Shrine of Remembrance

Initially the Shrine sought a proposal on an integrated approach to communications and opportunities for audience engagement, online and offline. The objective was to enhance brand positioning and clearly articulate what the Shrine brand is, and what it stands for—then position messaging to engage its audience and build deep personal connections.

We sought to explore the imperatives of the brand refresh. To inspire. To question what exists, evaluate what works, what doesn’t, what’s useful, usable, engaging and what could be more so. The brand needed to be evolved to reflect a deeper understanding of community perceptions and needs. To be more relevant, more memorable, more engaging, more accessible to a diverse audience and more contemporary.

Importantly the key stakeholders were engaged in the process to ensure a clear vision and unified understanding of the importance and benefits of the change, which was ultimately embraced. The new brand consolidates the Shrine’s brand essence drawing from the iconic form and features, continues a proud history and embraces the beloved landmark’s shorthand name.

When you arrive at the entrance to the Shrine you discover a message inlaid into the concrete wall; ‘ANZAC is not merely about loss it is about courage and endurance and duty and love of country and mateship and good humour and survival of sense of self-worth and decency in the face of dreadful odds’. Profound, inspiring, reassuring and relatable.

Through extensive exploration we evolved the Shrine’s brandmark to strengthen its presence across all marketing communications. We shortened the public facing brandmark to its colloquial name —‘Shrine’; easier to say and read, quicker to digest, and ultimately more memorable. This contemporary evolution maintains existing brand recognition, increases legibility, has greater utility and is unmistakably the 'Shrine’. We built a brand language that is highly adaptable, inclusive and impactful; a robust system to enhance ongoing campaigns and marketing material to capitalise on the landmark location in central Melbourne as a unique destination to inspire and position the Shrine as a place to discover and explore.

Based on the iconic building’s forms and features the evolution of the brandmark presents a refined, contemporary icon, which honours the pure proportions, strength and form of the architecture and creates greater legibility and consistency. It capitilises on truth and embraces the simplicity in the colloquial name familiar to all Victorians whilst maintaining a connection to its traditional roots.

The lines and forms of the icon, particularly the horizontal and vertical lines, are drawn from a robust grid. The iconic architecture of the Shrine manifests in a graphic language of stepped shapes. These stepped graphics represent transformation, growth and community. From this simple idea we build a flexible graphic system extending beyond a traditional logo. The elements combine to create an energetic, impactful, thoughtful and memorable visual language; both contemporary and traditional. Its flexibility provides perpetual utility and expression across variable applications allowing the brand to evolve and maintain a robust visual presence. Frames and borders can also be built from the grid, taking cues from other parts of the architecture. The concept of a frame showcases the stories and images of Australians in war and peacekeeping, bringing to light their experiences in a respectful, honourable, engaging and contemporary way.

The Shrine’s enduring purpose is to be a memorial honouring the service and sacrifice of Victorians and Australians in war, peacemaking and peacekeeping. It engages more than one million people annually as visitors and participants in their commemorative and education programs.

Uniquely Australian stories of resilience are profoundly relatable, especially today as we contemplate a post-COVID world. The new brandmark provides a reinvigorated platform to help the Shrine continue to re-connect people locally, nationally and globally in a shared and meaningful way, and play an important role in continuing to inspire cultural and social connections. It provides an enduring capacity to share the Shrine’s stories in a engaging, exciting way and enhance its reputation. It also creates a platform to leverage the full potential of the Galleries, support the delivery and promotion of a range of commemorative services and deliver programs that meet community needs and expectations. To grow, enhance and enrich the visitor experience.