In this Year in Review blog post, I’ll shine a light on some of the highlights that made 2023 a fantastic year at DesignStreet. A year of good cheer and a lot of change deserves a bit of a deep dive! So, I’ll zoom in and let’s take a closer look at our everyday moments, remarkable achievements and unveil our behind-the-scenes activities that shaped this extraordinary year.
The move
In March we moved to Kent Street in the heart of Sydney! We settled on the hill that slopes from Wynyard station to the soaring towers at Barangaroo. This change has meant we are right in Sydney’s action, complete with a terrific slice of view between two buildings, right onto the white sails of the Opera House.
One of the move’s unanticipated benefits was the great access to a broad variety of lunch and catch-up options. We stumbled across a new office tradition – a frequent visit to ‘Winghaus’, a terrific establishment at Barangaroo specialising in…you guessed it: Wings.
Defining our space
Moving offices is no easy feat. One of the challenges (which is also a great opportunity and pleasure) was defining the look and feel of our workplace. Though we consider this a work in process, we are very pleased with all we’ve added. A lick of bold paint and a neon sign go a long way. We’ve created a space where we can get inspired, get stuff done and have fun doing it!
Here is a rundown of some of the things we’ve got the most out of in our office space:
- A neon sign. Our logo lights up the DST office entrance, ensuring you can’t miss it!
- A bit of music is a great way of setting the office mood, managing energy levels and building ambience.
- We keep half a dozen plants spread throughout our office. They draw the eye and add lovely pops of colour to the space.
- A whiteboard. Having space to write something down is so important for brainstorming. We use our whiteboard to plan and let loose with ideas. Sometimes note-taking on a laptop just doesn’t achieve the same effect. The ability to draw connections, and diagrams and even start designing during a meeting is incredibly useful.
- Snacks. Our office is peppered with bowls of mentos, sesame snaps and a decent variety of chips. Not to mention perennial bowls of fresh fruit. Our kitchen space has evolved to be our main place to meet up outside of the boardroom.
Turning 25
Midway through the year brought about a delightful flourish of celebration for the quarter-century birthday of our small advertising agency. The highlight of the occasion was, of course, the party. We planned an event to remember, creating a silver-themed 25th-anniversary look and feel for our typically orange DST brand. We had an amazing night, joined by clients, friends and family at O bar in the city.
Check out a video of the event here.
Boosted by interns
This year was made extra fun by the presence of a few interns! Srujan and Zac joined us just in time for the 25th anniversary action. They became invaluable team members and kept everyone on their toes with language like ‘no cap’, ‘mid’ and ‘cancelled’.
Big projects this year
This year we achieved so much through the projects we’ve worked on. We reached new heights with the scale of the projects, the reach of the audiences, and outstanding results.
2023 also marked 17 years of working with American Express. We created many videos, print ads for Forbes Magazine, and digital advertisements, rolled out international campaigns and designed and built hundreds of eDMs for the team at Amex!
Since 2022 we’ve had the awesome experience of working for the NSW Electoral Commission on the awareness campaign for the State Government Elections. In March, we saw all that work come to fruition with bus stop billboards, TV advertising and tens of social media videos. It was a gratifying project to work on, and we came within a fraction of a per cent of the extremely high awareness target set for the campaign.
In the first half of this year, we got to participate in creating and rolling out the collateral for the Women’s FIFA Women’s World Cup for Destination NSW. One of the year’s highlights was embarking on adventures around the city to try and track down all the pieces we helped create. We went many times to try to photograph the Sydney L3 Light Rail (it was very difficult to find a moving target!).
Nespresso is another long-standing client, and we successfully delivered many projects for them, mainly in the B2B space.
In summary…it has been an amazing Year in Review. We have shown strong growth, and we have an exceptional team working smoothly together in a calm and happy workplace. We are so excited to see what the next year brings.
Above all, we are grateful to our clients who have entrusted us with their projects, and we are very proud of the results we have achieved together. Thank you!
DesignStreet Bloopers
There were lots of fun moments at DesignStreet this year! Just sharing a few (and a little bit of our fun with AI!).
