Hemingway

West Village

West Village: Akira

Thornton: Transforming Glass

Thornton: A Living Kitchen

Thornton: An Enviable Position

GemLife: Noosa Surf Festival

GemLife: A Whole New Life

Explore: Behind the Scenes

Living Gems: TVC

895 Ann

Riverside Centre

Amazi

Theola: Showreel 2023

Theola: Commercial Showreel 2023

Theola

Global Settings

Stendhal said, ‘a novel is a mirror walking along a road.’ Realistically a new brand, a project or development is just a story waiting to be told. Now that story can be a shallow ‘that’s nothing new’ kind of story, or a great story that is a reflection of its environment, with depth and clarity and an unravelling that 'takes you on a journey of discovery’. The key is finding a great insight that forms the foundation for your story. Sometimes finding an insight is observation, sometimes it's anecdotal, sometimes it's epiphany. But often, it’s just research. Hard work. Asking enough questions to find a unique intersection between a place and an audience, a project and those you want to consider it.

That’s why it’s worth investing the time and energy into, because if you can find the thing that makes your story great, it has the power to resonate with your audience and influence their behaviour. Less storytelling, and more story selling.

When Traders in Purple approached us to create a brand for their latest development at Scarborough, we dived into our usual due diligence: place, position, aspect, competition, benchmarking, lifestyle, architecture, design, features, audiences and mindset. We outlined what made this project special, unique and desirable – and then we looked for the intersection of these characteristics with our audience.

There is something timeless about Scarborough. Like stepping back to a simpler time. A place that highlights the things you used to enjoy as a kid. The important things, before we all started spending 3½ hours a day staring at a phone screen, and countless other hours staring at either a computer screen or a tv. Days spent outside, exploring, swimming, paddling, walking, biking, picnicking. Meeting up with old friends and sharing time and energy, making new ones. A real sense of connection and community. Outdoors, not indoors. The big calming influence of the bay, the slightly raw wildness of it that reminds you that you’re really alive. A sense of stepping back in time to ‘the good old days’, rediscovering all the things you loved doing before a career and responsibility, and children and meetings, and… not enough time for you. But also the ability to have an amazing contemporary home right on the bay, with spectacular panoramic views and every kind of desirable resort feature and experience. A sense of freedom, but also haven and sanctuary. Everything you’ve always wanted in a beautifully designed, luxurious new home, including the ability to ‘lock up and go’ on a whim. We realised that the project was an intersection of two powerfully juxtaposed ideas, ‘Nostalgia meets contemporary living,’ and this led us to our Brand vision insight, that the project was ‘A return to the best things in life.’

A new brand, a project or development is just a story waiting to be told. The key is finding a great insight that forms the foundation for your story.

Unpacking a creative jump-off point: Where do insights come from and why are they so important?

Naming is important, yes. But, as we know from looking at some of the world’s biggest brands, the choice of name is only a tiny piece of the picture. Exceptional brands aren’t created overnight. They are built over time. But they all begin with solid foundations and a clear vision that is articulated across all touchpoints, with bespoke branding, iconography, film, imagery, tone-of-voice and motivating marketing material that speaks to identified insights and resonates with the intended audiences.

A name is rarely seen without context – the supporting layers of brand and imagery that deliver how it is understood and appreciated. Take Kodak for example. The word was made up by George Eastman and is completely meaningless. He intended it to be an onomatopoeic suggestion of the click of a camera shutter. Not the actual sound. Just the suggestion. An idea captured in a word. Wonderful. 

Over time, with consistent application and reinforcement, a name takes on deeper meaning and social currency. This isn’t to say that brands based on a name remain static, they evolve over time, to stay current and relevant. 

At Theola, whichever name we choose, our intention is that it should always inform the visual identity, and leverage its unique personality and tone of voice, enabling it to build equity over time.

Naming is important, yes. But, as we know from looking at some of the world’s biggest brands, the choice of name is only a tiny piece of the picture.

What’s in a name?

Theola is a group of perennially curious, entrepreneurially minded professionals with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, insights and complementary skills. Our team, led by Grey Rogers, is a marvellous mix of multi-award-winning designers, illustrators, strategists, storytellers and story-sellers. Collectively we’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most exciting established companies and brands in the world.

While we’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, we always know we’re only as good as our next project. Whoever it’s for, you can be sure it will be uncommon and unforgettable.

Theola operates a full-service agency model, with in-house film production and editing. The team executes impeccably across every touchpoint. We brand the experience and elevate the offering, by creating an outstanding ‘brand in action’ with greater presence and exposure.

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Accolades

Client Carousel

We are a strategic design business for property, place and experience. We champion the uncommon to command attention, crafting compelling stories of space and place that people want to be a part of – at home, at work and out in the world. We do novel not normal, the exception not the expected. It’s about finding out what makes somewhere special and expressing it in a way that has never been done before.

