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    SoudCoh

    Place branding and public art Designed to still be right in ten years.

    Place branding, public art and civic publishing, made for real weather and a whole community. Cultural protocols from the first sketch. A paint specification with the artwork. Source files and a conservation plan at handover.

    Brief us on your commissionSee the work

    Division 05 of five · A 71m × 9m civic mural developed across 36 concepts · Capital city public art commission · 2026

    Inside the commission

    Seven ways civic
    creative goes wrong.

    None of these are exotic. They are what we find when a council asks us to look at why the last one did not last, and not one of them was visible at the presentation.

    • Mood boards presented as directions

      Three collages of somebody else's photography is not a choice between three brands. Until a direction has been drawn on the actual cover, the actual sign and the actual vehicle, nobody is really deciding anything.

    • Designed on a screen, installed in weather

      North-facing walls take a decade of Australian ultraviolet. Colours that sing on a calibrated monitor go chalky in eighteen months if the paint system was chosen after the artwork instead of alongside it.

    • One reading distance considered

      Civic work is read at two hundred metres from a moving car, at twenty metres from the footpath and at two metres by somebody waiting. A composition that only resolves at one of those fails at the other two.

    • Cultural protocols added at sign-off

      Bringing Traditional Owner protocols in once the concepts are finished turns a relationship into an approval queue. The right time is the first sketch, when what is heard can still change the work.

    • Four brochures telling one story four times

      Separate publications for separate towns, with different voice, different photography and different maps. The region ends up with four half-stories and a visitor with none of them.

    • No source files at handover

      A flattened PDF is not a design system. Without the working files and the fonts, the next poster gets made by whoever has a copy of Canva, and the whole thing unravels in a season.

    • No plan for year three

      Nobody budgets for the touch-up kit, the annual walk-through or the graffiti response. Then the wall is tired at year four and the answer is another commission rather than a maintenance day.

    How we design it

    The site is the brief, and the weather is the deadline.

    Civic work is judged from a moving car, from the footpath and from arm's length, in every light, for a decade. Those constraints are the design problem — they are not limits placed on it afterwards.

    • 71 m

      × 9m main wall

      The largest single canvas we have worked to, plus a 54m × 3m low wall, with scallop, downpipe shrouds and mature tree shade as design inputs.

    • 36

      developed concepts

      Across eight thematic families on one commission — each fully developed, not sketched, so the panel chose between finished ideas.

    • 6

      times of day modelled

      A day-curve report showing how the palette behaves from dawn to dusk, because a mural is lit differently every hour it exists.

    • 10 yr

      conservation handover

      A polysilicate paint specification, touch-up kits and an annual walk-through option, written into every public-art commission.

    • 32 pp

      A5 visitor guide

      Saddle-stitched on 100% recycled stock, consolidating four standalone town brochures and the previous guide into one publication.

    • IDML

      source files handed over

      Print-ready PDF/X-1a plus editable InDesign source on every publishing engagement. The asset belongs to the client, not to us.

    So the directions are drawn, not collaged.

    Every direction we present has already been put on the actual cover, the actual billboard, the actual town-entry sign, the fleet and the merchandise, at real scale and in real context. A panel choosing between three of those is making a decision; a panel choosing between three mood boards is guessing.

    It is also cheaper. Almost every expensive change on a civic project comes from something nobody could see at approval stage — a colour that goes flat at dusk, a sign that cannot be fabricated, a word that should never have been on that wall.

    Two commissions

    Capital city public art commission

    36

    Fully developed concepts

    Across eight thematic families for a 71m × 9m wall

    Capital city public art commission

    10 yr

    Conservation handover

    Polysilicate paint specification and touch-up kits included

    Regional Victorian shire · visitor brand

    3 wks

    Ahead of deadline

    $24,800 fixed fee · a 32-page A5 Official Visitors Guide

    Figures are taken from the engagement records for those commissions and are dated 2026. They describe what was scoped and delivered on those projects, at those fees — not a forecast for yours.

    Eleven things happen on a commission. Here they are, in order.

    This is the part most studio pages keep vague, and it is the part that decides whether the work is still working in year seven. So it is written down.

    1. Read the site before the brief

      Orientation, ultraviolet exposure, vehicle approach speed, tree shade, existing signage, the physical interruptions in the wall. On one commission the scallop and the downpipe shrouds became the composition rather than the problem.

