Clean and modern but with a bit of the personality that defines SecureWare's point of difference amongst their competitors. The front-end is powered by a custom management system with genuine device integration for tablet and mobile platforms.

It's been a pleasure working with Adam and Alex from the SecureWare team, they've been enthusiastic and invested from day one. The initial response from their partners and affiliates has been positive and we're proud to have this project in our folio.

As Attica's webmasters we like to keep an eye on internet traffic to their site.

This morning's review of their Google Analytics made for shocking(-ly good) results. News of their No. 21 world-ranking last week drove more than 18,000 unique visitors a day to the site (as a guide, their average web traffic prior to that was 400/day).

The initial spike has settled to an average of 1,500/day.

It's a sign that if the world didn't know about this little restaurant in humble Ripponlea before, it's making up for lost time.

Ben Shewry and the team at local restaurant phenomenon Attica continue their rise in the world of fine dining. This year Attica has been voted Australasia's Best Restaurant and the world's No. 21, up from No. 63 last year. This is the first year Attica ranks in the Top 50 and one of only two Australian restaurants on the prestigious list.

Rumour has it that the waiting list for a table of two has gone from weeks to months since the news came out. Congratulations to all involved!

Shown here is "Potato, cooked in the earth in which it was grown", Attica's standout dish as voted by the World's 50 Best panel.

The studio loves its smartphone games.

Words With Friends is a firm fixture of daily life in the studio, but now a new challenger has emerged. Draw Something is basically Pictionary over 3G, brilliantly simple yet somewhat challenging to do well (unless you're smart and bought an iPhone stylus off eBay...).

We could say it helps our creative problem-solving skills, but really it's all about being a kid with a pack of crayons and a big sheet of paper again.

(NB: shown here are efforts to draw 'Bromance' and 'Orbit'.)

Callaway Golf Australia put on its first "Tee Party" last night, a celebrity vs. pro golf drive competition.

Our challenge was to build a real-time scoreboard feed for the audience using drive distance data from sensors laid out along the driving range. The creative team styled the visual front-end while the technology team developed a data entry back-end. The result was a live scoreboard that displayed the most recent driver's name, drive distance and his standing on the leaderboard.

The fringe benefit of being behind-the-scenes was a chance to mingle with some of the celebrities and personalities. Congratulations to the Callaway events team for a job well done, and thanks for a fun night out.

We're in the midst of Brand and Web Development for our first South Australian client.

SecureWare is an IT solutions provider that specialises in information security. They've already built a strong local reputation with clients that include The University of Adelaide and iiNet.

Thanks to Adam and Alex for making the trip across to meet us, we are looking forward to delivering another creative solution.

Season's greetings from Gaal Creative to our valued clients, friends, suppliers and everyone who has made 2012 another exciting year at the studio. We hope you've enjoyed working with us over the last twelve months as much as we have with you. The following is a short recap of the year's significant events, projects and milestones. We wish you a happy and safe holiday period. We'll be back to work on 7 January, 2013.

In addition to restyling the front-end we have re-built the site's architecture to enable true support for users on tablet and mobile devices. This represents a major step forward in our abilities as a digital agency.

We are developing another exciting online project with the About Birth team and hope to reveal more details in the months to come.

Modernist free-form sculpture up for auction, proceeds go to buying more coffee.

It's been a refreshing day away from the computer, assisting at an onsite photoshoot with our photographer Colin Page. Contexx granted us access to the 350 William Street "Art on The Park" construction site so we could document the activity of an active building job.

35 storeys, 700 metres, 800 photographs later we'd made our way from the top of the lift well shaft, overlooking the Melbourne CBD, to the ground floor. Along the way we met many of the contractors who were more than happy to humour us constantly asking "so ... what are you doing?" or "what's happening over there?".

From a quick review of the shots it looks as though Colin's sharp eye successfully captured the hustle and bustle of the worksite.

Our go-to print producer Madman Printing gave us a single phrase for the brief of their new website: "we're mad about print".

We came up with a look and feel that throws plenty of nods and winks to the print industry, one that gives the user a unique experience and puts Madman's personality front and centre. They're mad (with happiness) at the results and so are we.

At this point the designers and developers sit together to cross-check the brief against its visual translation (i.e. the front-end design). It's useful to catch any oversights or potential implementation issues before we seek client approval.

To facilitate this task we use an, ironically, analog method: pasteups. The web layout is printed in its entirety, right down to different modalities, active states and pop-ups. We tape them to a wall where each element can be shifted, superimposed or annotated.

The method not only helps everyone see the entire website structure and functionality at a glance, but it's a refreshing act of stepping away from our respective computers to work together.

Shown here is Contexx's website-in-progress at the pasteup stage.

Pictured is Stuart during the obligatory public embarrassment and a little morning tea treat down at Spout cafe. When asked how old he was turning the reply was, "I'm turning 21 ... for the seventh year in a row." We think he's still too young to be in denial about his age.