Approach

Hirsch & Faigen approached Theola to develop the strategy, brand identity and marketing. The concept and design of the building was genuinely unique, cleverly using articulations (cut-outs) to reduce the buildings’ perceived bulk and dramatically enhance aspect. Instead of a conventional apartment approach with limited framed views typical of a square building, the project delivered wide-open views associated with a classic Queensland beach house – just in the sky.

This foundational idea formed the core of our strategic and design approach. We wanted to hark back to a golden age of beachside living, re-interpreted for a new generation of Palm Beach locals.

How do you explain a beach house in the sky? It involved getting our audiences to look with new eyes and discover something unique and wonderful. To change their perspective and rethink everything they thought was possible. To completely re-evaluate their perception of what a beachside apartment could be, and in doing so, transform their reality.

The Gold Coast city council objected to the natural concrete used in the exterior columns of the design as ‘too Brutalist’, so Rothelowman pitched the idea of tinting the concrete a light salmon pink colour - and that sparked the name. We christened the project Hemingway, after the romance of Havana in Cuba with its beautiful, muted pastel palette and the pink colour of El Floridita, Papa Hemingway’s favourite bar.

Theola always advocates for greatness, paying attention to even the smallest details to ensure projects stand out from the competition and attract a wide audience of qualified prospects. Hirsch & Faigen shared this dedication to bringing this extraordinary project, Hemingway, to life and trusted Theola to take an inspired creative approach to design and marketing. We engaged Israel Rivera to shoot the brand film and lifestyle imagery, Stefan Jannides to shoot the viewlines and backplates and Renderhouse to bring the project to life visually with renders.

In a world full of shining glass towers, Hemingway is a nod to the past. Unique in architectural design, it deserved an identity that mirrored this rare perspective and a strong, compelling brand that captured the attention of our audiences and stood out in the ever more crowded offering of beach apartment developments. All the Hemingway collateral demonstrated the idea of ‘reframing reality’, which became even more relevant and resonated with interstate audiences in Covid lockdown throughout the marketing period.

The Hemingway results speak for themselves. Prior to DA approval, 75% of the residences had been reserved with holding deposits. Once DA was received, enquirers were offered the opportunity to take their reservation to contract, prior to the public launch. This in turn drove urgency of action, word of mouth and increased enquiries. The one bedroom & three bedroom apartments sold out. We focused on promoting the remaining two bedroom apartments with targeted digital banners and they sold within the next week. For every buyer who declined to purchase their ‘reservation’, the Urban Activation team had prospective buyers in queues waiting for the opportunity. Two days before the Grand Launch event, all of the 78 apartments had been sold.

Services

Awards

Everybody wants the dream. The traditional beach house just metres from the sand. But who can afford the dream nowadays? Conventional beachside apartments often promise the dream, but fall short in delivery, with enclosed spaces tightly framing letterbox views.

For their first project, Melbourne developers Hirsch & Faigen intended to shake up the ‘same-same but slightly different’ beachside apartment formular and create a truly stand-out collection of apartments on 17th Avenue at Palm Beach in Queensland.

Inspired by the wide-open expansive views enjoyed by traditional beach houses with wrap-around decks, Rothelowman architects designed a slender residential tower with cut outs that dramatically expanded the indoor-outdoor experience and reframed the view-lines through to the ocean to deliver true panoramic views.

The brief from JGL was clear—deliver excellence through collaboration. The team brought together renowned architect Liam Proberts, chef Thierry Galichet for the kitchen spaces, art curator Phillip Bacon for gallery areas, and artist Ralph Wilson for exclusive artwork. This synergy added unparalleled value to each residence.

In the competitive $6 million market, exclusivity and prestige are key. With only 12 residences, Thornton offered unmatched value through unique features like a north-facing recreation deck and premium materials. The brand identity elevated Thornton beyond market expectations.

Design here is more than meeting requirements; it’s about storytelling. For Thornton, the aim was to create a compelling visual and narrative experience that resonated with potential buyers.

Thornton launched in November 2020 with an exclusive display suite. Within four months, 8 of 12 residences were sold, surpassing initial sales targets. Construction began in June 2022, with completion expected by the end of 2023, marking the project as a resounding success. With its stunning design, unparalleled features, and strategic branding, Thornton has set a new standard in the luxury residential market.

Thornton began with a challenge—a prime riverfront block with stunning views, occupied by a heritage-listed Queenslander. After two years of negotiations, permission was granted to move the Queenslander forward and construct a unique residential tower behind it.

Designed by Liam Proberts of bureau^proberts, Thornton features a breathtaking cantilevered structure with just 13 luxury residences, each priced over $6 million. The project demanded a sophisticated brand identity to attract discerning buyers.

Thornton

Marin inhabits an unrivalled, safe and quiet, bayside position on the leafy Landsborough Avenue Esplanade, right in the heart of desirable Scarborough Village. With a magnificent waterfront location and breathtaking panoramic views to the east across Moreton Bay, it represents everything that is quintessential to a coastal lifestyle. The brief for the Marin brand and visual identity was to harness the unique attributes of the project and its extraordinary position, to capture the essence of the place, the undulating coastline, the Norfolk pine trees framing the bay, beach, and sky.