    2. Start cultural protocols at the first sketch

      Traditional Owner, RAP and Cultural Heritage Plan protocols apply on any project that draws on Country, from concept stage. What is heard has to be able to change the work, which means asking while the work can still change.

    3. Option-space widely before narrowing

      Eight thematic families, thirty-six developed concepts on the largest commission we have run. Breadth first is cheaper than a redesign, and it means the shortlist is a genuine choice rather than a preferred option with two decoys.

    4. Test at all three reading distances

      Two hundred metres, twenty metres, two metres. Every hero concept is rendered in full streetscape context at scale, so the thing that gets approved is the thing that gets built.

    5. Model the light before choosing the palette

      A day-curve study across six times of day, so a colour that reads confidently at midday is not chosen without knowing what it does at dusk in mid-winter.

    6. Specify the paint system with the artwork

      Polysilicate systems for masonry exposed to ultraviolet, specified alongside the design rather than sourced afterwards. The specification is what makes a ten-year handover an undertaking instead of a hope.

    7. Visualise every direction on real applications

      The guide cover, the billboard, the town-entry sign, the fleet livery, the social kit, the merchandise. Three full directions, each drawn end to end, rather than mood boards with a preferred option attached.

    8. Run creative through five gates

      Concept, cultural, accessibility, production and legal. Each gate has a named owner, and cultural review runs through an Indigenous reference pathway rather than an internal opinion.

    9. Design for the fabricator, not the presentation

      Signage drawn to the substrate, fixings and tolerances the local fabricator actually works in. A beautiful sign that cannot be made within budget is a mood board with a quote attached.

    10. Produce to print standard

      Print-ready PDF/X-1a with bleed, trim and colour separations checked, on stock chosen with the printer rather than specified at them. On the visitor guide that meant 100% recycled and saddle-stitched.

    11. Hand over the sources and the maintenance plan

      InDesign IDML source files, fonts, the paint specification, the touch-up kit and the conservation document. Whoever holds this in year seven should not need to call us to keep it working.

    How an engagement runs

    From the site walk to the conservation document.

    1. Weeks 1–2

      Site and story

      We walk the site, read the existing style guide, and talk to the people who will live with the result. Cultural protocols open here, not later, on any project that draws on Country.

    2. Weeks 3–5

      Option space

      Thematic families explored broadly, then developed rather than sketched. On a large commission that has meant thirty-six concepts across eight families before anything was narrowed.

    3. Weeks 6–7

      Three full directions

      Each visualised end to end on the real applications — cover, billboard, signage, livery, social and merchandise — at all three reading distances, with a day-curve study on the palette.

    4. Selection

      One direction, five gates

      The chosen direction goes through concept, cultural, accessibility, production and legal review, each with a named owner, before any production artwork begins.

    5. Production

      Print, paint and fabrication

      Print-ready PDF/X-1a to the printer, paint specification to the applicator, signage drawings to accredited local fabricators, with a proof or a sample approved before any run.

    6. Handover

      Sources and conservation

      InDesign IDML source files, fonts, the paint specification, the touch-up kit, and the ten-year conservation document with an annual walk-through option.

    The fee is fixed against the scope before work starts, and the source files are handed over whether or not there is a next stage.

    SoudCoh Compound™

    Creative work leans hardest on two of the six stages.

    Compound is how our team works on any engagement — six stages every change passes through. A commission puts most of its weight on these two.

    • Mandate

      You set the number before we spend the money.

      Scope, fee and deliverables are fixed in writing before the first sketch, which is what lets a council put the commission on a pricing schedule. The visitor-brand engagement was quoted at $24,800 fixed and delivered three weeks early against it.

    • Countersign

      Nothing goes to production with one name on it.

      Five gates — concept, cultural, accessibility, production and legal — each with a named owner. Cultural review runs through an Indigenous reference pathway, because a wall in public is not somewhere to discover a mistake.

    Read all six stages

    Three commissions. All still standing.

    A regional visitor brand, a 71-metre civic mural and a twenty-concept brand kit for each of ten regional mastheads. Cultural and council clients appear by sector and jurisdiction only.

    Regional Victorian shire · Local government · Wimmera region, Victoria

    Complete · 2026

    Direction A — Wide Sky

    Direction A — Wide Sky · wheatbelt palette + Fraunces / Geist type

    1 / 10

    A regional visitor brand and 32pp Official Visitors Guide.