Trivia: the #1 song on the Billboard charts on the day of Stuart's birth was the Ghostbusters Theme.

Some of the most anxious times in a designer's life occur when we relinquish control of our artwork to the printer - is everything in the right colour mode? Is everything sized correctly? Did we put the right amount of bleed on? Lack of control makes us crazy.

We like to maintain high standards at Gaal Creative and that sometimes means going great lengths in order to ensure accuracy of the final product.

Exhibit A: Michael Gaal testing out life-size cardboard standee artwork for the upcoming Coca-Cola Amatil Customer Expo.

We're extremely pleased to name construction company Contexx as our newest account.

Contexx was formed in 2006 by industry veterans Noel Henderson and Simon Gray. They have quickly established a reputation as one of the most dynamic, forward-thinking companies in the industry, with an estimated portfolio value of more than $1 billion.

This news comes after almost two months of preparation, proposal work and meetings to address the tender. We were one of of eight strongly qualified respondents for the contract, and of the final two shortlisted agencies we won the award over an established multinational advertising firm (who will remain unnamed!).

The tender process has shown that the Contexx and Gaal Creative teams are very much aligned towards the same goal, something that gives us confidence and excitement for the work ahead. In the months to come we will deliver a Brand Refresh, Website Redevelopment, Photography, Corporate Collateral and Environmental Branding.

To top off the great news and officially welcome us on board we were presented with personalised hard hats to use on site visits.

Like all the best things from New Zealand, Jake has been claimed for Australia to be our resident software architect, database-smith and web application designer. With a background in industrial design he bridges the gap between our looks-obsessed designers and functionality-stickler coders. With five years of experience under his belt Jake takes the job seriously and can be heard verbally expressing his feelings towards uncooperative lines of code or malfunctioning browsers throughout the day.

Luthier, glass blower, polo champion - Kevin McKenna is none of these things. He is however our (self-described) Keyboard Rambo, with a background in mechatronics engineering and computer science he brings expertise in software development and technology problem-solving experience to the studio. The tallest person in the office keeps a fairly low profile, headphones on, working away while the designers argue about shifting a single pixel; so when a request for some coding magic is eventually made, Kev has often already thought about and done it.

Our creative process for German telecoms software specialist Dynamic Design was guided by the connectivity and efficiency of their product offerings. Cleanliness, structure and precision is reflected across the final identity. The company's website features a custom content management system and multilingual functionality for the client's global customer base.

Serving breakfast, lunch and of course, coffee seven days a week. Drop in sometime and you might spot one (or several of us) amongst the crowd.

Technical package design and multi-faceted print techniques combine to produce an invitation to Remora's seminar on the Intel-based Oracle Database Appliance (ODA).

The result provides a unique interactive experience for invitees who are normally used to seeing everything on a computer. A sealed surface mail package opens into tri-fold brochure providing technical information about the hardware, with a pop-out section that folds into a scale model of the ODA.

One of the luxuries of running a creative agency is occasionally appointing myself the client and treating a personal job with the same resourcefulness and attention to detail that we provide to others.

Case in point: this short video produced as part of my 40th birthday celebration. Like every team sports fan I have a dream starting line-up, consisting of the most talented and/or biggest personalities that I have most enjoyed watching. We couldn't exactly get my fantasy soccer team in to pose for the video so we did the next best thing...

Lensman's new-but-old look takes cues from vintage film and camera equipment. Next up is a online home for Andy to showcase his extensive body of work.

i·dem·po·tent [ahy-duhm-poht-nt, id-uhm-]

–adjective

Latin roots, idem (“same”) + potent (“the quality of having power”) – literally, “the quality of having the same power”.

1. (mathematics, computing) A quality of an action such that repetitions of the action have no further effect on outcome – being idempotent.

Argos Loves Company has opened up on Brunswick Street. Its intention is to serve up uncomplicated food, fresh coffee and and plenty of friendliness. Congratulations to Christine Collins and everyone involved, we've really enjoyed working to give the cafe an identity worthy of Chrissie's eclectic tastes and personality.

Next time you find yourself at the top-end of Brunswick Street near Gertrude, follow your eyes to the bright pink sign for a coffee, meal and a smile - because Argos loves company.

This past week the studio has been echoing with the constant clattering of metal on plastic, followed shortly by a shouted expletive. The culprit of many wasted hours and constant distraction is a simple but fiendishly challenging toy called The Addictaball. Bought by Niki (our studio manager) for her children it has since been appropriated by the adults.

The Addictaball is a 3D maze housed inside a transparent sphere like a ship-in-a-bottle. Solving the puzzle involves guiding a small chrome ball along the maze which is divided into sequential sections, tilting and turning the sphere on its various axes to keep the ball on track. Rotate too violently or misjudge the angle of adjustment it's back to the start.

The maze record is held by Niki at 48 (of 138 maze sections), followed by Tara on 40 , with Mike and Stu trailing on 29. (08/05/2012 UPDATE : James just hit 67 to take the lead!)

We hear the kids are much better at it.

