Fun, bubbly and colourful are all things that you could easily describe Buffet Digital as. Being close collaborators and friends with Soph and Nikki for a while now it was only natural we worked on giving their practice a digital face lift. Buffet creates content for brands across the hospitality industry, from working with venues, products and everything in between.Hanging out more with the gang, what started to become more prominent was that the work Buffet creates has a vibrant personality to it, always having some explosion of colour which is kind of like a forever changing menu at your favourite restaurant. We wanted that to really drive the direction by putting colour at the forefront whilst pairing it with the punchy work that gets created. Improving the space where Buffet’s bread and butter lives, Lazy Susan also starts to grow in colourful interactions. Finally got to use ABC Synt by the legends at @abcdinamo – You can really feel the uniqueness of this typeface across the website and how it’s applied in amongst some fantastic work!

AusMod is a typeface created referencing aspects of Australia’s modern graphic design history. Mix between a grotesque and traditional sans serif. Connecting with Tom for this project, we wanted a typeface that was going to be the studio’s identity and also have the ability to be used across all forms of collateral, digital spaces and anything the studio is producing internally. The process of working through the modern history of Australian graphic design, helped us in identifying some of the characteristics that you would see during the 80s/90s. We wanted some type of a nostalgic feel when seeing the typeface in it’s application. AusMod was the working title, the more we continued throughout the project the more we felt it was actually a perfect name for the typeface.

A lot of 5 stars hotels care to look and feel exclusive, elitist or unattainable. Not this one. Welcoming to all and unbound by precedent, they care to look and feel inclusive, approachable and grounded. To honour the care they put in preserving heritage and celebrate the many layers of history it has tastefully incorporated, we found inspiration in the Interwar functionalist style, in which the building was born and where form follows function. It’s important to remember its roots : a pub. Friendly, warm, welcoming, and eclectic. We added colour pulled from the hotel’s interiors to the brand, in honour of the colourful past and present of Chippendale and this iconic venue. TOCH is more than a hotel. So we decided to create two sections that coexist on the website: Hotel and Clare. Each section has its own colour, and its own type of information. The more practical information lives in the hotel side, while the Clare side showcases a more intimate side of the brand; its history, conversations, and creative ventures.

We were commissioned to create the Brand identity and website for Ragazzi, a new Italian restaurant on the scene from the people behind two notorious little wine bars in Sydney (Love, Tilly Devine and Dear Sainte Eloise). Ragazzi is all about wine and pasta, and we wanted to give a modern feel to traditional Italian fare. Inspired by Marinetti and his sound poems, the commonly used Italian phrase ‘Ciao, Ragazzi’ comes to life as if it were shouted at a busy table. The futurist movement was successfully challenging the relationship between sound and image, which we found to be the most effective – and polite – way to scream around the venue. We rolled out the vocal feel of the brand identity directly into the touch points across the restaurant with an exciting online presence, while playing with the ethos of the restaurant. We wanted everything to be playful and entertaining, using constant movement across the identity.

Merchandise for Berlin Atonal Laterne party at Dark Mofo 2019. Berlin Atonal is an annual festival for sonic and visual art in two distinct stages. It first took place between 1982 and 1990, relaunching in 2013 under new direction and continuing to the present day. This was our take on a faux tourism shirt that plays into the juxtaposition between Berlin and Hobart. Inspired by the aesthetics of two entities who share a taste for the experimental and cultural.

Introducing you to Wollumbi, a carefully curated estate where southern highlands meet French provence. When creating the brand identity, we were conscious to mirror the ethos of the place and the values of the people behind it. This meant preserving the essence of the land’s heritage while celebrating the investment in its potential.When rolling out the brand on digital turf, we pulled out the colour palette from the grounds and the estate. To bring a nostalgic feel we used a green filter over imagery, which comes to life in colour when the user hovers to give a sense of exploration and discovery. From the menu tab system to the type hierarchy, the user is taken on a calm and focused journey that celebrates growth, patience and care.

When Zach reached out to the studio about wanting to create a way his work could be represented online we totally jumped at the idea of working together. We had a few chats before we figured out what type of approach would be a fitting way to represent someone who works with creating trailers and digital content for films/tv shows. The cool thing about this project is that we both got along super well and most of the time geeked out about design. We both loved the idea of working together on something that reflected both his work and something the studio would be stoked on showcasing. The creative direction sat between wanting to explore the use of indexing but at the same time allowing the user to take their own journey based on as if you were looking at choosing a film to watch online – we wanted create time and allow you to dictate your own speed when interacting with such rich content. It’s usually the outcomes that look minimal/stripped back that tend to take the longest to finesse as we started rather wide from a design point of view which gave us the capabilities to strip back and add key interactive elements. Having worked on some epic film like Blade Runner, Uncut Gems, Mid90s to name a few. It’s been awesome to have worked on creating a space for Zach where he can showcase his art form going forward.