    The shire needed a tourism-facing visual system that consolidated four standalone town brochures plus the existing Visitor Guide into a single A5 publication, with town-entry signage for four towns — without replacing the council logo or corporate style guide.

    Fixed fee
    $24,800

    Fixed fee

    Ahead of deadline
    3 wks

    Ahead of deadline

    A5 visitor guide
    32 pp

    A5 visitor guide

    The problem

    Four towns, four brochures, one missed opportunity.

    The shire's tourism story — wheatbelt skies, the Silo Art Trail, Pink Lake, the Wimmera River — was being told four separate times in four standalone brochures with inconsistent voice, photography and wayfinding.

    Our approach

    Three full directions, one A5 guide, one signage system.

    Wide Sky / River Country / Silo Modern fully visualised on the Visitor Guide cover, billboard, signage, social, fleet livery and merchandise — not mood-boarded. Visit/Explore/Stay/Taste lockup badges. Town-entry signage for all four towns.

    What we delivered

    • Three full creative directions visualised end-to-end
    • 32pp A5 Official Visitors Guide — saddle-stitched, 100% recycled
    • Town-entry signage system for the four shire towns
    • Wayfinding system — town pylons, fingerposts, interpretive panels
    • Fleet livery, social kit, event posters, visitor-centre merchandise
    • Print-ready PDF/X-1a + InDesign IDML source-file handover

    Capital city public art commission · Cultural · Public art

    Complete · 2026

    Tidemark hero

    Tidemark — full 71m × 9m elevation with 200m / 20m / 2m reads

    1 / 7

    A 71m × 9m civic mural designed for ten years.

    A large-format civic mural commission for a community aquatic and recreation centre. We took the brief through 36 fully-developed concepts across 8 thematic families, day-curve light modelling at six times of day, full cultural protocols, a polysilicate paint specification — and a 10-year conservation handover document baked into the price.

    × 9m main wall
    71 m

    × 9m main wall

    Developed concepts
    36

    Developed concepts

    Conservation handover
    10 yr

    Conservation handover

    The problem

    Civic art that has to read at 200m, 20m and 2m.

    The 71m × 9m main wall plus 54m × 3m low wall has real site challenges: scallop, downpipe shrouds, mature plane-tree shade, north-facing UV, 60km/h vehicle approach, and a multilingual, multigenerational, working-class community that has to live with the result for ten years.

    Our approach

    36 concepts, three reading distances, ten-year handover.

    Eight thematic families — Water & Movement, Kulin Country, Community Portraits, Flora & Fauna, Heritage, Health & Movement, Future Vision 2050 and Typography — each developed with viewer-vantage analysis, day-curve studies and a polysilicate paint plan.

    What we delivered

    • 36 fully-developed mural concepts across 8 thematic families
    • Hero concepts visualised at 1:240 with full streetscape context
    • Day-curve report — palette behaviour at six times of day
    • Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung cultural protocols on Country work
    • Polysilicate paint specification + 10-year conservation handover
    • Sentience Engine™ research — 330 agents, 100% human-approved finals

    Federal innovation grant cohort · Federal · Commercial sustainability

    Complete · 2026

    Regional masthead billboards

    Regional masthead billboards across the publisher cohort

    1 / 4

    A regional-mastheads platform for 10 Australian publishers.

    Ten regional publishers were each spending $80K–$140K/yr reinventing identical infrastructure — subscription pages, newsletter stacks, ad inventory, audience research. We designed a shared productised platform plus 20-concept brand kits per masthead, released to the wider Australian regional news sector under Creative Commons at project end.

    Programme funding
    $847.5K

    Programme funding

    Publishers in cohort
    10

    Publishers in cohort

    Subscription target
    +22%

    Subscription target

    The problem

    Ten newsrooms, ten times the same plumbing.

    Subscription, paywall, member management, newsletter, ad-sales — every regional publisher rebuilds the same infrastructure with a different small agency. Effort is duplicated. Money goes to discovery cost. Readers see a fragmented industry.

    Our approach

    One shared codebase, masthead-configured.

    Shared subscription + paywall + member-management platform, 20-concept brand kit per masthead across outdoor/print/digital/audio, ad-sales playbook, audience research, 14 in-newsroom workshops and a Creative-Commons sector release at month 19.

