NAU by Design by Toko, Australia

Opinion by Richard Baird

NAU is a new Australian furniture brand created by the premium designer furniture and lighting retailer Cult, and features work by futurist designer Gavin Harris and Adam Goodrum, a designer that believes an object justifies its existence through story and detail. Design by Toko worked with Cult to develop name and create a logo and brand identity for NAU that would extend across business cards, stationery, brochure, exhibition stand and website. This is inspired by Australia’s unique and diverse landscapes, and expressed through compelling photography by Brooke Holm, and using a broad colour palette.

“Our influences are unique from the rest of the world, and we have no design ancestry with which to adhere. We utilise and embrace our extreme natural landscapes and unique materials, from closed canopy forests to dense dry bush and open rolling plains. We are free to immerse ourselves amongst this, and as a result have carved out a resourceful, hands-on and open-minded design culture.” – NAU

BP&O looks for ideas and stories, expressed in an intelligible and concise way. The correlation between the copywriting above, the landscape photography of Brooke Holm, and colour palette establish a compelling story, rooted in provenance and encapsulating both design philosophy and materials. Clase bcn’s work for Enea and Raw Color’s work for Arco employ a similar approach, yet the results are wildly, and appropriately different.

The highlight, and the real differentiating qualities of the work lie in photography and colour choice. Brooke Holm’s images manages to capture the tones and textures of large unspoilt landscapes. There is a strange and almost designed quality to these in colour, shape and contrast. These are used effectively to punctuate the brochure dividing content, and make a very clear and emotive connection to Australia, the way landscape shapes both people and materials. Although each individual image is compelling, what really works is the diversity of image, a unique feature of the continent. This is captured and distilled down by Design by Toko in the breadth of the colour palette, and the horizon-like quality of their linear compositions across stationery.

Other highlights include the continuity established between landscape photography and the art direction of product photography. There is a pleasant relationship between the natural environment and the built environment in texture, but tension in the organic and the structured, a neat analogy for the materiality and form of the furniture.

The approach to wordmark shares the balance of colour composition, particularly in the mirroring of the N to form the U. Lowercase lettershapes, generous spacing and type proportion on the page are current with a strong sense of arrangement and space that correlates well with modern interior design, alongside the distinctive colour, forms and focal point of feature furniture. This works particularly well online, with a strong relationship established between print and digital experience.

Cult’s original desire was to bring European design to Australia. With NAU it intends to bring Australian design to the international market. NAU’s visual identity feels like an interesting articulation of this exchange, in type and layout, in colour and image. More work by Design By Toko on BP&O.

Design: Design by Toko. Photography: Brooke Holm. Opinion: Richard Baird. Fonts: Maison Neue.

What do you think of Design By Toko’s work for NAU? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or get the conversation started on Twitter.