First Sentier Investors
Architecture becomes experience
Role
Lead Designer
Contribution
Concept design & development
Environmental graphics
Wayfinding
Signage design
Collaboration with Head of Environments
Awards
SEGD Global Design Awards 2020 – Honour
AGDA Awards – Merit
Credit
Charlie Bromley, ECD
A workplace inspired by imperfection
First Sentier Investors relocated to Barangaroo's International Towers while simultaneously establishing itself as an independent brand. The new workplace, designed around the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, celebrated transience, imperfection and craftsmanship, providing an opportunity to create an environmental graphics system that felt inseparable from the architecture rather than applied to it.
Designing without relying on the brand
Because the corporate identity was still evolving, traditional brand assets couldn't carry the environmental graphics. The challenge was to create a memorable workplace experience that expressed the company's values while complementing the interior architecture and fulfilling the practical demands of wayfinding and workplace signage.
Light as wayfinding
The solution used large-scale wall and glazing treatments inspired by the movement of natural light. Carefully aligned across multiple surfaces, the graphics interacted with reflective materials to create shifting patterns as people moved through the space. This restrained visual language extended across wayfinding, operational signage and environmental graphics, resulting in a workplace that felt calm, cohesive and intrinsically connected to the architectural vision.
