ADBED Branding

The Australian Deans of the Built Environment and Design focuses on educating and promoting the roles that the educational institutes play in the development and climate of our cities.

ADBED required a new brand identity, one that suited its intended audience made up of government, industry and community. The Bureau worked to create a simple, strong aesthetic, keeping in line with the newly designed brandmark and colour palette.

By using shades of blue, the brandmark maintains a modern and professional position, focusing on a cooler palette evoking calmness, trust and friendliness. The main logo was made up of such a gradient, split by a horizontal skyline acknowledging the significance of Indigenous Australians and Country within the built environment.

Designer: Michael Smith & Rohan Gerrard

COVID-19 WHO
Awareness Campaign

In response to a UN Global Callout To Creatives designers at the Bureau were tasked with the challenge to create material that captured key messages for coronavirus.

The Design Bureau produced two art series to be submitted, which were eventually published alongside the most suitable works on a microsite organised by the UN. The proposed material came in the form of posters, made for both digital and print formats.

‘Avoid Touching Your Face’ drives the message home that ordinary actions can lead to contamination. A series of 3, each poster demonstrated how the virus can enter the body using simple illustrations brought forward by a contrasting yellow backdrop. ‘Help Stop the Spread of Germs’ and ‘The Importance of Social Distancing’ also follow a minimalistic style, one influenced by flat design. The cool navy and white colours are juxtaposed with a warm pink, symbolising the effectiveness of protective measures.

Designer: Michael Smith & Eleisha Kubale

Tim Winton Book Covers

The Bureau had the opportunity to design a suite of backlist book covers for loved Australian author Tim Winton as part of the upcoming celebration of his 40 years of storytelling.

The design team looked to modernise a selection of Tim Winton’s books for the buzz reader demographic. The block graphic style reflects the Australian Literature genre, while also being able to stand out on the shelf.

The graphic elements create a timelessness, ease of communication and enough mystery to intrigue potential fans. These elements portray significant themes that each book addresses, while consistantly linking back to the Australian landscape.

Designers: Renée Chung, Chasely Johnson, Ellen Wadley & Michael Smith

IA App Prototype

Independence Australia is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping Australians with disabilities as well as the elderly. They provide resources, products and activities that improve the lives of their customers, regardless of ability.

The Bureau was approached by IA to create an app prototype to be used as a client management system. Clarity and accessibility were of great importance in order to facilitate the organisation of day to day routines, appointments, rostering and more.

The end result was compact and readable while the menu bars provided high manoeuvrability within the app. Visual coherence together with customisable features offered the opportunity to make full use of the app’s capabilities. Varying colour schemes for example were symbolic of the time of day, serving as a backdrop for high contrast magenta that drew a user’s attention to changes in daily routine. These supported a bright and fun aesthetic, without being overwhelming for the user.

Designer: Rohan Gerrard

Latrobe LMS Design

The LaTrobe University’s Learning Management System, Moodle, was in need of layout and design optimisation to create an ideal user experience for its users.

The Bureau was tasked with providing a summary document of recommendations, proposed after visual research, site mapping and prototyping.

With it’s new design, LaTrobe’s LMS was given a new makeover that was streamlined and visually appealing. Images and banners were added to break the monotony while text was organised in subsections to help against scroll fatigue.

Designer: Chasely Johnson

Make it Break it Design Sprint Publication

 Netwealth, in partnership with Swinburne University and MASS, conducted a ‘design sprint’ entitled ‘Make It. Break It.’ in an effort to improve the experience for Australians seeking or receiving financial advice. It was during a five-day period where over 40 students from different Swinburne faculties worked with industry professionals to solve challenges by combining design, prototyping and customer research techniques.

The project and the innovations that surfaced over the five days needed to be showcased in a book format, which The Bureau helped with by collating overviews, photos and interviews together. The final result: A clean and informative recount of the design sprint.

Designer: Michael Smith

NAIDOC Week

During NAIDOC Week 2019, Swinburne University hosted the Ngarrindjeri Photography Exhibition which showcased over 80 to 100 rare historical photos taken by Ngarrindjeri photographers in the early twentieth century. 

The Bureau worked on creating collateral for the event, such as take-home exhibition booklets and digital invitations. As the booklet provided the stories and contextual backdrops of the photographs, equal emphasis was placed on text and art.

The clean and minimalistic layout served as a pedestal to the rare cultural photographs of a deeply spiritual people. Grand yet humble, the photos were given an additional dimension through the accompanying descriptions—one of intimate and cultural insight.