Marin at Scarborough is an invitation to appreciate all the finer, simpler things in life. The project’s fluid exterior beautifully mirrors the undulating flow of the Scarborough coastline. Carefully considered details like the uniquely concave, not convex, balconies create and enhance privacy, delivering the feeling of inhabiting a rare singular residence with spectacular bay views. The visual identity and all the collateral had to complement and enhance the feeling of ‘coming home’.

How do we capture the essence of a place? Sometimes there are so many good things to convey, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one. Experience is everything. Understanding the things that crystalise an understanding of place, deliver the feeling of being within the moment and inspire a sense of belonging help to curate the experience and deliver an interaction that is both memorable and motivating.

Marin’s photogenic location enabled the brand identity to step back, be more refined and channel the key defining characteristics of the project, taking inspiration from the coastal location: the red cliffs at Scarborough, the sandy beaches and, of course, the iridescent blue waters of the bay. The brochure, with illustrations by Tom Abbiss Smith cleverly mirrored the iconic topography with its specially created die cut cover.

The project evokes a feeling of ‘nostalgia meets contemporary living’, inviting purchasers to enjoy a lifestyle that lets them return to the best things in life. With over 500 enquiries prior to the project going live and over 65% of the residences sold within five months of launch, it has been a resounding success.

Marin is Traders in Purple’s 12th project in the sought-after Moreton Bay Peninsular and they have a deep understanding of the region, tailoring each project to its unique environment, community and purpose. The brand and identity for Marin had to be strategically resolved, thoughtful and meaningful to the project and target market, and be complimentary to the coastal location and architecture.

Marin

Disruptive innovation is all about defining a problem, and thinking differently to come up with an elegant, innovative solution. Dexus is well-known for exceptional ‘inside the box thinking’, a dedication to continuous improvement and workplace evolution honed through years of experience. They know what works, why it works and how to keep improving it.

At Nine Brighton, Dexus thought outside the traditional commercial office category to deliver the unexpected – a truly boutique, superbly connected next-gen workplace within the Richmond ‘square’, Melbourne’s most vibrant village precinct.

The most important thing for a brand to focus on, is to be uniquely itself. The team at Dexus were absolutely on-board with Theola’s ‘exceptional not expected’ approach to the brand identity and collateral and so we reached out to talented Argentinian illustrator Ana Duje to bring her magic to the graphic language for Nine Brighton. It’s bold, vibrant and unique – quite like nothing else – a perfect match for this project.

Dexus approached Theola to create a unique identity, differentiated brand positioning and leasing collateral for their new bespoke ‘out-of-the-CBD-box’ next-gen workplace in Melbourne’s sought-after city fringe, Richmond.

Nine Brighton

The idea was less of a brief and more of an update ‘hey, this is what we’re thinking of doing next to add more value to our offering.’ We were equal parts impressed and excited, the possibilities were enormous. We couldn’t wait to come up with an identity and campaign to demonstrate the benefits to both current residents and, more importantly, to potential future residents, too.

We really wanted to champion of the over 50’s age bracket. This is their time, but no one sees them the way they see themselves, or talks to them in a way that resonates with them.

They don’t see themselves as old, or boring at all. Plain white motorhomes just weren’t going to be good enough.

We commissioned illustrator Owen Gatley to capture the diversity and beauty of Australia’s natural environment and create scenes to 3D wrap all the GemLife Explorers in.

XPLR01 was wrapped in the Daintree Rainforest illustration. The other motorhomes in the GemLife Explore fleet were then wrapped in other iconic Australian landscapes: from Victoria’s stunning Great Ocean Road, the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains, and the majestic Nitmiluk National Park in the Northern Territory.

The illustration-wrapped motorhomes are vivid, bright and vibrant, with an eye-catching energy – just like their occupants, young at heart, rich in time and eager to ‘Explore’ more of Australia.

The idea felt almost like a whole new, more ‘mobile’ GemLife, that deserved its own identity – and so Explore by GemLife was born. The Motorhomes on order were specced up and then upgraded to include all the mod-cons. But they still looked like ‘your ordinary average bright white motorhome’ and we knew they were so much more than that. Each GemLife Explorer was the very embodiment of the spirit of adventure – they needed to look the part with their own personality and identity. They also needed to be ‘mobile billboards’ for the parent brand, to be eye catching and inspire a curiosity and much broader awareness of GemLife.

What began as space-saving, capital-saving initiative has become so much more. Theola took the initiative to turn these top-of-the-line ‘Explorers’ into mobile billboards for GemLife, eye-catchingly wrapped in bespoke panoramic illustrations of some of Australia’s most famous landscapes.

