Thoughts about design

Thoughtful Thursday #4

“Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.” jeffrey zeldman This quote sums up why “can’t you just use dummy text and we’ll come up with the content later?” isn’t an ideal way of going about a design project. From the outside, design work looks visual – and most...

Thoughtful Thursday #3

“Design everything on the assumption that people are not heartless or stupid but marvelously capable, given the chance.” John Chris Jones We always design with our hearts and our heads, and treat our clients people (whether they are customers, people accessing a service, patients, students, supporters and staff) with the same. We treat everyone that...

MS Plus pull-up banners

A pair of banners we have designed for MS Plus, that can be standalone or placed together...

“Let’s Talk Rubbish” t-shirt design

A less common project came into the studio recently, to design a t-shirt. But not just any kind of t-shirt – one focusing on how to separate your waste visually, in their four bin system, if you live in the City of Frankston!...

intouch Magazine

We put together the latest issue of the MS Plus magazine, intouch. 20 pages of news, events and useful information for those who live with MS in Victoria...

Thoughtful Thursday #2

“Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up.” Tate Linden...

Thoughtful Thursday #1

“Design isn’t crafting a beautiful, textured button with breathtaking animation. It’s figuring out if there’s a way to get rid of the button altogether.” Edward Tufte This is at the core of how we design websites – simplifying the process for visitors is key. Simplifying means less clicks, quicker access to the information they are...

Our ethos is “kindness first”

Over the past 20 years in the design industry, I have seen projects of all types, met clients of all types, and been in workplaces of all types. I have watched how people’s driving force can be either positive or negative (determined to make thoughtful change and help others versus being driven by volume or...

Environmentally Sustainable Design Guide

There’s always a publication or report being worked on here, sometimes big and sometimes small. This particular one for Frankston City Council had less content than we normally need to work with, but it meant we were able to include lots of images and design easy to read diagrams...

RJ Fire Services

We created a mobile-responsive website for RJ Fire Services, to promote their services...

Child Safe Reporting Flowchart

Who: Frankston City Council What: Child Safe Reporting Flowchart Why: Not everything we do is fun, some projects cover serious matters that need to be handled both with dignity and clarity. This is one of those projects...

Lynn Rowley Photography

Who: Lynn Rowley Photography What: Logo and website Why: Lynn required a logo for her professional photography business. We also developed a website where customers can purchase photo prints online...

Sorrento Winter Promotion

Who: Sorrento Portsea Chamber of Commerce What: Promotional material for a competition Why: To encourage visitation to Sorrento during the cooler (and often quieter) months of the year...

Mornington Peninsula Shire Pedestrian Maps

We compiled and formatted a collection of maps for the Mornington Peninsula Shire, for them to use at community consultations. The map designs were required to show the pathways for pedestrians. We worked from supplied raw data, aerial photos and a common legend to build 11 separate maps. Each map focuses on a suburb in...

Sam’s Quark Packaging

Sam’s is an importer of European food favourites – especially cheese. We designed the packaging for their cheese range, including quark cheese. This packaging featured a cute cow cartoon and bright colours to stand out on the shelves...

How to avoid having a “2022 website”

I came across this write-up today, and had a bit of a giggle: A typical website visit in 2022 Figure out how to decline all but essential cookies Close the support widget asking if I need help Stop the auto-playing video Close the ”subscribe to our newsletter” pop-up Try and remember why I came here...

How to keep your website active

Generating content can seem like a daunting prospect to add to your business tasks, but it doesn’t have to be. There are lots of easy ways to keep your website active – many are things you are already doing and can translate well into website updates. SEO that gets you near the top of the...

Stock images: what if I don’t want to pay?

“Free stock images” is a strangely common request. There are valid reasons – sometimes as generic photos to create an atmosphere, or temporary fill-in photos (especially since COVID kept halting commercial photo shoots because of lockdowns). But free stock images aren’t just “go and use as you please”. They also don’t come from a Google...

Selling online: how COVID changed everything

By the second half of 2020, it was understood that we were all going to be stuck in “pandemic mode” for quite some time. It was hard to watch retail businesses around us struggle, who solely relied on in-store sales. This had worked for them for many years. Even with the shift towards online shopping...

Design is for communication, not decoration

Designers: We are not decorators, we are communicators. Even on the smallest of projects, there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes that clients (and their customers) often don’t have the opportunity to see. We never start a project with the idea of simply making something look trendy or appealing – instead, the most important...

Mailchimp Newsletter Design: Western Port Biosphere

If you have information you want to share with your customers/clients/contacts regularly, one way to do this is via email. One system that is quite popular among our clients is Mailchimp, who use it in various ways to keep in touch with their base. Western Port Biosphere use it for their Connector Newsletter, a quarterly...

Website Redesign for Mayko Hair

Mayko Hair’s website became very clunky (for lack of a more technical term!), where it was taking a long time to load, and not all pages were working anymore. After a deep look at the website, instead of “fixing” the previous website with bandaids, we decided it was a more sound decision to start over...

Nasi Civil Letterhead Design

This letterhead (and branding) was wonderful to work on – it was a full rebrand that has served them well for nearly 20 years. To have the opportunity to reimagine a brand and bring them into today is always an honour we don’t take lightly. Small businesses are treated like our children: we love them...

Campground Signage Design

Updated campground signage for Balnarring Foreshore Reserve. We designed three of these signs for reserves A, B and C. Not only do these signs provide a map and directions for campers, but also a check-in QR code (which we’ve unfortunately had to become familiar with over the past year!)...

Frankston City Council: Urban Forest Action Plan Report Design

Along with the Biodiversity Action Plan, we created the Urban Forest Action Plan for Frankston City Council. Both action plans (and related technical report) use the same layout and formatting, creating a collection of connected publications for the council...

Seriously bright branding can make you stand out!

AtotheZ Building Solutions wanted to go bright: and not just any version of bright, but neon. While it can be done, the downside to using neon is that it requires a bit of extra planning. Neon colours look great on screen, but don’t do well when printed on your standard home or office printer. Instead...

Flyer templates for quick communication

The humble DL flyer still has its place in our world – they fit in brochure stands, in mailboxes, on desks…and force us to keep details concise. Proactive Podiatry regularly use short runs of flyers to share important information with current and potential clients. We designed a flexible template which can be single-sided or double-sided...

Website design for Collective Action

We developed a website for Collective Action – a social impact consultancy – to feature their most important projects and publications. Each project is connected to a service category, as well as having a range of publications attached. The publications can be found by project or by publication – creating numerous ways in how content...

Website design for Schoolhouse Studios

Schoolhouse Studios convert disused buildings into collaborative, creative spaces for artists and like-minded businesses. They secured a new “old” building to move to – Coles in Coburg – and we redesigned their website in conjunction with their new location launch. The brief was to feel a little “cheap supermarket” as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the...

Right Choice Mortgages and Leasing: Brand Strategy

Starting from scratch, Right Choice Mortgages and Leasing wanted to enter the market on the right foot with a strong brand. For Right Choice Mortgages and Leasing, colour was important. Steering away from the standard corporate blue, a warm purple was chosen. The visual identity had to encompass their brand values: friendly, approachable and confident...

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