Graphic Designer, Dirk Hiscock, discusses creating the Melbourne Now brand.
The Melbourne Now brand we have developed utilizes a distinctive colour palette; considered typography and black and white architectural and spatial imagery to articulate a consistent and iconic graphic language. It will be developed across marketing material, publications, web, signage and support collateral to establish a recognisable brand in the market place.
Typography
- The typeface Berber was used for the masthead (this font was created by Niels Oeltjen (2003), Lan Huang (2011), purchased through Stephen Banham, Letterbox). Berber is available in two weights. It was chosen because it is a solid, contemporary display face for headings, mastheads etc.
- The secondary font used is Regular, by Danish Typographer Henrik Kubel. This font references many designer favourites (Memphis, Scarab, Futura) but is equally quirky and intriguing and sits well with Melbourne as a city and community. Regular is very comprehensive with seven weights to draw from for body copy, captions, venue details etc. The roundness of this font complements, and differentiates it from the condensed Berber.
Imagery
- The Melbourne Now exhibition represents hundreds of practitioners across a broad spectrum of media. Given such diversity, we focused less on artworks, but rather on places, spaces and moments.
- The typographic branding approach is backgrounded by black and white architectural images of Melbourne, creating a sense of locale.
- These images are abstract and moody rather than literal, and are drawn from images of both buildings, NGV International and NGV Australia, and from sites in and around the city.
Colour Palette
- A black and yellow colour palette was developed. The combination provided the greatest contrast and readability in the public environment. Yellow can also be seen as representative of Melbourne through icons such as the DCM freeway entrance to Melbourne, the Yellow Peril, Melbourne Cabs, tram stops etc.
The finished brand is mainly typographic with strong graphic elements. Black and white architectural imagery is used to layer artwork, creating intrigue while referencing themes from the exhibition.