Everywhere the fleet of GemLife Explorers goes, from scenic stops to caravan and leisure parks, like-minded travellers come over and ask about them. This opens up the opportunity to discover the GemLife brand through the people who live and breathe the benefits every day - ‘Explorers’ who are enthusiastic, optimistic and vibrant advocates for both the brand, and the ‘whole new life’ that it offers.

GemLife now has ten over 50s resorts across three Australian states, and demand continues to far outstrip supply.

GemLife has always led the way in providing the finest over 50s resort living. In fact, providing parking for residents’ caravans and motorhomes was one of the original things that made GemLife stand out from the rest. Countless residents moved into their GemLife resort and brought their motorhome, campervan or caravan with them.

But how often were these capital-intensive, high-value, assets actually getting used? The answer, as it turned out after a resident survey, was only occasionally – and for some owners, just once a year. So, the idea of having a fleet of GemLife ‘timeshare’ motorhomes, that residents could hire for up to three weeks at a time, was born. And we were asked to bring the idea to life.

GemLife Explore

The Rochester is the first residential development foray by Polycell, and their design intent and focus was on delivering a category-leading five-star residence, differentiated by two full levels of resident amenity. In order to bring their vision to life, they enlisted a core team of creators to deliver the finest location-specific architecture, interior design, project management, brand design and marketing. The position for the residential tower was considered and smart – within the quieter, tightly-held northern Broadbeach residential pocket of the Gold Coast, offering easy access to everything, parks, beaches, restaurants, shopping.

Differentiating a project when there are many, equally enticing, competitive offerings is rarely only a problem a superb brand can solve. In a comparison, purchasers are always looking for the ‘extra thing’ that elevates and differentiates the offering from everything else. When the ideal is to deliver the feeling of boutique and bespoke - but within a development with over 100 apartments, the narrative needs to change. In the curation of the Rochester, both the developer and project manager had a firm grasp on what was necessary to shape the perception of, and elevate, The Rochester.

The strongest benefit of the Rochester was that it offered two full floors of amenity. A wonderful resort-style recreation floor above the podium on level four with great views across Broadbeach Park. But in addition to that, on level 26, the exclusive residents’ club floor, with a hotel-like high level of luxury offered everyone access to Penthouse style panoramic views, regardless of which floor you lived on. The task was to highlight and encapsulate the exceptional apartment and sky home designs, interior fit-outs and smart layouts, but underpin this offering with the opportunity to live a truly extraordinary coastal lifestyle, within a residence designed to enrich, and enhance, your experience of every day.

The Rochester is an exclusive collection of luxury 2–5-bedroom apartments and sky homes towering above the Broadbeach skyline, with spectacular Pacific Ocean views. This opulent 39-level east-facing residential tower – designed by award-winning BDA Architects with interiors by Rothelowman Architects – offers discerning buyers a truly extraordinary coastal lifestyle. This is the very best of ultra-luxurious coastal living, with each detail designed to enrich, and enhance, the experience of every day.

The Rochester

We did a site visit to get a gauge of what was special about the property: 35 Simpson Street, Bardon. After all, Google Earth can only offer an impression, it doesn’t allow you to understand how long it takes to get there from the city and back in traffic (a surprising 12 minutes), or what the suburb feels like (optimistic, small and friendly), what it sounds like (quiet, with the sound of breezes whispering through lots of trees), what it smells like (crisp fresh air, hints of fresh baked bread from the bakery and a hint of coffee roasting). The development site was an old, oversized, slightly awkwardly sloping residential block surrounded by trees that looks down across Bardon and the city. Like a little island enclave hidden away behind the trees. We examined the plans and mapped out where the townhouses were going. They were stepped up the slope so that each would have unbroken view lines; ample space and the smart terracing would make them feel like each was its own entity rather than a semi-detached. You know a developer has got it just right when you find yourself thinking, “this is good, I could live here”. Now, how to we get others to feel the same thing?

No one needs a residential development. But everyone wants a home. Why do some houses sell for outrageous sums and others barely meet their reserve price? It’s because someone fell in love, literally saw their entire future ribboning out in front of them – and said I want this one. The decision went from a factual evaluation of a property to the emotional ‘it has to be mine’ value attached to a home. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that’s the very core foundation of every decision. We believe that’s a fundamental right.

Everyone has their own process for design. We start with naming and allow that to shape the design. We think wide, then we ruthlessly kill the obvious names. We pitch four with substantiation and an outline story.

They hate all of them. Back to first principles again. A sloping block, a hill, elevation, views, trees, breezes. You know you’re getting desperate when you start looking at other languages. But sometimes, it’s right there in front of you and it’s beautiful. The Scandinavian word for ‘an island within a larger area’ is Holm. It’s also a homophone – a word that sounds the same as another word but has a completely different meaning. So, it sounds like Home, but it’s much more visually interesting as a design.

Our Senior Designer Kevin Lam spoke to illustrator Makoto Funatsu and commissioned a series of images ‘of what it’s like to live in Bardon’. 