Financial technology leader CameronTec launches our new marketing campaign. A powerful new visual motif has been applied to a wide range of media implementations, allowing CameronTec the ability to communicate more broadly than ever before.

The project was a true multi-disciplined effort covering video production, art direction, music orchestration, online integration and print design. The product of our combined creative and conceptual vision is a mix of Video, Collateral and Print Advertising.

We've already received feedback from the management team at CameronTec after last night's launch:

"Fantastic effort and great results. The creative concept you devised truly aligns with our vision and technology roadmap. For us it really strikes a chord.”

We share their enthusiasm, are thrilled with the results and would like to thank all the various talents involved.

Last night's opening of The Dining Haul seafood bar in Elwood marks the completion of our latest design-construct project. We are thrilled with the results of the last 22 weeks of work - from naming and branding to interior fit-out and web design.

My thanks extend to our client Charlie Sirianos for sharing and trusting in my vision; and to Tony the builder, whose team fearlessly executed our concept with outstanding attention to detail. I'd also like to recognise our team in the studio: Stu for his creative efforts and contribution across the entire project; and to Niki for her invaluable consultation and advice.

Whilst our job is done, the journey has only just started for Charlie and his team at 'the Haul'. I wish them joy and success in the new venture and encourage you all to pay them a visit for a casual feed or drink. I might just see you down there...

We're thrilled to be commencing work on an interior and branding project for a new restaurant in Elwood. Based on previous restaurant projects it will be an exciting and creatively rewarding exercise to realise our designs in a multi-dimensional environment. Watch this space for updates as the job progresses. In the meantime you can view the last dining space we produced.

Just back from the printers is Attica's new collateral, with changes to their brand and identity that reflect the restaurant's continuing growth and maturity.

Their logo's colour has shifted to a light stone, maintaining the earthy foundations of the original brand. Collateral has been pared back to simple monotone hues, with beautiful new photography by Colin Page featuring on the menu reverse and website backgrounds.

This is the second in an ongoing series of executive seminars produced by Gaal Creative for Oracle Systems and Remora Technologies.

The staging venue for a cloud-themed seminar was obvious: award-winning restaurant Vue de Monde's new location on the 55th level of Melbourne's iconic Rialto Towers. Masses of clouds at eye-level and panoramic views of the CBD below provided a spectacular backdrop for the event.

The security of information within Private Cloud networks was a key discussion point of the seminar. An icon for the event, incorporating elements from the Oracle Systems brand, was created with this theme in mind.

The cloud theme really allowed us to stretch out creatively and develop a unique collateral packages featuring fold-out booklet invitations and silver-backed envelopes. Each confirmed invitee received a cloud icon lapel pin which they wore on the day to identify them as attendees of the event.

Attica's star continues to rise: last night the restaurant attained Three Hats status and was named Restaurant of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide awards. We've been working with Attica since 2003 and personally witnessed the belief, vision and hard work that has been invested by everyone on the team past and present. Dining there is a truly unique experience so check out their website and join what is sure to be a long bookings list. Congratulations again to everyone at Attica on receiving these wholly deserved accolades.

WIRED is the graphic designer's non-graphic-design-related magazine: high-concept art direction executed with interesting layouts, custom typography, beautiful infographics, contemporary illustration, sharp photography and plenty of obnoxious spot colours. Editorially it's consistently on-point with a mix of humour, tech/science news, business analysis and compelling investigative journalism features.

Hit the link to view WIRED's Creative Director, Scott Dadich, addressing the 2009 Semi-Permanent Conference.

DIN 1451 began as the German government's standard utilitarian font, appearing on a myriad of civil fixtures such as traffic signage, environmental wayfinding and license plates. Albert-Jan Pool's 1995 re-tooling helped the typeface become a cross-over success with graphic designers as a reliable choice for logotypes, body text and corporate identities.

DIN's clean, modern lines and legibility at small sizes makes this our go-to secondary typeface as well as a starting point for many branding concepts.

Photographer, creative partner of 15 years and good friend, Colin Page, will be a featured artist in the Core Program of this year's Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB). The Core Program is reserved for the most outstanding artists, chosen from an international field.

Colin will be premiering his 'Gossamer' exhibition, a series of dramatic and beautiful human portraits shot using ultraviolet photography.

With overwhelming respect for his talent, passion and drive, I'd like to congratulate Colin on this well-deserved achievement. I am confident that the show will be a huge success for him and encourage you to make the trip to Ballarat for this worthwhile event.

The 2011 BIFB will run from 20th August to 18th September.

After years of procrastination and constant iterations, I am proud to launch the new website for Gaal Creative.

My humblest appreciation is directed to our wonderful team (both past and present) for the constant support, creativity and patience, and also to the gamut of clients over the past 18 years for your belief and partnerships that have led to the body of work and experience.

My heart-felt gratitude goes to James Cave for his intelligence, patience and ability to realise my dreams. A Very Clever Person™.

I hope you appreciate our vision and enjoy the work. If so, let's talk.