Description:

Established in 2021, Tech Central is a newly designated tech and innovation district in Sydney, Australia. A collaborative effort by the Government of New South Wales, The Greater Sydney Commission, and a large number of tech and education partners, the district brings together six neighbourhoods that are already home to some of Australia’s most exciting startups, world-class universities, research institutes and unicorns such as Atlassian and Canva. Think of it as Australia’s answer to silicon valley.

The district is positioned at the intersection of culture, arts, tech and education. Some of the long-term goals are to attract 25,000 students, support new scale-up companies, create 25,000 innovation jobs, and facilitate the creation of 250,000 square meters of dedicated office space. We needed to create a brand to unite this diverse area and reveal this underlying tech/innovation side of Sydney and its ability to compete with the rest of the world.

Connecting up the ecosystem of government, education and tech with the broader community, the identity is open-source, providing the multitude of partners and residents with free access to all assets. The streets of Sydney are turned into a digital type world of movement and change, through a bespoke variable typeface. A monogram provides a simplified representation of the C and T.

Typography allows us to tell the stories and capture the vibrancy of all the happenings within Tech Central. We do this through the combination of the custom graphic streetscape inspired typeface along with the very accessible and open-source Public Sans. The combination ensures legibility with impact and recognition. These are layered in with the vibrant tapestry of the city people/place/culture/innovation through typographic stories and eclectic imagery of the city. A growing tech and innovation image library is enabled by the contribution of all the partners within the district.