We also took the opportunity to build in a multi-generational approach to the brochure, with a tip-in section that told stories about the neighbourhood and delivered a feeling of belonging well before the townhouses were even built.

The client loves it. The agents love it. The public love it too. That’s a trifecta that has led to the project being funded by presales off the plan within 5 months and sold out soon after.

Residential developments are most usually characterised by their similarities to each other, rather than by the things that make them unique. But very occasionally - when we are given a brief and we pour over the initial design documents searching for traces of inspiration that will trigger a deeper story and begin the journey to a suitable name and identity - we are surprised by a developer’s approach to a build and the architect’s response to their brief.

Sometimes… its genius. And that in turn places a responsibility on our team to create an identity that allows the genius to live and breathe and be engaging without getting overshadowed by its identity. Instead, the identity needs to work to deliver a deeper appreciation and layers of meaning for something that only currently exists as hard drafting lines on paper, or an architect’s scribbled vision soon to be rendered.

Holm

Develop a strategy to differentiate Lauren Moore within her category and a bespoke brand identity and voice to make her business stand out.

When you’re very good at what you do, you’re sought-after. Lauren has an enviable reputation –and an experienced and highly capable team surrounding her, often doing the work in the background, but all her clients want ‘her’. Lauren wanted to create some distance between the demand for her personally and put more of a focus on the outcome provided by the entire team in order to grow the business.

We needed to take a brand built around a single personality and reframe it, strategically, visually and vocally, to be about the benefit of engaging the entire team. Theola started by outlining a new strategy and tone of voice for Lauren Moore, culminating in a new brand name, Moore Buyers Agency, that positioned the business for growth, along with a differentiated positioning that encapsulated the benefit of engaging the team: ‘Find the unobtainable’. The idea of ‘opening doors no one else can’ informed the identity and was elegantly brought to life with clean, elevated design and proprietary photography.

Unlike estate agents who act for sellers and landlords, buyer’s agents only represent buyers. They search for preferred properties, often off-market, on behalf of purchasers and investors, providing advice and managing the negotiation process through to a successful purchase. Lauren Moore approached Theola with the ambition to become the most sought-after buyer’s agency in Brisbane, with a clear focus on growth.

Moore Buyers Agency

Jubilee Place reinterprets and honours the uniqueness and history of its place, but signals the coming of a bright, prosperous and sustainable future. The Blight Rayner design breathtakingly cantilevers over the adjacent and fully renovated heritage-listed Jubilee Hotel and is a masterpiece of collaborative enterprise and engineering. The place identity needed to demonstrate a sympathetic understanding of past, present and future, acknowledging its roots, showcasing a dedication to extraordinary ‘collaborative’ design and socialising a new iconic meeting place underpinned by an open, inviting and accessible community ground plane and then rising and cantilevering over the existing heritage pub to create a new flexible campus style workplace for tenants.

Iconic buildings that amplify their urban context, with innovative design that re-evaluates a precinct’s historical or cultural heritage are few and far between. They are often seen as a symbol of cities that are racing on the global platform and are perceived as enhancing their attractiveness. Jubilee Place harnesses all the attributes of a future-forward iconic design that will reshape the Brisbane landscape, however it is situated within a still emerging precinct in the city fringe. The identity and leasing collateral needed to play off the buildings strengths and catch the attention of companies eager to stand-out by aligning themselves with cutting edge new premises.

Highlight the most iconic attribute of the project - the unique diagrid steel trellis structure - to draw attention to the back stories of engineering ingenuity, community placemaking and innovative workplace design.

Besix-Watpac, the company commissioned to build the iconic diagrid steel and glass tower, were so impressed with the design of Jubilee Place that they are making it their Brisbane headquarters. IWG Australia immediately snapped up all the podium floors for their Spaces brand to introduce flexible and collaborative workspaces enabling both tenants and surrounding corporates to flex and quickly satisfy the frequent spikes and subsequent reductions in head count space. Credit Suisse Asset Management were so impressed by the development as an attractive long-term investment that they added the commercial tower to their portfolio.

The world is already full of bland, functional, uninspiring buildings designed by committees. Jubilee Place is not one of these. Great architecture has always distinguished itself from other art forms because it plays a functional as well as an aesthetic role – being fit for purpose, but in the case of great design, also shaping our daily experiences.

Architecture also marks moments in time, capturing in stone, glass and steel the various layers of history that define the evolution of a place and there’s no better proof of that right now than the eye-catching and state-of-the-art new commercial building in Fortitude Valley, Jubilee Place.

Jubilee Place

The project had been in market for 6 months under the name ‘Domus’ (Latin for home) without any pre-commitment sales. Some of the renders were good, but more were needed. From our perspective, the project was a ‘start-over’. We began again with a clean sheet, starting with strategy & positioning, then exploring naming and then on to taking the approved direction through to identity, branding, display suite creation, and a full suite of sales collateral and digital marketing.