    What we delivered

    • Shared subscription / paywall / member-management codebase
    • 20-concept brand kit per masthead — outdoor, print, digital, audio
    • Regional ad-sales playbook + rate cards + outbound assets
    • Quantitative + qualitative audience research per cohort masthead
    • 14 in-newsroom workshops, evaluation reporting, CC sector release
    • Targets: +22% paid subscription conversion across 480k readers

    Before you brief a studio

    Here is what everybody asks first.

    FAQ

    Commissions, answered.

    Cost, timeline, who owns the artwork, what happens if no direction lands, cultural protocols, and what keeps a wall looking right in year ten.

    The first conversation is free and there is no deck.

    Talk to this division

    It is quoted as a fixed fee against a defined scope, which is what a council pricing schedule needs. For context: a regional visitor brand — three full directions, a 32-page A5 guide, a pull-out map, a four-town signage system, fleet livery, a social kit and merchandise — was delivered on a $24,800 fixed fee. A large public-art commission with thirty-six developed concepts and a ten-year conservation handover is a different order of scope, and is priced the same way.

    A place-branding and publishing engagement usually runs seven to ten weeks from site walk to print-ready files — the visitor guide engagement finished three weeks ahead of its deadline. A public-art commission is longer, because option-spacing, cultural protocols, day-curve modelling and paint specification all sit before production. We give you the phase dates before you commit.

    No. Creative work is scoped as a defined commission with defined deliverables and a fixed fee. Where a programme runs in stages — directions, then production, then rollout — each stage can be reviewed and authorised on its own. And the source files for what has been delivered are yours whether or not the next stage goes ahead.

    You do. Every publishing engagement hands over print-ready PDF/X-1a plus editable InDesign IDML source files and the fonts, and every public-art commission hands over the paint specification, the touch-up kit and the conservation document. A flattened PDF is not a design system, and handing one over is simply how a studio makes sure you have to come back to it.

    That is what the option-space stage is for — breadth first, so the shortlist is a genuine choice rather than a preferred option with two decoys. If a direction is close but not right, it gets developed further rather than replaced. If all three are wrong we would rather understand why before drawing again, because that usually means the brief moved.

    A fixed rhythm at each stage, with the work shown rather than described. You see full-context visualisations at real scale rather than swatches, and the review gates — concept, cultural, accessibility, production and legal — each have a named owner and a written outcome. Nothing goes to production on one person's opinion.

    Traditional Owner, RAP and Cultural Heritage Plan protocols apply on any project that draws on Country, and they open at the first sketch rather than at sign-off. On one commission that meant Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung protocols running through the whole concept phase. Cultural review goes through an Indigenous reference pathway, not an internal opinion, and it can change the work.

    That is what the specification is for rather than something we can promise about weather. Polysilicate paint systems are specified for masonry with ultraviolet exposure, the palette is modelled across six times of day before it is chosen, and the commission includes touch-up kits, a conservation handover document and an annual walk-through option. Maintenance is planned rather than discovered.

    Usually not. A tourism or visitor brand sits alongside a council's corporate identity rather than over the top of it — on the visitor-brand engagement the council logo and corporate style guide were untouched, and the new system was built to work with them. If a full identity replacement is what you want, that is a different conversation and we will say so.

    Yes. Print goes out as PDF/X-1a with a proof approved before the run, signage is drawn to the substrate, fixings and tolerances of accredited local fabricators, and we manage the samples. Keeping fabrication local is deliberate: the people who install it are usually the people who will maintain it.

    It is our own creative-research platform — around 330 agents reading a site's composition, scaled legibility, day-curve light behaviour, cultural symbolism and paint systems, so a commission can be option-spaced far more widely than a studio could by hand. Every final concept is human-approved, and on the mural commission every one of the thirty-six was.

    Yes. Visual identity, packaging, out-of-home, environmental graphics, event and retail collateral all run through the same studio and the same production discipline. Civic work is where the constraints are hardest — ten years, real weather, a whole community — which is generally what makes the commercial work stronger.

    A commission usually starts in one division and finishes in three.

    Most engagements start in one division and pull in a second. All five divisions sit side by side on one page, if you would rather start there.

    Brief us on the commission

    Send the site, the audience and the constraints. We come back with what we would explore, what the site will and will not take, and a fixed fee against a defined scope.

    Brief us on your commissionRead the operating standard

    No pitch deck. A real conversation and an honest read of the site.