We’ve had a nice working relationship from day dot, from their branding through to assisting in some nice new ideas on how to communicate and educate in the natural wine space. Only naturally it moved towards giving them a digital facelift. Over the covid period most projects have had multiple starts and idle periods, which helped us in designing something that was going to be clear, concise and most importantly have the ability to give you more than just a wine makers description of the bottle.Having a large inventory it was critical to approach this in a way that can enable the user to have their own journey but equally as important not feel overwhelmed with too much product. We really wanted to break the mould in giving people the necessary information and on top of that provide a more colloquial feel to how wine is described. Almost providing the same lingo you would get from going into a bottle shop and trying to find common ground language wise to explain a taste. Improved article and blog content has helped explore new ways that NotWasted can continue to bring in a more collaborative feel and connection outside the world of wine making.

The world of hospitality as we know it looks a little different right now. So when the team behind Ragazzi commissioned us to create the brand for their new venture, Fabbrica, we decided to find inspiration in a movement which was born as an artistic response to the surrounding chaos, Dada. Dada is inherently political, it rejects logic and celebrates irrationality. Rejecting norms around how typography should be presented and read, we decided to play with a combination of two typefaces Telerysm and VTC Carrie, our take on the roots of Dada. In order to create a futurist feel as a connection to Ragazzi, we chose the use of strange circular shapes, conveying a sense of movement and modernity, while odd triangles, open the doors to the idea of a traditional warehouse, with a ‘deli-like’ awning feel.

We worked with the lads at the Fishbowl Group to bring in a more cohesive approach to their Bondi gem. Not being a salad expert nor living in Bondi, this was a new one in trying to wrap our heads around how to keep things fresh (pun intended) and also dynamic.The solution was more or less rather simple – it was too create tools for the client so they could continuously build on the brand. This being typefaces, colours and compositions.We wanted to imitate the fact that their core product is the ability to build your own salad, so we treated the client as if they were building their own salad when putting together new items for their shop. Testing and proofing all the different combinations of colours and typefaces gave us the opportunity to express a variety of possibilities across all touch points. We had an accidental design on purpose moment, presenting a smiley face ironically (cause who is smiling when they order a salad) to which was perceived as an egg, which then later turned into us essentially using it across some of the more interactive elements of the brand. We decided that the website should not be anything but having the ability to draw on the egg, something fun, silly and hopefully memorable for the shop!

After working with these legends for a while we finally got around working on a more cohesive approach to their branding. The Jazz Diaries showcase an array of sounds, with no release being the same.Our approach to the rebrand was to tap into their motto “Music for moments in space and time’. We wanted to delve into that expression through the icon and logotype. Exploring something that gave an endless feeling of hypnosis, losing the sense of time. Whilst being inspired by the music history of detroit. We wanted to give it a little bit of a nostalgic tone particularly in the way composition was approached on EPs and label IDs Zagging away from the traditional concept of having the icon, motto and logo as one entity, and rather move into a space where each one of them could be recognised without relying on each other.

We’ve had our fair share of hospitality venues over the last couple years so it always exciting to try and come up with something undiscovered from an ideas point of view. We wanted to create something that gave an ode to the chaotic approach traditional restaurants have in Italy, especially with the claustrophobic feel regarding visual imagery.We turned to diving into researching the abundance of wild signage Italy is known for. Looking at how most identities are done in a reverse engineered way by fitting logos into what space is available. This often leads to using a variety of weights and sizes to get a message across. Being a football fan and with the restaurant having a roman kick to it, it was pretty fitting to rep the AS Roma colour-way for the palette.

La Salut is the most recent venue by the Love Tilly Group – Moving across continents with their food offering, this place serves up an Catalian inspired menu. Looking into the history of the Catalan region, we started to dive into the history of pavement structures that make up the foundation of the architecture and town design. Bringing this into a concept we started to look at creating a dynamic identity that could be moved around, recomposed and broken into fractions just like the streets through the city of Barcelona. Allowing the identity to have such diversity in how it was constructed, this opened the doors to look into some of the history in cubism which started to inspire these cities in the early 20th century. Brining in randomness to the visual communication tied in the identity and it’s ability to be moved and applied as if it was a Juan Gris painting. We always want an idea like this to have the freedom to progress and redefine how it is applied across different mediums.

Commissioned to refresh the Brand identity and website, we approached the creatives as Fjura would approach all things floral. A celebration of both the essence and the attention to detail with which each bouquet is prepared. Considering flowers as living things that must be perfectly timed so they age simultaneously and gracefully within an arrangement, and bouquets as an exploding last call for beauty before their inevitable fate. Resonating with the idea of timing and arrangement that are two of the main considerations for Fjura, we decided to create a website where the user would be given some sense of control over the composition, in their own time. Presenting a layout within a systematic grid where the user composes their own arrangement over split imagery. Keeping a minimal feel with information only brought to the eye when it is invited to do so.