Birch Developments needed an engaging brand identity to differentiate their project in a crowded competitive property landscape. The architecture and interiors were well-proportioned and beautifully designed, with a focus on natural light and superb views. Unfortunately, the old identity was all people could see – it was overshadowing a project that deserved to be seen, evaluated from a new perspective and then appreciated for all of its intrinsic merits.

We renamed the project - a boutique development of just 20 apartments high above the city at Spring Hill - Cirrus, after the highest and rarest cloud formations in the sky. The Theola team created a refined, contemporary identity with multiple layers (much like passing through a blanket of cloud to be greeted by blue skies and the sun above) that delivered on the brand promise of ‘city living elevated to an artform’ underpinned by the positioning ‘High above it all’.

Theola completed the rebrand in January 2021 and the project was relaunched as Cirrus in the middle of March 2021. In just over a month, 7 residences had sold. The project is now sold out and currently under construction.

Property development, and marketing, is always an exercise in detail. When creating a successful product to drive desire and preference over competing properties, there’s no room for cutting corners. Everything has to be perfect: from the developer’s profile and reputation to the choice of site, neighbour engagement, architectural and interior design, to the renders that will bring the project vividly to life and enable potential buyers to visualise the development and help them fall in love with what might be their new home. Birch Development’s project had everything going for it, but their previous design studio ‘missed the mark’ with naming and the branding didn’t reflect the superb opportunity the development represented. Theola was asked to reframe and rebrand the project to reach pre-commitment.

Cirrus

In a cluttered over 50s resort category, Living Gems had to stand alone, look different, speak differently (clearly, honestly) and showcase the irreverent attitude of its target audience, with humour and insight.

We needed to demonstrate that Living Gems provides a more enjoyable, connected, easy life than the one our target demographic has now. To help them grasp that it’s not just an affordable alternative to retirement living – it’s so much more (a new home, affordable, undemanding lifestyle, easy-going community) for so much less than they think.

Theola was engaged to evolve the Living Gems brand to be clearly differentiated and relevant to the desired target audience.

The Living Gems brand needed to evolve to become visually distinctive and sought-after. The evolved brand is a nod back to the best times in our audience’s lives – prior to having kids – and inviting them to return to those golden days – invoking a sense of ‘good times’ nostalgia and vibrant fun.

We reinterpreted and updated the Living Gems brand device: ‘The Bloom’ and now use it like an asterisk (which normally highlights that there is additional information not contained in the headline), but by supersizing the ‘bloom’ we have been able to flip the paradigm, helping our audience realise there’s more to Living Gems than they realise – and unlike traditional small print – we’re not hiding anything.

Our new proprietary brand photographic style puts a priority on warmth and tone, with unusual angles that feel ‘snap-shot-ey’ and place the audience directly in the moment. It’s now a clear and unique perspective that is refreshingly honest and differentiates Living Gems in the market.

The new flexible design system allows any coloured logo to be used over any image, allowing the brand to stay fresh and relevant ongoing.

The messaging and tone-of-voice was also updated and tailored to be more relevant and motivating to our audience. Headlines highlighted the benefits and prompted re-evaluation by being deliberately challenging in an irreverent way: ‘No entry fees. No exit fees. No more excuses.’

Once we developed the new brand visual identity, tone-of-voice and messaging, and socialised and marketed it across multiple channels, we were able to build a bigger, brighter more inviting picture of what Living Gems resort living was all about and enquiries soared. Living Gems experienced a dramatic increase in website traffic and enquiry after launch, and a corresponding increase in sales.

Living Gems was established in 1982 to be an affordable alternative to retirement living, a land-lease community with no stamp duty and no entry or exit fees - providing affordable, quality homes and great facilities. Fast forward to 2022 and the saturation of the market by other ‘over 50s resort providers’ and the competitive landscape was getting cluttered, hard to navigate and easy to get lost in.

Living Gems

‘What’s a commercial building doing hiding between two residential towers then?” Well, we thought we’d go and take proper look at the site. It didn’t take long to notice that ‘Stratton’ was diagonally opposite the Triffid, so we stopped in for a beer and a ‘foundation catch-up’. ‘It’s the business’, I said. Mike replied in his Northern England accent, ‘but it’s not like anyone else’s business’. And there we had a jump-off point.

‘We’d better make it stand out then if its hidden away.’ I said.

Mike replied, ‘I’m thinking… Orange...’

‘Orange is good… symbolises success… creativity.’

Mike took another sip of Stone & Wood, ‘Oh, I was going for bright – you know it’ll stand out…’

Commercial building brands are traditionally… blue, Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk-ish. Stratton wanted to shake that up, to be the workplace for the movers and shakers. We came up with ‘the new rules of business’: When everybody zigs… zag; Build something you believe in; Collaboration is the new economy; Employee wellbeing is business wellbeing and, Get in first and prepare to be copied. The irreverence of the headlines needed a brand identity that was maverick but masterful, that set a strong foundation for every piece of collateral that would follow.

