Melboures laneways are unique and iconic to the city. Through campains such as the ‘Loose yourselve in Melbourne campain’ the goverment has embrassed these laneways and it is now critical in Melbournes branding. This document will study and discuss the elements of design involved with Melbournes laneways relating the topic to ‘Melbourne Central’, ‘Hoiser Lane’ and the ‘Melbourne Logo’ The retail industry in Melbourne is thriving, attracting tourism to the area, producing revenue, and this is a large part due to the re-development of ‘Melbourne Central’ train station in 2001. No longer is the stations only function to play second fiddle to ‘Flinders street station’ in helping thousand of Melbournians commute everyday, but it now is a complex multilevel shopping centre built around the historic ‘shot tower’ which has developed many of Melbournes iconic lane ways as a part of the centre as a huge addition to the cities retail industry. ‘Architecture Australia’ writer Andrew Hudson believes that; “Theories behind the planning of shopping centres are based on simple premises-attract customers, maximize their exposure to retail outlets and keep them there as long as they can bear it.” – A. Huston (2006) ,and this suggests why the shopping centre does so well, thousands of commuters each day can easily access food, post office, a variety of shopping, cinema’s, gyms, restaurants Architects within the Ashton Raggatt Macdougall group cleverly designed the station to be iconic and unique to Melbourne, he didn’t want the public to misconceive this project as a common shopping centre. “It offers a Microcosm of the city, with new lane ways and multilevel streets slicing through, following older patterns of movement across the site, and allowing a legible network of movement both back onto the site and to the city. The absence of air conditioning from these pathways contributes to the sense of their being part of the public space of the city.” Ashton Raggot Mcdougall group. (2006) the article talks about how the redevelopment of ‘Melbourne central station’ is really iconic to Melbourne, and adds to the richness of the Melbourne Urban experience. An independently run architect web site, ‘The Specifier’, applauds the design of the re-development and mentions an important positive impact the development had on the city. “…unimpeded circulation of pedestrians in, out and around the station and its various shopping and recreational levels. The closed box is broken open, and endless conveniences now line the bright, airy promenades:…” Specifier, [accessed online: 20-5-10], this supports that the re-development has both been important to the cities retail industry, and has also become iconic to Melbourne. It is my view that this is a development made unique to Melbourne due to careful design decisions to study movement patterns, integrate iconic lane ways, and turn something that was dark and depressing into something light, vibrant and inviting to Melbourne citizens. This will shape the way Melbournians live in the future, it is now much quicker and easier to catch a train to ‘Melbourne Central’ to satisfy consumer needs. Something as simple as seeing a movie in the ‘HOYTS’ cinema complex is now an enjoyable experience due to surrounding restaurants or bars, and is giving hundreds of retail outlets everyday exposure to a wide target market. . Hutson, A. (2006) ‘Idea’s above it’s station’ in ‘Architecture Australia’ 95(6): 54-63 . Ashton, Raggot, Mcdougall group. (2006) ‘Melbourne Central’ in ‘Architecture Australia’ 95(6): 72-73 . Specifier online. ‘Melbourne Central shopping centre’ [accessed online: 20-05-10] website url: <http://www.specifier.com.au/projects/retail-and-entertainment/34411/ Melbourne-Central-Shopping-Centre.html>
Iconic laneway design in Melbourne is extemely popular in the form of street art, and the famous, ‘Hosier Lane.’ Hosier Lane is one of Melbourne’s most familiar communal art spaces. Located opposite Federation Square, the legal street-art frequently draws both positive and negative attention for its expressive characteristics and political nature. ‘Hosier Lane’ has featured in many of Melbourne’s promotional campaigns, including the ‘Lose yourself in Melbourne’ advertisements. It is also a common backdrop for fashion, wedding and tourist photographs. One of ‘Hosier Lane’s’ greatest assets is its accessibility. Located just a stones throw from ‘Flinders Street Station’; it provides an insight into Melbourne’s laneway culture, without the tedious search. It attracts both local and international artists who are free to express themselves in a public environment. There has been much debate on whether ‘Hosier Lane’ exhibits street-art, or if it is just vandalism. However, without this graffiti, it would be another one of Melbourne’s dingy laneways littered with milk-crates and dumpsters. McKeller examines the differences and the misconceptions of what many people see as vandalism or graffiti, and how street-art is a completely different concept. She explores the dissimilarities between, tagging “which is more lacking in style”, McKeller, A (2007), and it’s more complex cousin, stencil art. She persuades the reader to develop anappreciation of street-art as an artistic medium, rather than a public sprawl.
