Southern Cross Tavern

Turning a sleezy boozer into a shining star.

At the core of the identity was the reframed Southern Cross, with a contemporary expression and some distinctly Pacifica elements.

Client

Southern Cross Tavern

Project

Brand Identity

Location

Pōneke, Wellington

Year

2008

-

2008

Role

Creative Director, Designer

Agency

DNA Design

Category

Hospitality

Contributors

Gary Clarke – Client
John Mills – Architects
Caz Vize – Client Director

Brand Signature

Communications

Creative Direction

Detailed Design

Signage

Visual Identity

There is nothing better to bring the tone of a drinking establishment down than old drunks, slotties and cheap jug nights for first year varsity students. The Southern Cross was indeed a place of great repute, even the scene of a gang-land shooting. All in all a great Kiwi boozer.

Gary Clarke had had enough of running a shady joint and wanted to recapture some of the Courtenay Place crowd (the more coined drinkers from across town). He wanted to be able re-welcome families, to be able to serve great honest kiwi fare and become a better heart in the community.

The other thing he wanted to do was become a destination and with the best garden bar in town he already had a great starting point. He engaged John Mills architects (known for their pacific rim style) and us to help reinvent an old Wellington Favourite. The whole kiwi thing has been done to death and we wanted to carefully avoid the jandal and boot polish clichés. We had to seek out the NEW New Zealand local.

The identity was designed to be flexible and reflect the can do attitude of using what’s available at the time. The type is designed to look current but have yesteryear cues.

The central theme is the logo, which when broken down is multi-layered and just feels like ‘Us’. The negative detail is the constellation, the inner positive detail is a frangipani, something from the Pacific, which is a far better representation of who we now are as Kiwis - ‘We come from all over...’ All this is contained in a curvaceous edged rectilinear shell.

This project began in 2008 and the rejuvenated venue is now well into it's 16th year. It has celebrated a number of refreshes to the interior and the garden bar, but the brand has remained at the heart of the place all this time.

The key brand elements were interplays between the positive and negative elements of the logo device.
We wanted the stars to shine at night, so the negative space in the supergraphic became positions for special lamps.
We had a small number of different colourways that took reference from the colours John Mills built into the space.
Even the loyalty card is given a Kiwi spin. If you’re Wal’s dog you might just be referred to in this manner ‘True’.
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The Southern Cross is a Wellington institution. The students who once went there now frequent as families.
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The stationery system contains backgrounds of classic Kiwi-isms.
We even had fun with the staff business cards, again using the key curved rectilinear shape, and include aspects of their role and personality.
The garden bar is the best in town. It is sheltered and warmed by outdoor fires.
A range of classic coasters were designed and popular items collected by regular guests.
We wanted the warmth of the spatial design to be reflected in the identity.
Everything took cues from the logo mark, even the shape of decal labels in the stationery system.
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Everything about the Southern Cross had to be quintessentially Kiwi, but not in a trite or cliched way. It had to be authentic.
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While the bar and restaurant have had several re-fits, the identity remains a constant.
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There aren’t too many venues in Wellington that have stayed the course. The Southern Cross has held its own and remains an icon.