Tech Central

Exposing the beating heart of Sydney’s innovation

Innovative approaches and a pioneering spirit aren’t new to Sydney – its relative distance from the rest of the world has always necessitated a canny resourcefulness, and its unique connection to the Asia Pacific region has long provided a wealth of opportunity for the bold.

But when local tech unicorns like Canva and Atlassian started to mature into global industry titans, the New South Wales State Government, the Greater Sydney Commission, and a cooperative of tech and education partners recognised just how much there was to be gained from uniting and presenting central Sydney’s collective innovation offering on the world stage. In 2021, this culminated in the creation of Tech Central – a newly designated tech and innovation district in the heart of Australia’s largest city.

With lofty goals of attracting 25,000 students, supporting new scale-up companies, creating 25,000 innovation jobs, and facilitating the creation of 250,000 square meters of dedicated office space, and tasked with representing three world-class universities, a world-leading research hospital, over 100 research institutes and countless hungry start-ups, the new brand needed to have grounded style and ferocious energy – which we achieved by embracing its position in Sydney’s cultural centre.

One district, six neighbourhoods

Part of the challenge of distilling the essence of the district was its immense diversity. Tech Central encompasses six distinct neighbourhoods – Surry Hills, Haymarket, Camperdown, Ultimo, South Eveleigh and Darlington North Eveleigh. The new brand had to synthesise each’s character and sense of place without losing what made each unique – as well as communicating and elevating the impressive activity happening within each, from fin-tech to deep-tech and e-Health.

Shaped by those it represents

Given the enormous amount and sheer breadth of activity going in the area, authentically representing it meant vast stakeholder engagement and collaboration – including with NSW Government (Greater Sydney Commission, Investment NSW, Transport, Sydney Local Health District) City of Sydney, Inner West Council, University of Sydney, University of Technology, TAFE, Atlassian, CSIRO, Cicada Innovations, Carriageworks, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, and many local business leaders.

The urban type

Tech Central’s iconic logotype has its origins in a typographic expression of the city streets and blocks – and it comes paired with a matching monogram, that is streamlined while still incorporating both the C and T.

Uniquely handcrafted for Tech Central, the bespoke, variable logotype is easily available for use by the precinct community – and it’s supported by the highly accessible Public Sans, an open-source Google font. The combination of both ensures legibility while still allowing for impact and recognition – and this range enabled us to use typography as a leading element of the brand.

Tech at the speed of culture

We needed to reflect the diverse communities with deep historical routes, we needed to present an attractive potential home for future industries and we needed to justify interest in international investment. That’s a lot of thematic ground to cover – thankfully, we were able to construct the identity with that much flex (and more) by embracing the deeply, unapologetically urban collision of people, place, culture and innovation.

The city life represented through type and language is designed to capture the mood, sounds, and senses of those urban moments taking place within Tech Central – and because Tech Central (uniquely for a tech precinct) is right in Sydney’s cultural heart, it’s all true-to-place in its depictions of an innovation precinct with an energy unlike any other. Visually, it’s designed to feel like a city in constant flow and action – and the language structures used allow for genuine stories of success and progress from the area to become vital through lines to follow through the brand executions.

A layered tapestry of place

All elements of the visual identity progressive layer on top of each other to create a rich tapestry – with photography featuring diversity of people, industries, lifestyles and location; typographic expressions of the city moments bursting through; an approach to motion graphics evoking a city in constant, flowing motion; and a palette that crackles with undeniable energy.

Helping to blur the lines and integrate the brand into the community is its partnership and collaboration model, which accommodates the ecosystem of brands and organisations that already exist within the precinct – including the University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Canva, Atlassian, Cicada and Airtree. The model allows each of these organisations to be clearly represented while also contributing their own presence and momentum to Tech Central as a whole. 

In fact, it’s a microcosm of the entire project – combining the energy and success of every member of the precinct community, to collectively push Tech Central (and Australia’s contributions to innovation on the world stage) forward.