NorthSite Contemporary Arts

A sense of place

KickArts held a proud 27 year history as a boundary-pushing artist collective formed in Cairns in the early 1990s. Envelope’s brief? Create a new name and identity to better reflect the KickArts legacy and connect with a broader audience.

Arts & culture
  • Brand strategy
  • Brand identity
  • Communications
  • Website
New beginnings

Envelope conducts a stakeholder workshop in Cairns to understand the valuable insights of KickArts’ founding members and its current board. Reflecting the maturity of the organisation and its broader reach beyond Far North Queensland, Envelope helps garner consensus around a new name — NorthSite Contemporary Arts.

The community’s artists are at the heart of NorthSite’s new brand architecture. Grainy portrait photography is offset against a spectrum of colours chosen by the artist, selected from a palette encapsulating the environment of Far North Queensland.

Exhibition catalogues and labels, shop merchandising and promotional signage are all designed for NorthSite’s own team of capable artists and designers to produce with autonomy. An Envelope brand toolkit provides straightforward guidelines should questions arise.

A new digital home

A comprehensive website and online store is created by Envelope, cataloguing NorthSite’s artists, exhibitions and events — as well as allowing its on-site store to reach new audiences. To ensure a trouble-free launch, Envelope produces extensive user documentation and provides online training to allow NorthSite’s team to keep visitors up-to-date.

Ty and his network of highly skilled experts are considered, prompt and effective. They are an asset to our redevelopment and provided us with structured advice in adopting a new brand. Graham’s skilled advice before and after the launch of our new website ensures that this critical channel is always humming.”

— Ashleigh Campbell

The site allows NorthSite’s artists to shine and connect with the community, and the wider world.

The natural beauty of the reef and surrounding tropical rain forest had to be part of the new brand identity — their unique colours are a powerful differentiator in a world of otherwise stark white galleries and the ubiquitous black sans serif.

Working with Envelope was a conducive and rewarding experience that allowed us to further unpack our new strategic vision and create a strong brand that is entirely flexible and able to be adapted to suit the needs of the organisation now and growing with us over future years.”

— Ashleigh Campbell