Graphic design studio SPGD on balancing its corporate and lo-fi aesthetic

Date
1 July 2019

In the heart of one of Melbourne’s trendiest neighbourhoods lies the graphic design studio SPGD. Refined, sleek and considered, the Victoria-based studio is at the forefront of beautiful Australian design, working across a number of creative services from branding and design strategy, to photography and campaign collateral. Its variety of clients range from architects to modelling agencies with the likes of Arno Store and Solaris Paper under SPGD’s belt of graphic design sophistication.

“The studio is made up of a small team of three and has been operating for five years now,” explains Mara Tonetti, studio manager of the design studio. “The focus of the studio revolves around branding and identity development, trying to balance aesthetic and execution between corporate and lo-fi design.” And for this reason, the founding designers tend to develop their own logotypes to produce the exact feelings that are in line with this methodology.

“We enjoy creating work that has a solid system and structure,” explains Mara on the studio’s distilled grid-based output. Blending the line between art and systems, the studio shares three recent projects with us. For international architecture practice Bone, SPGD created an elegant brand with a little help from Blaze Type’s Apoc. And with two other branding projects for Commonplace and Trit, the Australian studio demonstrates its panache for creating unique brand identities while documenting the designs with bags of flare.

“We are a tool to help our clients realise their vision, not boost our own egos through design,” SPGD goes on to tell It’s Nice That. “We listen to our clients and help them realise a shared vision for the execution of the project.” For the trio of creatives, recurring key words pop up again and again, helping to outline the studio’s fundamental design ethos: “restricted freedom, process, structure and placement.” In turn, these terms act as a reminder to explore what the designers love to do within design: “We love to explore how materiality can be used throughout branding to enhance the two-dimensional aspect of graphic design. And this is why we like to be involved from the start of a project to the final printed execution.”

Above

SPGD: Commonplace

Above

SPGD: Commonplace

Above

SPGD: Commonplace

Above

SPGD: Trit

Above

SPGD: Trit

Above

SPGD: Trit

Above

SPGD: Bone

Above

SPGD: Bone

Above

SPGD: Bone

Share Article

About the Author

Jyni Ong

Jyni joined It’s Nice That as an editorial assistant in August 2018 after graduating from The Glasgow School of Art’s Communication Design degree. In March 2019 she became a staff writer and in June 2021, she was made associate editor.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.