We have just received some photos back from the super amazing Peter Bennetts, of the signage & environmental graphics we developed for Balencea.
Balencea is a boutique residential tower on Melbourne’s leafy St. Kilda Road promenade. Büro North were engaged to create a design that would complement the work of Architects Wood Marsh. A pattern was developed based on the plan of the building, and a corinthian column, which informed the logotype and set the framework for signage, patterned screens and environmental graphics throughout the building. The large logotype signage at the front of the building stands around two meters high and creates an elegant, almost abstracted entry statement to Balencea.
My wife (Kate Pears) is working with the UN at the moment in Kenya, Nairobi as part of a United Nations sustainability initiative. So, I have ended up having a little adventure through Dubai, Nairobi, Lamu and Lewa for the past two weeks, heading home today… Its been an amazing trip, Kenya is absolutely stunning in diversity and culture. Lamu has an incredible mix of Omani, African and Portuguese history, with tiny little alleys, no vehicles with all transport on the water.. Lewa Downs is where the safari shots are from, never thought I would be walking a few meters away from an extremely dangerous Rhino, real fear but amazing experience… Anyway, some holiday happy snaps below;
This dynamic, image-heavy brochure was created with a focus on promoting the position of 1000 Latrobe Street within the overall context of Melbourne’s CBD. A ‘macro to micro’ approach was taken, showing first the broader context with a graphical map, then zeroing in on the site and it’s immediate surroundings through a series of striking photographs and punchy copy lines.
Only 12 pages long but large in scale (A3), the brochure is printed on heavy paper stock and bound with an exposed cheese-cloth binding. It is, in itself, a robust object which conveys strength and confidence and commands attention.
It’s so intoxicating when someone with amazing concepts, sound rationale and expressive communication delivers their ideas. This video by Bjarke Ingels presents a range of complex ideas so precisely (aside from me not understanding Danish) that the outcome seems almost obvious and extremely convincing. Bjarke Ingels is the Director BIG Group, whose manifesto states that “Architecture seems to be entrenched in two equally unfertile fronts: Either naively utopian or petrifying pragmatic. We believe that there is a third way wedged in the no mans land between the diametrical opposites. Or in the small but very fertile overlap between the two”. Its an idea that resonates strongly at Buro North with reference to our design intent of “fusing creativity & pragmatics to generate visionary design”…
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