As part of its benchmark Revitalising Central Dandenong initiative, VicUrban joined forces with Mission Australia to create a community fashion space where local youths and aspiring young artists could gather to design, make and sell bespoke clothing. To bring the space to life, promote its offering and convey its distinctly hip urban attitude, VicUrban approached us to create a suitable name, brand mark, and visual language.

Our key aim was to create a modern, simple and memorable identity for this truly unique and inspiring community workspace one that would not only appeal to, and entice, potential participants but would also drive community awareness about its presence via word-of-mouth. Due to the ‘start-up’ nature of the space and its understandably limited budget, the key challenge was to create an identity that could be rolled out and implemented in a cost-effective way: from business cards and signage to coat hangers and interior design.

The brand mark and visual identity for ‘Wearhouse’, not only hit the right note wit and attracted significant interest from the target audience (local youth in the community with an interest in fashion and design), but also helped garner much needed support and funding from local organisations and businesses.

Linking the warehouse space with its fashion function we called it ‘Wearhouse’ and designed a logo that combines a wire coat hanger and house icon to create a simple and sophisticated mark. Echoing the mark, we also crafted a typeface that appears like it’s made with bent wire. To link raw elements used in the space directly with the brand, we then created sewing kit business cards. Letter-pressed on thick brown card for added authenticity, each card was then hand-wound with spools of thread in colours representative of Dandenong’s multicultural community.