Designer: Sarah Hayes

Parallel Visions Publication

Parallel Visions exhibited as part of Melbourne Design Week 2020, showcasing contempory exploration of Italian design history.

Swinburne’s own Anna Caione and Karen Fermo, alongside Liliana Barbieri, Sarina Lirosi, Wilma Tabacco and Flavia Marcello interpreted different moments in the history of Italian design through artworks, exhibition displays and VR experiences.

The Bureau was tasked with the design of the exhibition catalogue as a record for the exhibition and the contributing artists.

The design of the catalogue is a reflection of the re-imagination of Italian design. Using the title font Bembo created by Francesco Griffo, a fifteeth century Italian punch-cutter, the catalogue itself embodies the notion that history is not static.

The colour sectioning each artist adds both to the navigation of the catalogue and the idea of the parallels between Italian design history and it’s contemporary lens. 

Designer: Chasely Johnson 

Space Programs Interface

Swinburne University’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) promotes a fascination of the universe through research and education, enabling technology development for the next generation of physical scientists.

To showcase the space programs being run at Swinburne, The Bureau designed an interactive space map website.

Through hover & scroll controls, users navigate the interactive website and learn about the vast and various topics of the cosmos. Additional information and labeling are presented as pop-ups or as links, all while being both desktop and mobile friendly.

Designer: Rohan Gerrard

Swinburne Researcher Cards

Swinburne University staff are provided with their very own researcher cards that are both informative and inspiring.

Their purpose had to be conveyed quickly and succinctly with a design that lured curiosity. The cards needed to be the right size; big enough to store the required content but small enough so it could be passed around without impedance. 

Encased in the Swinburne charcoal grey, the drawers had small ribbon loops attached to them for increased accessibility. Within these colour-coded drawers representing the respective faculties would sit the researcher cards, themselves just as categorised. Emphasis was placed on staff portraits that were further personalised with a blurb of their methods, field of expertise and contact info. 

Designers: Rob Hasegawa & Bridget Di Mieri

Swinburne Health VR

At Swinburne University, the Digital Anatomy Lab enables students across the various health science programs to study in a bespoke, immersive and interactive environment.  

The Digital Anatomy Lab required custom-designed Google VR headsets to promote their lab and create an innovative and memorable impression for their visitors.

The Bureau developed a stylised and distinctive aesthetic that would fit not just the Swinburne branding as a whole, but the Health Sciences Faculty as well. Using a duotone of charcoal and yellow, the various illustrative elements echoed the purpose of the Digital Anatomy Lab.

Designer: Ellen Wadley

Well & Productive CRC

As a Cooperative Research Centre, Well & Productive CRC is compromised of various industry partners and researchers of varying levels, all with the singular focus of promoting mental health by improving access to high-quality care. An area of attention is the everyday work environment and its effects on personal health and wellbeing.

Well & Productive CRC was in need of branding, one that was modern, sleek and able to clearly convey what the collective was about. The Bureau helped create the branding along with its own website, document prospectus and other collateral.

The purple and blue gradient fosters a calm and pleasing brandmark, one that is noticeable as it is friendly. It also serves the double purpose of relaying themes of support, connectedness and community from the main logo, itself strengthened by its abstracted design of two interconnected individuals.

Designer: Michael Smith & Rohan Gerrard

CERES Fair Food

CERES Fair Food is an online grocery service that is ethically sourced, providing support to the Victorian agricultural industry.

CERES required a tag line that captured and reinforced its core values; sustainability and community. It needed to resonate and create an emotional connection between the brand and its consumers in order to promote the grocery range and its fresh foods. An additional A6 promotional postcard was also included, to be used for handouts and special promotions.

It was through the harmonious pairing of the CERES branding and a balanced design layout that the postcard was created. The natural contrast divide in the image of a balanced diet enabled the CERES logo to shine over a softspoken palette of beige and white, all while mirroring the mangoes’ sunset vibrancy.

Designer: Eleisha Kubale & Rohan Gerrard

Alumni Infographic

Swinburne’s alumni community is made up of over 200,000 former students spread across 140 different countries. The alumni engagement team works to ensure everyone within the community stays connected, up to date and elligible for opportunity. 

To showcase the various milestones and statistics of the alumni community, The Bureau created a slide deck that presented data in a clear and engaging way, capturing a snapshot of the work the alumni engagement team does.

