The studio was awarded several design excellence awards at the 2008 Australian Graphic Design Association National Awards held in Adelaide over the weekend. These awards include, click through to see project details:

2008 Distinction awards

• Stephen Daring Brown packaging paper promotion for client Spicers Paper
• Stephen Recipe publication new paper range promotion for client Spicers Paper
• Stephen Exploration publication new paper range promotion for client Robert Horne in the United Kingdom
• Read Me First publication for client the Australia Graphic Design Association

2008 Finalist award

• The first edition of The Design Papers editorial design for the National Design Centre

Melbourne’s XYZ Studio was also awarded a Finalist award for the animation developed for the 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival that developed from the creative theme devised by the studio.

Many thanks again to clients AGDA, Spicers Paper, Robert Horne UK, National Design Centre and Melbourne Fringe for developing strong creative briefs and fostering engaging outcomes.

Visit AGDA here

The recent recognition of ‘The Design Papers’ (National Design Centre) for editorial design at the 2008 AGDA National Awards made us realise that we haven’t documented this project.

The publication was launched in October 2006, developed from mostly supplied media and writings, featuring work from John Gollings, David Lancashire, Gils Bakker, Pip Carroll, Marco Gjergja and Berlin based graphic design studio Cyan. Over six weeks the studio assembling, illustrating and making sense of 48 pages of content.

The cover shot features a Droog door mat that leaps off the cover with a twist. The image was photographed at the last minute on the roof of our studio on Greville Street, Prahran. The publication features Dutch designed font Strada by Albert Pinggera and was produced on web fed newsprint media.

The studio has produced for Saxton paper a guide for small to medium printers to assist their customers who utilise their local print shop to design and produce stationery systems. The guide taps into the notion that people outside of the design industry are looking to personalise, or design their stationery systems.

American graphic design writer Ellen Lupton explores this idea in her 2006 Princeton Architectural Press publication – D.I.Y. Design It Yourself, she states in the opening pages that – design is art people use.

The idea of non-designers designing can be quite threatening to design professionals – I say bring it on. At the very least it will help normal people (who don’t design for a living) experience the process of making design. D.I.Y may also help normal people discover that making design isn’t as easy as it looks, or that design doesn’t happen magically on the computer.

Thanks again to Saxton Paper for this opportunity.

Visit Saxton Paper here, visit Ellen Lupton’s design-your-life journal here

When one reviews our work, it seems most of our projects are a split of work for fees and work in kind. It may seem a crazy principle, yet we think that doing the best job can is about putting in a little extra. A job done with care seem to market themselves and bring attention to the studio. The odd not for profit project taken on by the studio enjoys a whole lot care invested in the outcome, and it is very satisfying to witness a simple project make a real difference.

A local child centre is feeling the pinch – an essential renovation, new child care centre up the road, and over ten families left the centre. We are tasked to help the centre to attract a glutch of new community minded and in tune families, and quick. We reviewed the centre and developed their point of difference with a communication programme that touches on public relations, low cost handbills, and poster campaign. We developed the call to action – Free Range Children Wanted. A simple line that taps into the whole values associated with quality food production, which had been twisted to speak to an emerging breed of parent. Within days of this poster of the being erected, the centre have had many new parents walk from the street  and instead of having many vacancies and waiting list has been formed.

This poster brings together the playful copy line with playful illustrated treatment. Our chicken children were developed by our current intern Sarah Pickering from Switzerland.

Chamber Music Australia (CMA) facilitates this region’s largest and most revered chamber music events. The studio was tasked to develop a suite of communications items — from the brand to programme, apparel to advertising, signing to certificates and the web.

We wanted to put in place an image that positioned the event on the world stage — employing a confident and engaging graphic that suggests music, excellence and a sense of excitement.

The event programme was particularly rewarding project. With the guidance of CMA we assessed how the audience uses the programme and restructured the information to make the reading and review process intuitive, visually exciting, efficient with increased legibility.

The brand mark had several renderings a striking true mono solution, two to four colour outcomes and outcomes that are illustrated interpretations of the event graphic.

The event was declared the most successful competition on all fronts in CMA’s twenty year history by the CMA’s President Bill Forrest. With this result under our belts, we felt that it was timely to resign our eight year design and sponsorship partnership with CMA. We are focusing our energies on cultural partners in greater need of raising their brand and communications profiles in the community.

The studio ensured that materials had a extended usage life, building into the design outcomes multiple purposes and functions. We used sustainable printing, recycled papers and local manufacturing to produce desirable and highly reusable objects.

Folder, event programme brochure, invitation

Café postcard, event brochure and invitation

Programme brochure that folds out to A2 wall poster

Programme front cover and a selection of spreads printed using two colours

A one colour presentation folder that doubles as a wall poster

Competition t-shirts and carry bag