Front page

Pearl’s iPad wine listing and menu
Digital intranet project
Duration 8 weeks from briefing

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As new technology shifts and shapes the way in which people interact with the world, tools, products and points of reference are being challenged, evolved and transformed.

On the eve of the launch of the Apple Ipad Pearl Restaurant approached the studio to explore and put their wine list on the iPad. A modest start up budget was worked out, as experience has proved that new technology projects can be redundant with a change of new technology.

Site maps, content guide, software choice, concept and design, digital development and testing was managed by the studio over a very busy six weeks. The menu utilises content management software, which all allows staff to edit and update with daily special and list changes at anytime. The software works exclusively from the restaurant’s server and is transmitted to several iPad via wireless. The new menu will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

As in the world of books this project brings with it the beginnings of a new direction for the menu format.

Thanks again to the Pearl team for your support.

Home page

Album track listing and sample player

Cartell news site

Cartell Music has expanded it offerings of producing music brand and event, such as the So Frenchy So Chic brand to an online store – Cartell Downloads. Cartell Downloads is a unique Space for French sounds and inspirations from Air, to Daft Punk, to Jean Michel Jarre, Django Reindhardt, Josephine Baker to the curious Perrey & Kingsley.

This digital design and development project, involved sub branding, web design and complex digital development by web developer – The Mighty Wonton, ie Little Irrepressible Wonton. The site hosts over 4000 tracks, each track can be sampled, and all can be purchased as single track or packaged as albums. Individual as well as gift voucher purchases can be made. Thanks to JF for the this fantastic project, good luck and best wishes for your new venture.

To celebrate the launch of Cartell Download and the new So Frenchy So Chic TV series four free tracks are available, click here for details

Visit Cartell Downloads here
Visit The Mighty Wonton here

Many publicity and events firms have brands that use stacked variations of the typeface Bodoni or Helveltica. Kate wanted something bold, classic and unique.

To start the process we asked Kate to write her name in her hand and she happened to have a style of writing that would translate wonderfully into a brand mark – like the hand of fashion designer Agnes B. We busied ourselves with graphically translating and interpreting her script into a simple mark. A website has been developed and stationery is to follow. Thanks again Kate for giving us your hand.

Visit Kate Keane Publicity and Events here

The reality of spending time doing and working through a process, to then find this process is fast becoming superceded by a new process is a situation as old as time itself.

Established print designers moaning about developing work for the web is common, and all one can say, as politely as possible, is to get over the old days of print, embrace digital and invent new spaces for print.

As designers who love to work with ink on paper it is challenging to think that several weeks of effort could be spent on a product that is bits and bytes, yet this brief is appropriate for a time requiring work that has low environmental impact.

We approached the project in the normal way – research, concepts, image making, information planning and presentation, design development, sign offs and artwork. The only difference being is that the project was a digital document with a small print component – a series of four postcards.

This project required us to demystify and promote government grants developed for the creative sector. Government grants present businesses the opportunity to bring about a range of positive changes to work and practice, and we wanted to depict this idea with a range of evocative images. The images are a response to the old notion of people using some form of external device, or machine, to bring about a radical transformation. Within a tight budget we investigated the inventions and dreams of people looking to transform – time machines, jet packs, and person transporters and we took it upon ourselves to invent our own twist of the fabled dream machines – as a mash of people, wings, tin helmets, propellers, and curious body suits.

The design exercise aside, this PDF has been devised to help the creative sector to seek grants and execute the process in the best way possible. Details can be found at Design Victoria here. Thanks again to DV for this communication opportunity.

Cartell Music is an independent music label bringing music, other than Western sounds, to willing ears. In the process of putting words together and developing a graphic outcome, we seek to find a visual gag, or cliché within in the words, so to minimize the need for additional visual elements. An exclamation mark said — “hello you weirdo design nerds”, from this assemblage of letter forms and we were off to design utopia. We continued to customise the type to end up with a robust composition of lettering, which went onto develop a range of rendered variations.

