Wyong Council - The Art House

In December of 2015, Wyong Shire Council engaged Headjam to collaborate on launching a Performing Arts centre in Wyong called ‘The Art House’.

Our role was to Brand and communicate the new centre as the significant space it was, for regional NSW. The Art House’s development is an incredible mark of commitment from the local population and council, and demonstrates their view of the importance of performing arts for regional areas. The venue itself strengthens the local area of the Hunter, Newcastle and the greater Central Coast area as a cultural destination within Australia.

Headjam’s task was to provide a creative solution to position The Art House clearly in a competitive Performing Arts venue market, ensuring it had national recognition alongside prestigious contemporary art spaces, such as The Glasshouse in Port Macquarie or ACMI in Melbourne, and also for it to appeal to a diverse audience of residents and visitors.

Position ‘The Art House’ and the region on a national stage, by developing a Brand identity and internal culture that will attract some of the best performances and talent available within Australia.

We had to consider various target audiences for this project:

+ Residents of Wyong and surrounding regional areas

+ Art audiences

+ Performing Arts sector, artists, companies, event producers and commercial entertainment companies

+ Conference, event and incentive organisers

+ Potential hirers: local business, educational institutions

+ Potential philanthropic and donors, including commercial partnerships

A strong cultural future for the region.

Everything we designed was designed to ensure that the response from those visiting was ‘What an incredible experience and venue’.

The Art House was pitched to be a ‘Contemporary Performing Arts and Conference Centre’ that would feel comfortable through daytime activities, and equally would come to life at night. It would be an active place rather than just a building, with an energised and youthful program, and it was this that we wanted to reflect within our creative.

The Art House Brand is multi-faceted. The Brand identity needs to communicate professionalism and sophistication, yet be accessible and welcoming to the wider community. To achieve this, we developed the core logo so that it maintained a classic art institute feel with simplicity and esteem that communicated a level of quality and professionalism, but also to show a confidence by inhabiting this distinguished territory.

By being playful and vibrant through the logo context and application, we worked on creating a striking Brand mark that is not only elegant and durable, but remains energetic, relevant and contemporary through flexibility of treatment.

We took inspiration from light and colour; the fact that they are inseparable from one another and form our visual experience of space and performance, as well as taking cues from the architecture of the building for the icon to visually tie everything together.

Through considered application of the Brand colour palette, graphic devices, production assets, animation and experiential exercises, we achieved a Brand identity with both a styled fluidity and a professional high-end edge.

Once the Brand identity was created, we were able to create visually appealing collateral, signage, poster templates and a website that brought all facets of this unique project together, presenting one solid and beautifully Branded space both online and offline, when you visit in person.

The Branding created by Headjam has received an outstanding reception from customers of The Art House. Overwhelmingly, their in-house team have been complimented on the Branding, which has made its way across posters, uniforms, marketing materials, social media and the current digital environment on the Central Coast Council’s website. It has been variously described as smart, cool, very sophisticated for Wyong, and clever, with the use of the distinctive shape of the building as part of the logo.

It was so incredible for Headjam to hear that the Branding has played a critical role in instilling pride in all of the new staff at The Art House and in setting a sense of quality about what they do and deliver in their jobs.

Since The Art House opened in May 2016, they have successfully hosted over 80 performances and workshops and had tens of thousands of customers through their doors.

The theatre has received hugely positive feedback from customers who are thrilled to have such a state-of-the-art facility in a regional area, that would easily compete with other theatres at an international level.

Huge congratulations to the Central Coast Council (formally Wyong Shire Council), for such a successful and progressive venue, and for supporting Arts & Culture at such an important regional level. The Headjam team thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration and are looking forward to collaborating more in the future.