Linen isn’t the flashiest or prettiest part of restaurants and too most it’s dealt with the most cost effective solution. Considering that they had already a large roster of serviced clients, it always came to mind – why can’t tea towels at the bare minimum look nice? It’s always the most unflattering side of the kitchen, commercially or at home. Our approach decided to flip that on it’s head. With most linen companies having the classic checkered out of the box print, we wanted to become more recognisable, easily clocked and just generally nice to look at. We started to dig into the history of graphic design in Australia from the 1960s through to 90s to bring in a sense of nostalgia. Looking at old Women Weekly recipes, and print ads it was something that made us laugh and at the same time something we wanted to tap into. The idea was fairly simple, use tongue in cheeky copy as the main brand characteristic. Deliver lines of copy that can be more of a piss take. Allowing the brand to stay as a continued work in progress, where at any time it can continue to add another caption or ridiculous comment picturing how linen can effectively turn you pro. One of the objectives is to allow the brand to keep their core business in B2B but allow opportunity in creating a parallel B2C avenue. Using the tea towels as editions and collaborations between not only with their serviced clients but stores/artists/copy writers.

‘Madness of Many’ is a creative research synopsis on the ‘This is Not Art’ festival that takes place in Newcastle, NSW. Critical Animals has over the past decade brought together students, researchers, writers, artists, academics and thinkers who critically engage with creative practices. Its participants have dispersed, reunited, re-dispersed and revisited conversations and ideas that began in the cosy enclaves of the festival.In an ode to the practices that were presented at the festival the approach for this edition was to construct the same vein in which the artists delivered during the festival. Using the the tonal colours of the festival throughout the edition.

We had the opportunity to start playing with Ár Huis and the toys they started to build over time. The first one we had fun re-shaping was Builders Anonymous. We’ve never worked with a construction company ever, so it was fairly new territory. Our approach to start was to zag and zag away. We wanted the identity to be unique, noticeable, thought provoking and most importantly does not look like whats out there.There was no research, documents, let’s understand the business cause let’s be real – builders build. So the opportunity to go wild was there. Idea was simple, Let’s build out buildings with the typeface and allow it to grow new forms over anywhere it exists. We got to finally use Mark Gowing’s typeface Boulder Mono and it kinda all clicked together.

Sydney based grill doctor and jeweller Illoom aka Fraser commissioned us for his new website which led to a little identity refresh. Looking at the craft behind his unique creations and one-off pieces, we decided to elevate the perception of the brand while keeping its authentic feel. We wanted to push the relationship with gems and metals, to invite people to think more creatively about how they incorporate metals and jewellery in both their day to day and special occasion. Approaching the website as a digital space for Illoom to curate his creations, striking a balance between flashy and tasteful, showing the many facets of Fraser’s skills. Playing on images that appear and change based on where the user is located on the grid. Providing visual stimulation that is impactful, memorable and inspiring via powerful imagery and a strong typography system.

Clean and elegant identity work for Oliver Du Puy – Aim was to bring in a more cohesive approach to his work, and allowing his projects to do all the talking. Even though the suggestion was that business cards are unnecessary, couldn’t help but show what if. Booklet to be printed in the coming weeks with a mixed combination of 270gsm and 120gsm throughout. Clean and elegant identity work for @oliverdupuy – Aim was to bring in a more cohesive approach to his work, and allowing his projects to do all the talking. Even though the suggestion was that business cards are unnecessary, couldn’t help but show what if. Booklet to be printed in the coming weeks with a mixed combination of 270gsm and 120gsm throughout.

Brut. Med. abstracts and decontextualises a body of sculptural work by Alana Wilson entitled Brutalist Meditations. The physical works interrogate representations of physicality, materiality and the duality of function and aesthetics. Although varying in scale, the works all show evidence of the process and materials with a lack of concern to look comfortable or easy. Materials used include clay, XPS, polyurethane resin, plaster, gauze, ceramic, and nails. The forms include sculptural works, plinths, a table, rock-like formations and vessels in order to embrace the concept of raw brutalism across both functional and non-functional realms. The Brut. Med. images, photographed by Saskia Wilson, draw parallels of natural decay and highlight the material deteriorations. The abstracted natural environment and sunlight provoke an uncertainty of time, place and scale, appearing to be not of this earth. Between the Brutalist Meditations and the Brut. Med. imagery, there sits a balance of pure exposure of material and form in the physical, and extreme abstraction and decontextualisation in the photographic.

Identity and creative direction for a friend of the studio, Sophie – an artist whose medium is flowers. Inspired by said medium, we opted for a simpler system to deliver the brand’s identity and language. Acting both as the logo and across collaterals, the typeface is an ode to Sophie’s approach to floral design. As no flower is the same, no arrangement is the same, they are presented in these intentional undesigned forms – something we wanted to replicate across the kerning and icon placement. We decided to keep the images at the focus of the brand, but still allowing for Sophie to be flexible to use aspects of the identity across different pieces of collateral. The variety of imagery goes hand in hand with the various versions of the identity, allowing pairings on the business cards and note cards.