From wiki — The exclamation mark was introduced into English printing in the 1400s, and was known as the “note of admiration” until the mid 1600s. This seemed the perfect symbol for a client with an ongoing admiration for exotic sounds.

In the spirit of one of our design heros – Herb Lubalin, Mr Lubalin logo’s for – families, Marriage and Mother&Child – in particular are constant references and inspirations. In a period of graphic expression where many logomarks are complicated (with sometimes complex) symbols, typemarks and brand guidelines, we are determined to develop work that has a fine balance of customised forms, decorative elements and steely functionalism.

Entertainment production organizations are the brands behind the more prominant entertainment products and entities. This brief required us to develop a modest, yet robust brand that is distinctive and functional at the edges of the main attraction.

Further to developing the brand mark we then tackled Cartell’s website.

Visit Cartell Music here

The Project Agency is an emerging Melbourne based marketing, brand and events consultancy that works in the areas of fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food and… They approached the studio to develop a brand and communication collateral to get heads talking and tongues wagging.

The Project Agency is a tricky selection of words to put together, so we tasked ourselves to come up with a tasty slab of type. Andrew worships at the alter of Herb Lubalin, and a recent shipment of U&lc magazines from the late 1980s, made Herb‘s work top of mind — no one does a tasty slab of type like Herb.

Avante Garde typeface (ligatures) by Herb Lubalin

Typemark by Herb Lubalin

After several presentations, the Herb inspired idea came up trumps. With the basis of the type mark approved then we spent time rubbing, back and scrubbing in the studio‘s homage to Herb. The type mark has an accompanying custom design seal based upon electrical engineering marks crossed with a Albrecht Dürer monograph. The stationery suite is a look book of sorts drawing upon The Project Agency‘s recent inspirations. It is intended to change the image work regularly.

Thanks again Esther we had enjoyed bringing this new brand together. Thanks to Gunn & Taylor for more fine printing.

Visit The Project Agency here

Visit Albrecht Dürer here

Visit Herb Lubalin here

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 studio has been madly working with Fringe developing the 2008 festival campaign. There is mostly a new team running the festival, in a new work space — an exciting process of review, scoping all the options and then implementation is in the air.

The campaign this year has been developed around the idea of it being a project, or an event in its own right and we have extensively collaborated with David, Emily, Eloise and Beau to work out what‘s right, right‘s what and wrong rights. It is not your typical designer and client relationship — rather than setting briefs and doing work on computers, it is working out the opportunities and executing how to exploit them. A very nice way to do work.

There is much to show and that will come later. In the meantime enjoy the excellent motion piece developed by Studio XYZ in response to the theme we put in place for Fringe 2007.

The studio is launching a print piece at this year‘s festival, watch this space, as they say, for details.

Pearl Restaurant and Bar engaged the studio to develop its website. The brief was open at the start, it could be a sexy flash site, it could be html, it could be both, or something else. The more that the client and studio investigated the many restaurant sites on line, it became clear that the site for Pearl had to allow the restaurant to build on it’s community. Therefore there was a need to provide interesting destination rich with quality content often, for customers and followers of Pearl to loose themselves in.

We propositioned the client with the process of generating content with customised web log based software. The ease of staff delivering content to the internet, won over their desire for seductive moving graphics and digital effects. Visit pearlrestaurant here and move about its splashy tabloid like interface and visit often — the guys at Pearl are passionate about generating their own brand of stories, ideas and insights often. This web solution allows all manner of content to flow.

Thank you to Andrew and Geoff at Pearl and Lee at Irrepressible Wonton again— wonderful process.

As part of the Alliance Graphique Internationale Congress in Amsterdam participants where asked to respond to Amsterdam’s marketing theme “I am Amsterdam”. Thanks again to Lee at Little Irrespressible Wonton for putting the clip together. Visit the congress’s website