SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) are one of Australia’s most prolific broadcasters of free-to-air multi-cultural content across digital, radio and television. They hold a unique position in the Australian media landscape with a mission to encourage all Australians to explore and celebrate art, culture and diversity and SBS regularly sponsor many kinds of events to promote their goal. We were asked to create branding for this contemporary Australian Art Award; including the name, logo, application and merchandise.
Our objective was to create event branding which aligned with the cultural mission of SBS and would help promote the event and showcase the selected artists. We wanted to suggest that the contemporary art world in Australia is as diverse and rich as the material that SBS broadcast. It was important our design would be simple and flexible enough to bring the event to life without overpowering the work of the showcased artists.
Our idea for naming the event came from our realisation that the word ART is actually contained within the word Australian. By reversing the ‘R’ in the centre of the word and overlaying a picture frame we encourage people to see the word. The square frame also subliminally connected to the event location at Federation Square in Melbourne. The logo was an elegant and simple solution from which we designed a modular compositional structure to showcase the artists within posters, brochures and event merchandising.