Stratton broke all Silverstone’s records for Leasing Suite visits. 22 target tenants took personalised tours and Silverstone Developments were in final negotiations with a single tenant to take the entire building when Mater Private approached them with an offer to purchase the boutique commercial building.

Stratton began with the developer asking, ‘what if’. What if you didn’t want your business to be the same as everyone else’s? Where would you go? What would you look for?

Stratton

The brief was to make it edgy and non-traditional – and we knew the design approach we wanted to take to bring to life – making it all about the location and visualising the unbelievable amount of cool stuff around this part of town, then matching that with a tone-of-voice that was irreverent to make the copy and headlines have as much character as the building and its location.

The area around Flinders Street Station is incredibly well serviced but… gritty. It’s practically the last place suit-and-tie corporates would normally search for work premises – so who would want to work here we asked ourselves?

Well, people who are looking to stand out, who are the trend-starters, start-ups, idea generators, early adopters. The cool crew. The identity had to make them sit up and take notice.

We started with naming based around the key locator, the street address - but with a younger & edgier slant and so Studio 276 was born. The client said, ‘make it great’. We took that to mean this was our opportunity to create a visual identity boldly different for the category.

Being a Brisbane-based design agency, wherever possible, we like to collaborate with locals on projects. No one knows a place like someone who calls it home, and Melbourne is all about authentic experiences, local secrets and insider knowledge – we needed an insider to help deliver the full Flinders experience visually.

Working with local illustrator Ellen Porteus, we created a vibrant and energetic vision of the Flinders Street area – a three-dimensional illustrated map of Melbourne.

The logo reflected the modular nature of the building designed by Baldasso Cortese – light, space and industrial materials coming into play to create a dynamic environment over multiple workspace levels.

The brochure’s irreverent tone of voice and striking visuals delivered the attitude of the building with the aim of attracting prospective tenants in spades.

Studio 276 was completely leased within a month of the project going live.

Fivex approached us to create an identity for ‘a funky new extension’ to an existing building in the cultural heart of the Melbourne CBD at 276 Flinders street. It used the same entrance as the existing 276, but the new space was accessed by taking the lift up and then entering via an enclosed, elevated walkway. They really wanted the space to feel unique, new and edgier than the existing building, to appeal to non-traditional corporates, creative industries and younger businesses. Location was the biggest driver – the space was brilliantly connected being just across the street from Flinders Street Station.

Studio 276

Convince big corporates that a move to One Middle Road would be better for business, attracting and retaining staff and lead to better productivity because it offers a much better work-life balance. So many corporate C-suites make the ‘new premises’ decision without consulting staff – but staff vote by resigning and moving where they want to work. Now with WFH the new normal, commercial towers have to be places people want to work (not have to work). One of the challenges we had to overcome for Chadstone was that everyone only knew the ‘weekend’ Chadstone (at Christmas), fighting to find a car park, thousands of people, crowded, get-in-get-out. But the weekday Chadstone is completely different, thousands of free car parks, superb wellness precinct, lots of cheap eats, fresh food, supermarkets and a much shorter commute, plus new A-grade plush offices for less than corporates were currently paying. So, cost saving and benefits. All the things that C-suites look for and employees look for, too.

Great workplace design is about ensuring that the people who use it love turning up, engage with the workspaces and their colleagues more easily and frequently – and dare we say it – actually find it easy and enjoyable to spend more time at work.

But what if great workplace design didn’t just begin when you arrived at work? What if it could make your whole life better, not just your work life better? A shorter, easy commute, freeing you up to do the school drop off, or an exercise class in the morning. Going against the flow of traffic, cutting stress and saving you a day each week in travel. Moving from hard-to-find expensive daily parking, to plentiful parking that’s free. Transforming your experience of work from have-to, towards want-to. A concierge to make like easy. Easy public transport access, EOT for green commuting, childcare onsite. And flexible, premium A-Grade workspaces, with smart contactless technology that improves safetyand saves both energy and time, improved allowances for fresh airflow, indoor and outdoor meeting, recharging and working spaces.

We needed to paint a compelling picture of a great workplace, not just fit for purpose – but built for exceptional convenience, enhanced wellbeing, productivity, engagement and great business.

Put the focus on the people, not the product. Sell the benefit, not the attribute. With a diverse spread of audiences, from Tenant agents, C—suite decision makers, through to staff, we needed a bold visual language that conveyed all the benefits of One Middle Road clearly, quickly and boldly. We came up with the positioning ‘Convenient for every you’ and then brought that to life across all the touchpoints necessary to drive awareness, consideration, socialisation, acceptance, take-up and pre-commitment.

With many Melbourne companies’ workforces used to working from home and reluctant to ‘lose a day a week’ by returning to a daily CBD commute, One Middle Road couldn’t have come at a better time. One Middle Road’s first tenant - leading homewares retailer, Adairs, secured more than 5,500 sqm of combined office and studio space in December 2022, meeting the precommitment threshold. Construction is now underway and due to complete in 2024.

