The husband and wife duo that makes up Studio Round has a substantial portfolio working on cultural and hospitality projects, and now sees placemaking as a key element in the future of branding.
Studio Round began in 2003 when graphic designers Michaela Webb and Robert Nudds – partners in both work and in life – moved back home to Melbourne from London and decided to set up their own studio. With experience working with the Tate, Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Guggenheim Museums, their specialisation led to a significant first client in Melbourne – the National Gallery of Victoria, which, at the time, was preparing for its reopening on St Kilda Road. “There wasn’t a huge strategic driver when we first started, but as we moved through the years, we’ve become much more strategic about where we want the business to go and where we see the studio going in the future,” explains Webb. “At the beginning, it was really about doing great work and being able to apply fantastic thinking to the work that we did.”
After several years working with the National Gallery of Victoria on exhibitions such as the French Impressionists, The Dutch Masters and Picasso, Studio Round began to work with new, cultural clients such as the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, the Venice Biennale and the Bendigo Art Gallery. From there, working in hospitality, including with Andrew McConnell on Melbourne restaurants 312, Cumulus, and Cutler & Co, Webb and Nudds developed a fascination with the importance of placemaking. “We realised the thing we loved doing the most was defining what a destination is and looking at how to make places,” says Webb.
One example of this is the branding of Hotel Hotel, a hotel and destination in Canberra that Studio Round worked on a few years ago. “It has become a destination – people will go to Canberra for a weekend to visit Hotel Hotel. That was the whole goal, to understand what’s needed to create those kinds of destinations,” she says.
The team has also worked with the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) – who owns a number of shopping centres – on a new strategy that is about defining and making places. “We explored how you make places that have civic uses, places that have outdoor space, places that are diverse in their nature – not just about leasing square meterage,” says Webb. This is particularly true in retail, where experience design is vital. “In the digital age of shopping, people’s needs are less and less about where we shop and more about the experience that places can offer us.”
