EducationBrand StrategyBrand IdentityDesign Systems

ArtRise by Hume City Council

A community co-created brand for Sunbury's first dedicated arts and cultural precinct, rooted in Country and shaped by the people it serves.

ClientHume City Council

SectorEducation

EngagementStrategic Delivery

CapabilitiesBrand Strategy · Brand Identity · Design Systems

The Challenge

A place once defined by stigma

Jacksons Hill in Sunbury carries deep significance: as Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, as the site of the former Sunbury Asylum, and as a place long held in the hearts of the local community. Hume City Council set out to open its first dedicated arts and cultural precinct there.

The brief was to create an identity that honoured this complexity while speaking to everyone: First Nations peoples, young families, local artists, entrepreneurs and cultural newcomers alike. It had to feel rooted in place, drawn from the site's landscape, heritage materials and architecture, while remaining inclusive and forward-looking. Broad appeal and cultural depth had to coexist, welcoming all without flattening what the place means.

A site carrying layered, sensitive history, from Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country to the former Sunbury Asylum.

One brand had to speak to First Nations peoples, families, artists and newcomers at once, without hierarchy.

A complex stakeholder landscape, from council and state government to local creatives and First Nations communities, with no shared identity.

What We Did

The community led the way

A name and tagline the community chose.

Phase 1 - Authored together.

The community led the process. Through extensive engagement, including collaboration with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, anchor creative groups and a Community Advisory Board, the name ArtRise and the tagline "Gather, Connect and Create on the Hill" emerged as a collective voice. Hume City Council formally endorsed both in September 2025, in recognition of what the community had already chosen together.

Phase 2 - Rooted in place - A brandmark and palette drawn from the Hill.

The brandmark is built from three symbolic layers: the Human, the Hill and the Meeting Point, representing people, place and the act of gathering. Its organic, radiating form draws on the Aboriginal heritage of the land and the physical rise of Jacksons Hill. A four-colour palette of Basalt, Yellow, Terracotta and Green comes straight from the precinct's architecture and natural landscape, so the land itself is the primary author of the identity.

Phase 3 - Built to be owned - A system non-designers can run.

A brand system connects print and digital, with scalable logo lockups, clear co-branding standards for Hume City Council and the Victorian State Government, and a living Version 1.0 guideline covering voice, typography, colour, photography and rollout. Ready-to-use templates let community groups and council staff produce brand-aligned communications on their own, without specialist support.