Tasmania is a dynamic place. As an innovative, modern economy it offers unparalleled opportunity and diversity, which is crowned by an iconic, ancient landscape. Our people are proud and resourceful, creating a vibrant community that has a place for everyone.

The State Sphere represents a unified Tasmania, moving forward with harmony and balance. Inspired by the people, it’s a reflection of Tasmanian identity that becomes complete through individual interpretation and experience. Conceived as a symbol of optimism, it delivers to the government and the people a new vision for the future.

Like Tasmania itself, this is an identity that looks to the future. Inspired by the timeless sense of place that Tasmania offers, it exists as a fluid, dynamic symbol which constantly flows, pulses and cycles. It is tailor made for the age of digital communication, creating an evolving and engaging icon. One that can reach out and connect with an audience, reenforcing our true identity across all types of media and out in the real world. Reflecting the state’s natural innovative instinct, this change in approach proudly leads the way on the national and international stage.

When viewed in context around the state, the symbol quietly reminds you that you are in a place like no other. You are at home. It is intended to represent the efficient delivery of services that we expect from our government, but it goes beyond that, giving back the ownership and pride in these services to the people that they truly belong to. It doesn’t prescribe any one single definition or meaning, extending well beyond politics and allowing every Tasmanian to create their own story about what it means, and how it reflects on their own Tasmanian experience.

Several key ideas from our initial visual research resurfaced in this concept, in particular the notion of reflections within landscape and the Aurora Australis phenomenon. When considering reflections, the image is never static, it is fluid and graceful. These ideas of reflection also relate closely to our ambition to create an identity that feels native. It should feel like it has originated from and remains with, the people of Tasmania. While it can be argued that as a government brand it should not necessarily represent a sense of place, being Tasmanian we understand the influence of the landscape over it’s people, and believe that for our audience representations of environment are more than just images of hills and sky.

The circularity of the symbol and its fluid edges further reinforce the idea of an island that is both outward looking, yet contained and self-sustaining. The strength of the circle imbues the symbol with a formal gravitas.  The harmonious forms within subtly reflect infinite movement and create a vibrant sense of rhythm.

The Primary typeface is Founders Grotesk by New Zealand typographer Kris Sowersby. Founders Grotesk is typical of Kris’ typography in that it is human in tone but also technical and precise, these are all qualities that help to define the tone of the identity. Subtle nuances can be found throughout the typeface that are in many ways similar to those is hidden in the essence of the Tasmanian culture and people.

The colours used in the identity are vibrant, modern and aspirational. Informed by the findings of our colour poll, we carefully selected colours that we knew were evocative of a positive expression of Tasmanian wilderness. They are clean and pure without feeling earthy or old. The overlapping of forms to create new colours is a critical aspect of the symbol that represents the idea of communities, cultures and economies combining meaningfully.

Looking back on the process so far, our first creative presentation responded directly to the the rational dialogue we captured through the research phase. Of these options, the most warmly received option was the most modern, demonstrating to us the collective desire to move past literal, pictorial expressions of identity. This was a validation of our initial instinctive response, and very much helped shape the State Sphere concept.

Photography courtesy of: Tourism Tasmania (John de la Roche, Glenn Gibson, Sean Fennessy)

In response to our first creative pitch, we’ve also experienced some healthy feedback, both positive and negative, which has been invaluable. To our slight surprise, the poll results for the creative pitch have mirrored the previous poll findings, which suggested the Tasmanian Devil is a marginally more popular state symbol than the Thylacine.

More importantly, there is a genuine hunger to find a more contemporary, less pictorial expression of Tasmanian identity, as shown by the relative popularity of the partially abstract “Innovation State” concept, which experienced a winning 45% of the total votes. We received passionate and well reasoned feedback particularly from fellow designers, some of which argued that we didn’t go far enough to discover any new ideas. This is a criticism we cop on the chin, mindful that the first round of ideas were creative expressions of rational opinions, collected through the open forum.

Right now, we are putting the finishing touches on a concept which has evolved out of the Innovation State idea, inspired by everything the project has thrown up so far. It’s a solution we are proud to put our name to, and one we believe is a comprehensive response to the brief. Thanks for being a part of this process, check back soon for our latest creative pitch and your chance to shape the project.

I was trying to join the dots last night between progression/tradition/landscape in a uniquely Tasmanian context……and an artist (and former teacher) who has long been an inspiration to Southsouthwest came to mind: Raymond Arnold. These images never seem to loose their potency for me. Ten years since first experiencing his work, it is still how I imagine the Tasmanian landscape. Whilst the process of etching and depiction of raw geology are almost timeless, the graphic, brutal nature of these images talk directly to the contemporary world.