaboration with geyer, BrandCulture created a branded environment that is an impressive setting for visitors and clients in the Sydney CBD group headquarters. It is a stimulating workspace for employees, continuously communicating the brand values of the company. Mirvac’s working environment reflects the culture, their commitment to the environment and an accomplished history.

The reception area features the famous David Moore photograph ‘Sydney Harbour after sunrise looking east – 1963’. Sydney skyline graphics continue across the blinds behind reception and converge at the café’s ceiling. The front-of-house is an engaging environment for clients and visitors created through bold, clean designs detailed with harmonious finishes. The meeting rooms use solar tinted film applied to glass, translucent from the inside yet opaque from the hall, enabling privacy while still maintaining the feeling of openness and space.

The ‘Living Line’ concept, previously used in Mirvac’s marketing collateral and internal communications, became the linking theme for graphic elements across the office, creating continuity throughout and emphasising the scope and diversity of the brand. Staff areas feature a vibrant and colourful environment, stimulating employees and encouraging active engagement with the brand.

Colours and graphics individually selected for each floor act as an orientation reference. From the building’s core, it is difficult to orientate, therefore ‘core plinths’ were positioned displaying the rising and setting sun. The sunrise located on the eastern side of the building and the sunset on its west, communicate the Mirvac brand story of a strong history and a commitment to a sustainable future.

Library row-ends showcase Mirvac’s major architectural achievements, displaying an impressive organisational structure while inspiring employees with images of previous development successes. Glass louvres feature in meeting room pods, providing architectural grace and efficient cross-ventilation. The louvres display abstract architectural detail specifically chosen to add to the visual effect of the existing horizontal detail, and lining up perfectly when shut.

The complete environment includes six floors at 60 Margaret Street, in Sydney’s CBD. It creates a compelling and architecturally focused environment to embody the mission and values of this iconic brand.

BrandCulture more recently collaborated again with geyer to create the Mirvac WA office environment.

The environmental branding project devised for The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry covers more than 38,000 square metres across two buildings in Canberra. The site required a complete brand experience that would represent the department appropriately to all staff, suppliers, visitors and clients.

Working with Reid Campbell, BrandCulture created a branded environment to reflect the Department’s varied role across Australia, with the geographically diverse landscape of Australia forming the basis of the wayfinding system and theming of the Marcus Clarke and London Circuit buildings.

Glass and stainless steel structures featuring monochromatic super-graphics form the centre-piece of each theme in the main Marcus Clarke building. Interconnected floors throughout the building alternate the themes. The top three levels house a 10-metre super-graphic feature adjacent to the staircase void.

Front-of-house areas display floor-to-ceiling iconic Australian images that span entire walls, emphasising the themes and values of the Department to all stakeholders. Consistent theme images were applied to the glass beside each meeting room and office entry, allowing visibility and transparency from the outside in. This also cleverly provides an effective level of privacy for meeting room occupants while adding visual impact and embellishment of the theme.

Staffs working areas display time-lapse graphics showing the everyday experience of individuals in industries represented by the Department: agriculture, fisheries and forestry. The rising and setting sun in the background creates a strong visual link between each floor and reflects the rhythm of the working day tied endlessly to the natural environment.

Large wayfinding panels feature in each lift lobby. Expressed through different colour schemes throughout the building, they communicate the themes that underlie the Department’s focus. Three sections can be updated individually – floor theme, map and business units. They are easily altered as the groups expand, contract and change, to cater to the Department’s commitment to the public benefit. Bespoke iconography was created for easy readability and to aid navigation, orientated in line with the geography of the building. From services such as IT, basic facilities and meeting room locations, these panels are key for guiding those who are unfamiliar with the floor layouts in both buildings.

Qantas launched the successful initiative ‘In the Zone’ to govern service standards and crew interaction with passengers. This incentive was identified as an economy service focus and it was became apparent that a differentiator was needed for First & Business customers.

BrandCulture was engaged to create a separate brand experience for First & Business crew to deliver to a premium level of service to satisfy customer expectations. The tagline ‘Where the experience is everything’ became the primary messaging for the campaign and was seen in conjunction with the well-understood ‘First & Business’ logo qualifier. Guidelines were set established for the application of this new brand on print collateral and digital usage. The monthly ‘Source’ magazine and current staff on-line training tools were all aligned to support the launch. BrandCulture developed a cohesive environmental brand experience in staff bases across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.

Excerpt taken from the UTS DAB website 5.8.09

DAB is led by a senior executive consisting of the Dean, Prof Desley Luscombe, Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), Louise McWhinnie, Associate Dean (Research), Dr Kees Dorst, and the Faculty Manager, Brian Glover.

The Faculty has three schools:

• School of Design which provides specialist design education in visual communication, fashion & textiles, interior design, industrial design, photography and situated media, design management and animation
• School of Architecture, which leads and provokes the development of the architectural profession and its practices related to digital technologies
• School of the Built Environment, which engages the broad range of professional activities in the built environment: planning, development, construction, investment appraisal, project and urban estate management, and property economics.

The Faculty also has an active research culture, which provides cooperation across the three Schools and encourages external partnerships through its research centres. Creative research and exhibitions in the Faculty are uniquely supported by DAB Lab.

Read more: University of Technology Sydney, Design and Architecture

BRANDCULTURE HAS A PROVEN TRACK RECORD CREATING INSPIRING BRANDING, ENVIRONMENTS AND WAYFINDING SYSTEMS. HERE’S A SELECTION OF OUR RECENT WORK:

We are proud to say this project was awarded a Merit Award in 2010 by the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. There were a total of 452 entries from which 28 projects were selected for recognition read more >>>

The World Square Car Park is an amalgamation of several previous car parks situated under the new developments that make-up Sydney’s World Square located at the convergence of George, Liverpool, Pitt and Goulburn Streets in Sydney’s CBD.  Brookfield Multiplex had the vision to develop the site from the ground up to become the largest multi-functional complex in Australia, and it is a real success. On the World Square site also sits the Meriton World Tower and Rydges hotel.

The car park redevelopment was resolved by Crone Partners and built by Brookfield Multiplex who engaged BrandCulture to research and propose the best solution for getting cars and people around with minimal confusion and stress. BrandCulture created a world-leading wayfinding system, developed and based on global research of similar developments and learning from the others mistakes to find a winning solution.

BrandCulture applied innovative wayfinding principles to understand how cognitive mapping and circulatory navigation would help the outcome. Integrated with intuitive design, this helped the project achieve industry-best recognition, including making it to the cover of Artichoke magazine (issue 17).

Research undertaken for the project indicated that pedestrians were too often left out of the car park planning and design equation. In particular it was recognised that frustration factors existed for pedestrians trying to finding their way back to a car in a complex car park or accessing ticket machines. The solution came through two lines of sight: the first visible from motor vehicles, using full height icons, type and colours over long distances; the second from the more elevated position of a pedestrian standing, and this experiential factor became a differentiator between this car park and so many others around the globe.

Research also showed that car parks were often quite dangerous and had limited effect in highlighting exits and fire extinguishing equipment. But the main issue was for people trying to recall which floor they were parked on. An easy-to-identify colour palette was emphasised in the lift lobby exits of the car park, using bright, punchy, memorable colours that could be clearly identified.