We are a strategic design agency working with organisations and brands that require creation, launch Over 80% of business value is intangible. They’re partners.
This is where we operate. We’re a nimble team of intuitive thinkers who truly ‘get’ the needs of our clients. In fact, we don’t consider them clients at all. We understand their business strategy as if our own. We create enduring, bespoke and effective brand solutions that deliver results. We make the intangible, tangible. We may be young, but our key partnerships go way back. Founder, Stuart O’Br
Delighted to hear we are up for 9 nominations at this years Best Design Awards. 3 nominations for our beloved Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast. 3 for Plan Partners and 2 for our campaign with Melbourne Quarter. Congrats to the other finalists, and excited to hear how we go over the ditch later this year.
02/08/2026
NEW WORK
Excited to share our work for Plan Partners – a special one for us.
For anyone who’s tried to make sense of NDIS funding, you’ll know the feeling: a wall of paperwork before you’ve even accessed the support you need. Plan Partners exists to lift that weight. So, we set out to build a brand that reflected the calm and clarity they bring to customers’ every day lives.
Calm by Design became the idea behind it all: with a system drawn from the familiar tools of planning – highlighters, notebooks, pens, sticky notes – designed to bring confidence and sense of organisation rarely seen in this space.
Huge thanks to our collaborators on this project who ensured that accessibility was the rule, not the exception:
📸 Chris Gurney Chris D’Cruz Gurney B&A AUSTRALIA, who captured portraits of real customers with the kind of individuality and empowerment rarely seen in this space.
✏️ Olivia King Olivia King, for a custom wordmark built from Inclusive Sans – a typeface so tied to Plan Partners’ purpose it was an easy call.
✍🏼 Lisa Park Lisa (Kyung Jhin) Park, who brought our toolkit to life through hand-drawn illustrations.
FINDING THE SOUND OF AUSTRALIA
Brand Australia’s sonic identity started with a challenge.
How does a nation sound? How do you make a country recognisable through sound, the same way it is through colour and symbol?
The answer began with BALARINJI who designed the Nation Brand Mark and worked alongside Houston to roll it out in 2022:
a visual identity telling the story of Country through flowing waterways, flowering wattle and ancient songlines. The Brand Mark’s sentiment, yamulhu awara ambirriju, was created by Balarinji from the Yanyuwa language of Borroloola in the Northern Territory. It means “good country up ahead, good feeling for the future.” It’s about Australia’s deep Aboriginal heritage and the nation’s irrepressible optimism.
Last year, Houston was asked to bring that same story to sound, a brief we felt honoured to be part of. Building on Brand Australia’s visual identity, we developed a suite of soundscapes alongside Smith & Western Sound and Balarinji: Bush and Rainforest, Billabong, Desert Night, and Ocean and Harbour. Each one built from kookaburra and magpie calls, crashing waves, a crackling fire, alongside everyday expressions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture used with respect and care: clapsticks, didgeridoo, bull roarer, voices.
To honour the project, we commissioned digital artist Sai Karlen Sai Karlen to create a visualiser that weaves identity and sound together. Each note of sound, creating a node of motion.
Built to flex across various mediums, each soundscape runs from a 12-second signature to a full 3-minute composition, grounded in 65,000 years of culture, tuned to a nation moving forward.
Hi Hello 👋🏼
Exciting news! We’re looking for a Senior Designer to join the team.
🖤 You’ll have 6+ years experience
🖤 Have good experience in building brand systems big and small
🖤 Comfortable combining strategy and craft
🖤 You’re curious, collaborative and passionate about bringing iconic brands to life
Full time. Sydney based, four days a week in our Surry Hills office.
Send your folio to [email protected]
29/06/2026
Meet Amanda Szylo-Duncan, our new Chief Strategy Officer.
Curious, collaborative and always ready to dive into complexity, Amanda brings a wealth of strategic thinking to Houston. We’re so excited for what’s ahead.
Welcome, Amanda!
05/06/2026
Last week the creative team got together and took themselves offline and offsite.
Part 1: We workshopped our role in a changing creative industry. Where we’re heading, what we’re making and what kind of work we want to do next.
Part 2: After a few hours of big thinking, we handed the reins to Kubi at Sydney Collage Society and went back to something more tactile. Scissors, paper, glue, equestrian books 🐎. No screens. No prompts. Just making something with our hands, together.
Honestly the perfect one-two. 🧠 ✂️
22/04/2026
Say hello to Rachel, our new Midweight Designer!
We asked her five questions to introduce her properly. Swipe to see her answers.
Welcome to the team, Rachel! 🖤