The contemporary home for Australia's continuing story

The Australian War Memorial is a shrine, world-class museum, and archive. The purpose of this national institution is to commemorate the sacrifice of Australians who have died in war or on operational service and those who have served the nation in times of conflict.

Challenge

Despite its striking and instantly recognisable silhouette in the national landscape, widely held perceptions of the Australian War Memorial are often obscured by narratives centring on sombre themes of service and sacrifice.

With a $550 million expansion scheduled for completion in 2028, the memorial is making a concentrated effort to amplify modern service stories, including Australia’s peacekeeping activities. This pivotal development presents the opportunity to reframe the organisation as a world-class shrine, museum and research centre with ongoing relevance to modern Australia.

Our challenge was to modernise the Australian War Memorial’s identity while upholding core values of honour, respect, and commemoration. The question became: how can we maintain a deep reverence for Australian service personnel while redefining the memorial’s cultural significance to younger, more diverse audience groups? Preserving heritage was a key consideration in creating space for a more inclusive narrative that channels contemporary expressions of the Australian spirit.

Solution

The updated visual identity needed to balance a reverence for history with the memorial’s forward-facing, educational, and storytelling initiatives. We developed a detailed style guide outlining typography, colour palettes, and design principles to ensure brand consistency across all platforms.

While the Australian War Memorial has traditionally zeroed in on the solemn nature of remembrance, our strategy instead revised existing pillars to emphasise storytelling, education, and technology, reflecting the contemporary direction of the memorial. In close consultation with internal stakeholders, we redefined the brand’s tone and messaging for contemporary audiences, prioritising engagement without sacrificing core values.

A complete overhaul of the visual identity and messaging allowed the memorial to maintain its dignity and historical significance while also appealing to a younger, more diverse demographic.

Delivery

  • Brand positioning & strategy
  • Identity & brand rollout
  • Illustration & image-making
  • Merchandise & uniform design
  • Art direction & photography
  • Marketing & event campaigns
  • Social media strategy & development
  • Animation

Cohesive Collateral

An audit of the existing style guide (pictured right), brand assets and content revealed an ad hoc approach to communications. A refreshed communications strategy would provide a cohesive presence across touchpoints spanning social platforms, print collateral, wayfinding, and marketing materials.

Shades of the Australian spirit

The brand’s refreshed colour palette draws from history-defining landscapes, with rich hues reminiscent of unforgiving ocean coves, steep sand escarpments, battlefield poppies and symbolic rosemary. Supporting tints add dimension and character.

Taking a piece of history home

An extension of the memorial itself, the Memorial Shop carries a curated range of military books and commemorative giftware. The retail brand is distinct from but connected to the parent brand, defined by its elegant design and luxe finishes.

Spacious layouts and graphic devices

On a foundation of solid block colours, simplified layouts accommodate a diverse range of content while expressing varying degrees of decorum. A strong hierarchy guides the viewer’s focus, with ample breathing room to create a sense of spaciousness. Drawing on the site’s iconic architecture, arch-shaped graphic devices are used to house imagery and add depth and interest to compositions.

Typography brings a modern lifted look to brand communications. Our approach favours legibility and flexibility. Pairing the stately and the geometric at various points of the Australian War Memorial’s brand architecture, typeface choices achieve a balance of pragmatism and reverence. Grounded, yet steeped in beauty, this system ensures formality can be dialled up or down for each occasion and use case.