Chadstone Shopping Centre, known colloquially as ‘Chaddy’ is the biggest shopping centre in Australia and one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. Owners Vicinity are committed to innovation and increasing their area of influence in order to grow their audience.

The next phase of transforming the shopping centre into a proper mixed-use precinct was to more closely integrate a new commercial tower within, or in this case, above the shopping centre – giving staff direct access to the centre and increasing the weekday audience for the retailers within the centre. We were engaged to develop the brand, identity and pre-commitment leasing comms.

One Middle Road

Reinterpret, reformat and reinvent ‘Merivale Residences’ in such a way that our audiences would be motivated to action. We were commissioned to sell more than just 138 apartments – but rather a vision, a brand, a lifestyle.

The ideal home is one that enables you to be the very best version of yourself. That surrounds you with all your favourite things. It is a mirror of who you are and what you want most in life. It allows you to do all the things that you most enjoy, that make life fulfilling. It is the perfect reflection of both your present and your future self. The brand identity and associated collateral needed to paint a picture of a future-forward tower within a rapidly evolving, incredibly vibrant suburb with a desirable city-side location.

South Brisbane is one of the fastest developing areas in Brisbane, with a swathe of property developers flooding the market with off-the-plan apartments. This new identity had to stand-out in a crowd of sameness. We renamed the development ‘Akin’ – meaning ‘similar or having the same properties.’ - which allowed us to make the focus of the apartment tower singular, about the buyers, their wants, needs and dreams. We positioned Akin as ‘A mirror of who you are and what you want.’

The beautiful, benefit-led identity, and tactile larger than life & visually delightful broadsheet brand brochure in a fine paper grade along with a carefully considered and executed sales suite has resulted in over 85% of the 138 apartments being snapped up within five months of the launch. Construction has commenced and stage two – selling the premium apartments on the higher levels – has now begun, with sales tracking exceptionally well.

Theola was approached to reinterpret a large residential project that had already been taken to market under the name ‘Merivale Residences’ with underwhelming results. On paper, the architecture was impressive, the location superb and the amenity smart and considered, but the brand identity was cluttered, derivative and polarising.

The existing name, ‘Merivale Residences’, based on its street location, aged the development and reduced its appeal to the young professional ‘Metrotech’ audience we knew would make up the majority of our audience. The bones and physique of a great development needed a bespoke suit that would showcase and highlight its inherent characteristics.

Akin

JGL are more than just developers, they are creators, innovators, collaborators and solution seekers. But most of all, they are doers, actively searching for and nurturing opportunity, anticipating the future and implementing projects to make their vision a reality.

JGL wanted their identity to reflect what it means to work with them. They’re dedicated to building a better Brisbane, through creating buildings & communities - both residential and commercial - with character, depth and longevity. Their new positioning ‘Places made of character’ formed the foundation for the new identity and the visual direction.

JGL actively aim to create a point of difference in the market and their outcomes demonstrate a long-term commitment to excellence. They continually exceed expectations, and their new identity, website and collateral needed to visually deliver on this dedication to excellence in a unique identifiably JGL way.

After JGL had brought a swathe of exceptional development projects successfully to completion, they decided to re-evaluate their brand identity and collateral to ensure everything in and around JGL was consistent in purpose, and in appearance, too.

JGL Properties

True to their legacy of pioneering excellence, Hirsch & Faigen chose to make Emerson more boutique in size at just 27 residences but presented with a thoughtfully considered collection of amenities: a ‘work-life’ lounge leading off the lobby perfect for ‘work-from-home’ days, along with a residents’ sun lounge and resort-style pool recreation deck. The brief was to elevate the offering and entice an audience who could afford to live anywhere to make Kirra their new home, or beach home-from-home.

With a more considered, slightly older audience demographic either making a sea change or downsizing to live on the coast, we knew that we needed to deliver the feeling of a place that felt like an extraordinary place to call home, a place they could put their own stamp of individuality on. We worked very closely with Render House Studios to develop a full suite of renders that showcased a sense of unique individuality through interior design and art curation, rather than the normal ‘beige’ approach to renders. This, matched with photography and film that delivered on the positioning ‘sanctuary within’ and underpinned by a refined visual identity mark, brought the intrinsic characteristics of the development vividly to life.

With a large mixed-use resort and residential complex development, Miles Residences at Kirra Point, just across the road providing an exceptional mix of modern lifestyle accoutrements, Emerson just needed to concentrate on playing to its strengths, offering a very boutique selection of exceptional residences to owner-occupiers who wanted a rare coastal home that offered a distinct sense of sanctuary and seclusion.

After the runaway success of their first development, Hemingway at Palm Beach, Hirsch & Faigen chose a prime park side location on the southern Gold Coast at Kirra for their next project Emerson, a truly boutique edition of luxurious residences.

Emerson’s half floor residences were swiftly snapped up and the development is now sold out.