Blog - June 2009

It’s not often that a design agency gets the opportunity to put a face to a nation. This was exactly the challenge that Icon.Inc faced when it was appointed to create the new brand identity and website design for Australia’s national portal website, www.australia.gov.au.

The six-month project, conducted in concert with our partner Acceleration, had a surprisingly simple brief: create a new online brand identity for the Federal Government’s main information portal and apply this to the website design.

To meet this unique branding challenge from many angles, Icon.Inc created a project team that included both web and graphic designers. Working to Icon.Inc's iterative design methodology, the masterbrand identity was progressively refined and reworked in line with departmental committee feedback.

Once the brand identity was approved, Icon.Inc’s web team then began work on the portal interface design. The final project outcome was a comprehensive online brand styleguide for www.australia.gov.au to ensure the brand’s longevity and integrity.

See www.australia.gov.au

Splendid is a youth-arts initiative developed by the Lismore Regional Gallery and partnered by Splendour in the Grass and the Australia Council. Splendid is made up of a series of Arts Labs, forums and commissions for young and emerging artists at the frontier of contemporary ideas creation, cross-artform collaborations and audience participation.

As Splendid's media partner, Icon.Inc was engaged to develop the project brand and visual identity, design a funky and youthful web site, and advise on the use of social media. Splendid was promoted through partner web sites, targeted banner ads, a Facebook group, and a leaflet drop around universities and artist hang-outs.

The results speak for themselves: Splendid is garnering rave reviews and generating considerable industry buzz thanks to some snazzy brand work by the Icon.Inc design team.

See Splendid for yourself.

Leading contemporary dance company, Chunky Move, is celebrating the launch of its new website.

Designed by Icon.Inc in close collaboration with the client, the site incorporates video and audio from Chunky productions to create a dreamy, surreal user experience. 

Deceptively simple and elegant, the site features highly sophisticated programming and a powerful, custom-designed content management system. A streamlined information architecture and updated content are also featured.

Chunky Move Artistic Director, Gideon Obarzanek, said the organisation was delighted with the new website. “It is so beautiful on every level and we are immensely proud that the site represents so well who we are as a company, our aesthetic, our style and most importantly, our work,” he said.

Icon.Inc has been a lead sponsor of Chunky Move since 2002.

See www.chunkymove.com

Our interactive team are in the final stages of launching have launched Icon's new web site. It's a complex mix of Flash, video, action script and guarana. Well done guys - a truly legendary effort! christo