In Hayden Case’s article, Hosier Lane (Laneway Magazine, August 2009), he states “Hosier (Lane) provides an easily accessible example of how the council allows Melbourne’s minds to wander.” He states, “there may be more to Melbourne than the life that lies living and breathing in this alley, but for a newcomer it’s the starting gun for a sprint through the artistic side of the city”. and that, “One ugly day some greedhead might cunningly decide to glass off the daylight, brick up the entrance, charge a fee for exhibit and gain riches from canned free expression”, but until that day, ‘Hosier Lane’ will continue to exhibit a unique glimpse at the artistic talent and finesse that is street-art. Johnston writes an emotionally driven persuasive piece evoking thoughts of respect and appreciation of today’s street-art culture, and how “street art now is a postmodern confluence of art forms” Johnston, C, 2007. He continues to portray ‘Hosier Lane’ as the backbone to Melbourne’s street-art culture, and the reason why we are known as the “street-art capital of the world”. He argues the notions that it is not simply vandalism, and explains how street-art is the “modern nexus between politics and art”. Hoiser lane is an example of a strategy implied by the government of Victoria, taking something that is seen as common vandalism and crime, and turning it into an attraction to support the cities tourism and branding campains. . McKeller, A. (2007) ‘City Lights- Hoiser Lane. The Scene, 18th April 2007. . Case, H, (2009) ‘Hoiser lane,’ Laneway Magazine, <http://www.lanewaymagazine.com.au/hoiser-lane> . Johnston. C, (2007) ‘Look around you. It’s just Street art’, The Age, 16th May, 2007.
The essence of Melbourne’s lane ways and how the city has embraced them, was a key design strategy used for the re-design of the ‘Melbourne City Logo’, which proves that the city has taken positve action on making the laneways iconic to the city. The redesign of the ‘Melbourne city logo’ in late 2009 sparked many conversations, about the need for a new logo and the costs spent to have it designed. The logo appears all around the city from street signs to documents and advertisement. The ‘Melbourne city logo’ is for identification of the suburbs, councils and acts as the face or representation of a brand, the brand of Melbourne. The new logo was developed to come in and replace the need for multiple logos across the city of Melbourne and is still being integrated. The old system meant that logos for multiple areas and services where creating inconsistent branding. The old ‘Melbourne city logo’ of the ‘M’ with pillars and a leaf, was replaced with the modern and edgy bold ‘M’ with its multiple surfaces that can be integrated across all of Melbourne. As Schultz, Hatch and Larsen point out in ‘Why Expressive Organisations’ the only way to have a successful identity is to create one that is honest and encompasses the organisations ideals. The complex task of branding for a large organisation or brand, such as The ‘City of Melbourne’ with many different aspects requires extensive research and understanding of the corporation. If the identity is to last it must reflect the company and encompass the future direction and developments to ensure that it is relevant in years the come. If it does not take these key aspects into consideration and incorporate the future ideas and aspiring values of what Melbourne wants to become, but more importantly
The city of Melbourne truly is a place with many facets and different qualities. The broad range of attractions and the growing culture of Melbourne make it a hard city to capture in a symbol or logo. As cities are inconsistent and subject to change, capturing the essence of the identity can be hard. However the design behind the ‘Melbourne logo’ captures exactly this. As a city that is for every growing and developing new subcultures and attractions, this point has been emphasised. It has been reflected in the logo through the different geometric shapes and faces, but can also been see through the physical attraction for tourist and visitors of a very broad cross discipline city. As Donald and Gammack explain in ‘Tourism and the branded city’ destination branding is essential when “targeting tourists”. Logos help to create an image/ face and a point of reference, but it must “capture the essence of the city and more so its people”. The identity will only be successful if it represents its people and their movements, as cited in ‘Tourism and the branded city’, “every citizen is an ambassador” and of course people make a city who and what it will become. In capturing and reflecting all these aspect in a symbol strengthens and communicates a positive image across the city, and more importantly across the world. It is clear that Melbourne has embraced its lane ways and now incorporates it in all facets of its branding and design. Such as the un-air conditioned lane ways in ‘Melbourne Central’ the promotion of ‘Hoiser Lane’ as a tourism attraction, and lane ways being used as a concept in re-designing and branding of the ‘Melbourne logo’ in 2009. . Donald, Stephanie and Gammack, John G (2007) ‘Tourism and the Branded city.’ film and identity on the Pacific Rim, Aldershot, England, (p. 45-61) . Majken Schultz, Mary Jo Hatch and Mogens Holthen Larsen 2000. ‘Whythe Expressive Organizations’ Ch 1. Oxford University Press Inc. New York. . Macnab, M. (2009) ‘The secret of Symbols’ [accessed online: 21/05/10] <http://www.logolounge.com/guesteditoral/>