An infographic style was chosen, focusing more on iconographic layouts to present data. Using the Swinburne branding adds a striking contrast between the elements while the rounded shapes and corners create a more welcoming design.

Designer: Eleisha Kubale & Rohan Gerrard

GradX 2020

Every year, Swinburne University of Technology’s School of Design showcases and celebrates the work and research of design graduates. The focus for GradX 2020 was the 1.5 Degree manifesto; Swinburne’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2025.

The entire Bureau team came together to work on one of their biggest annual projects. As part of the GradX 2020 branding, a custom typeface was built, one that echoed the theme of transformation through its dotted and hole punch styling. Enhancing the typeface was the geometric patterns reminiscent of Swinburne’s architecture, complementing GradX 2020’s focus on Architecture & Industrial Design.

Designers:
Michael Smith – Branding
Chasely Johnson – Branding
Eleisha Kubale – Publication design, GradX typeface
Rohan Gerrard – GradX website
Mina Teh – Publication design
Jasmin Hinss – Showreels, animations and videos

Swinburne International Avatars

Swinburne’s International Partnerships and Recruitment Team help create and nurture professional relationships with all types of organisations and individuals across a plethora of industries.

Due to an increase in their online recruitment activities, the Recruitment Team requested stylised portraits of their staff to be used in promotional content.

Exaggerated features come together to form an open and friendly caricature styling, one that not only appeals to a younger audience, but also adds an extra layer of approachability to the portraits.

Designer: Jasmin Hinss

Change Our Game

Change Our Game is an initiative designed to support and increase the participation of women in sport and recreation. Through funding and additional representation, the Victorian Government aims to see more women in leadership roles while steering the sector towards a more inclusive future.

To highlight the findings of the Change of Our Game program, The Bureau was tasked with designing an infographic. While the styling had to remain consistent with that of the 2019 report findings infographic, the overall design needed to be updated.

The simplified colour palette saw crimson emerge from the pages, creating a daring yet ordered aesthetic. Working within were the subheadings, now made more readable while additional images were included to break text fatigue, conveying the 2020 findings in a clearer, more concise manner than its 2019 counterpart.

Designers: Mina Teh & Rohan Gerrard

Right-Wing Extremism Report

This report was developed internally by Swinburne University of Technology, aiming to map right-wing extremism in Victoria, through the lens of gender.

Keeping in line with Swinburne branding and the styling of Milovan Savic’s research report document, The Bureau designed a layout that paired text and infographics together.

The data the project uncovered had to be presented in a readable and attractive layout. Graphs, piecharts and wordclouds were used to break the monotony of text while also clarifying relevant topics. The Swinburne colour palette was kept consistent throughout the report, its yellow serving the purpose of grabbing a reader’s attention to key information.

Designer: Mina Teh

NotNodi

NotNodi is a revolutionary travel pillow that supports a person’s head and neck in a natural, comfortable and balanced position when seated upright.

Across four phases including the creation and promotion of a Kickstarter campaign, the Bureau provided scheduling and advertising content to support the NotNodi product launch. 

(ONGOING)

Designer: Eleisha Kubale, Jasmin Hinss, Bailey Wentworth, Ally Zahra

ALBoE Chen Logo

A Little Bit of Everything is a new architectural practice that aims to create simple but elegant designs through sustainable, everyday materials. 

ALBoE’s new brand logo needed to fit in with other successful architectural firms while having its own unique flair. Thus, a minimalistic and clean logo was proposed by The Bureau, one that emphasised structure and simplicity.

(ONGOING)

Designer: Mina Teh

HbD Inside-Outside

Health by Design offers itself as a means to better workplace health management. They provide programs that help with injury prevention, mental health and general wellbeing.

The Bureau was approached to create five informative videos that emphasised how behavior and outside influences impact the inside of the body. Anatomy footage used in a splitcreen format as well as voiceovers to go with statistics formed part of these videos.

(ONGOING)

Designer: Jasmin Hinss & Kyle Lwp

Great Ocean Road Voices

As an inter-university student project, Great Ocean Road Voices aims to generate interest and community engagement across government bodies, tourists and GOR communities alike.

To communicate their findings, a client-accessible website was required, as well as a visual identity achieved through consistent typeface, colour palette and design style.

The Bureau built and filled the site with infographics, research projects and interactive elements to make it more appealing.

 (ONGOING)

Designer: Bailey Wentworth & Jin Yoshida