Project Overview

Bijou, by Made Property Group, is a boutique, luxury development of twenty-nine 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and penthouses in the inner west suburb of Balmain, Sydney. The former Bijou Theatre, dating back to 1912, is being sympathetically adapted, with the Art Deco architectural style and historical façade to be retained, and reuse of original materials throughout. The brochure embraces the history and architecture of the site and demonstrates the rarity of this buyer opportunity.

Project Commissioner

Made Property Group

Project Creator

Hoyne

Project Brief

With significant market activity in the inner west and surrounding suburbs, a brochure was required that would clearly demonstrate the unique qualities of this development. Many other projects in the area lacked character or views and were of average quality comparatively. Bijou stood in clear contrast to this, offering all of these aspects together with proximity to the Darling Street village. The brochure draws upon the unique personality of the building and it’s rich history to present a once in a lifetime opportunity. Offering authentic heritage with modern stylish interiors, the campaign creative embraces these contrasts to showcase modern art deco chic for discerning buyers.

Project Innovation/Need

The brochure looked to traditional art deco type faces for inspiration, as these reflected the geometric simplicity of the period architecture. The creative visual and verbal language of the catalogue draws on the building’s history as a theatre and cinema to demonstrate a distinct personality. Detail and layout throughout the brochure references vintage cinema and theatre tickets and CGIs were used to recreate an impression of how the theatre would have looked in the 1920s. Key campaign phrases such as “The stage is set”, “A starring character from Balmain’s past” and “Put yourself in this frame” embraced the character of the development and placed buyers in a leading role. Other language used in the brochure such as “All of life is a stage” and “The best view in the house’, combined with carefully oriented and crafted CGIs and viewline photos were used to communicate Bijou’s unexpectedly good views.

Design Challenge

The key challenge was to create a brochure that would showcase the unique qualities of the development and demonstrate the rarity of the opportunity in order to attract the quality of buyers required. Hoyne’s answer was to create a distinct visual and verbal personality that reflected and celebrated the building’s former life as a theatre and cinema and demonstrated the beauty of the overall design.

Effectiveness

The brochure successfully leveraged Bijou’s aesthetic past and its bright future to help attract over 1500 enquiries for the twenty-nine apartments. Bijou attracted the quality of target audience desired and as a result achieved very high sales prices across the product range.