Primary Works brands the South East Centre for Contemporary Art with a contextual, custom typeface — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design
On the southeast coast of Australia sits Bega, a small town known for its scenic landscapes, delectable food and wine, and a thriving local arts community, poised to grow. To connect Bega’s art scene with the wider world of art, culture and ideas, the town’s existing art gallery underwent a dramatic transformation to become the South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), a conduit between the remote, beautiful region and the rest of the world.
The building, which was previously closed off architecturally with a concrete wall, was opened up by adding windows and openings to the existing façade – the thoughtful work of Sibling Architecture. This architectural redevelopment marked a new chapter in the gallery's journey, driven by the director's vision for a new kind of cultural space in the region. The gallery reached out to Primary Works, a design studio based in Sydney, to craft an identity to complete this story.
There were a few jumping-off points for the studio – the first was the new architecture of the building. “By opening up the façade and revealing the spaces within, the reimagined design for the building allows the local community to connect with the space from the adjacent town square, turning the gallery into an extension of the town’s civic space,” Creative Director Ross Paxman tells us. “We wanted to reflect this idea with a display typeface that spoke to the idea of ‘opening up’ an existing boundary, so the stencil became a logical choice.” The display typeface became the heart of the new identity – echoing the many sweeping, rounded forms within the building’s design and floor plan that inspired the circular, geometric letterforms.
It was also designed to be modular and lend itself to deconstruction when needed, a nod to SECCA's focus on programming that disassembles the conventions of regional galleries, spaces which aren't typically expected to be “very progressive or boundary pushing” adds Paxman. “We wanted the identity to feel like it was dynamic, contemporary, and able to break apart and come back together, much like the ideas that the space would be showcasing.” In the identity, the custom type does much of the talking. “We approached type designer Wei Huang to assist with refining our initial sketches of the font, and he added a more humanist touch to the construction which gave it more distinction and nuance,” says Paxman. The team paired the display typeface with the quiet confidence of Everett, used for smaller body copy and longer headlines throughout the brand.
Colour added to the story as well, with the studio selecting a palette of a sunny yellow, a grassy green and sky blue. The yellow was picked from the bright, golden yellow awnings around the windows in the façade, and the green and blue were chosen from the rural landscapes that surround the town.
The gallery’s positioning as a place for community is felt in the design of the website, with its ‘salon hang’ landing page. “We wanted the website to eschew the convention of a singular exhibition or artwork presented as the ‘hero’ on the landing page, and instead allow for a multitude of content to be featured – events, exhibitions, news updates, and so on. The core idea was to turn SECCA into a place not only for art exhibitions but for cultural happenings of all kinds,” shares Paxman. To do this, the team created a nimble layout system that hints at the look of the ‘salon hang,’ or perhaps a community notice board, with a range of images and content appearing alongside each other, but in this case, never jostling for space. “This approach captures the diversity of SECCA’s offering and allows them to highlight different aspects of their programming as time goes by, always adaptable and evolving,” notes Paxman.