The studio dominated the recent Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) awards, winning the industry peak body’s highest honour, the Pinnacle Award for Best Studio. The AGDA awards recognise the best work in Australia across a wide range of design disciplines each year.

At this year’s Eat Drink Design Awards, held the very same week, Fabio Ongarato Design received a High Commendation for Best Identity Design for their work at Kisumé and the Best Identity Design award for Jackalope. The studio’s numerous wins demonstrate the importance of immersive design, both as a discipline and for its potential to create long-term brand engagement. Fabio Ongarato Design has been integral in championing immersive design narratives as a tool for creating unique customer experiences, especially through a number of significant hospitality projects.

This year has seen FOD complete a spectrum of design work across a number of landmark hospitality projects including Melbourne restaurant Kisumé, boutique hotel QT Melbourne, and luxury Mornington Peninsula hotel Jackalope. Each of these projects exemplify the studio’s ability to set a strategic narrative that brings together brand identity; art direction; art strategy and commissioning; environmental design, including environmental graphics and styling; lighting design; landscape installation and design; wayfinding strategy and signage and other design aspects to achieve a cohesive design narrative.

Though the scope of work completed by Fabio Ongarato Design may be diverse and agile, the studio’s consistent focus on immersive experience creates an enduring link between each project. The AGDA’s recognition reflects the shift towards design that not only considers aesthetics and function, but also places value on the story being told, and how.

“Guests need to be engaged and transported if they are to maintain long-term engagement with a brand. It’s simply no longer enough to create beautiful spaces. Good design must touch both the heart and mind,” explains Ronnen Goren, Co-Founder and Strategy Director of Fabio Ongarato Design. Responsible for spearheading the shift towards brand storytelling in design, Fabio Ongarato Design recognises that guests of luxury hotels and restaurants are learning to separate authentic experiences from novelty. In creating a cohesive language, the studio’s design elements are used to reflect the intended brand experience at every customer-facing touch point.

An example of this is Fabio Ongarato Design’s work for Jackalope, a hotel, restaurant and vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula. At each turn, visitors are encouraged to engage with a thematic world where the mythological narrative of the Jackalope is unveiled incrementally, yielding a sense of discovery.

Click here to view the Fabio Ongarato Design website.

See also:

Mitchelton Winery Estate opens a $16m hotel and spa

Art Series open The Chen in Melbourne's Box Hill

Melbourne's The Valley Racecourse $2 billion redevelopment