Houston Group

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Houston Group We are a strategic design agency working with organisations and brands that require creation, launch Over 80% of business value is intangible. They’re partners.

This is where we operate. We’re a nimble team of intuitive thinkers who truly ‘get’ the needs of our clients. In fact, we don’t consider them clients at all. We understand their business strategy as if our own. We create enduring, bespoke and effective brand solutions that deliver results. We make the intangible, tangible. We may be young, but our key partnerships go way back. Founder, Stuart O’Brien has led some of the country’s leading brand and creative businesses, running Moon for 12 years and then as CEO of Ogilvy Sydney for 4 years. Throughout those roles, clients have looked to Stuart for brand and design leadership, strategy and execution. The Qantas relationship goes back some 15 years, Jetstar 10 years, Lend Lease 6 years and most recently Macquarie Bank. In just over two and half years, Houston has delivered some of the country’s most exciting brand projects. But don’t let us tell you, have a look for yourself!

SWEET SIXTEENWe’re delighted to have picked up 16 finalists at this year’s AGDA Awards. From podcasts to pad thais, larg...
06/10/2026

SWEET SIXTEEN
We’re delighted to have picked up 16 finalists at this year’s AGDA Awards. From podcasts to pad thais, large-scale identities to small, it’s a thrill to see the work we love get recognised.

🔴 Bad Ass Bi***es in Brand
Brand Identity: Small Business
Brand Expression: Tone of Voice
Brand Identity: Campaign
Design Craft: Photography
Design Craft: Writing
Design for Good

✏️ Plan Partners
Design Craft: Photography for Design
Brand Identity: Large Business
Design for Good

🍜 Lendlease Melbourne Quarter
Brand Identity: Campaign
Brand Identity: Large Business

🦘Brand Australia
Brand Identity: Sonic Identity
Motion: Sonic

🚘 NRMA
Brand Identity: Large Business

🏃🏽‍♀️ Health Partners
Writing for Design

🐦 Humm
Design Craft: Illustration

A huge thank you to our clients for backing brave work, and to the team who made it. Congrats to all the other finalists. See you on awards night in November.

NEW WORK Excited to share our work for Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast, a brand built by women, for industry women....
14/09/2026

NEW WORK

Excited to share our work for Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast, a brand built by women, for industry women.

BABIB was born in response to the creative industry’s visibility problem. Women make up around 60% of the entry-level creative workforce, yet hold just 29% of senior roles.

The podcast brings together women at every stage of a creative career, from finding their feet to the messy middle and established industry leaders, sharing their nonlinear journeys, failures, lessons and all the funny bits in between. It takes the conversations women are already having with each other and says them out loud, so others coming through can learn from them and feel a little less alone.

It’s been pretty special as a studio to watch this brand grow from an idea into what it is today. Created, produced and hosted by our GM Stacey Saunders, BABIB was brought to life by an all-female Houston design team led by our Design Director Jacquie Halloran, alongside Julia Mooney, Brittney Angus and Rachel Percival.

The identity was never going to be quiet. Rather than soft palettes and palatable femininity, we went for the opposite: bright red, bold, unfiltered, fun and unapologetically badass.

Bold typography puts women’s words first, while the verbal identity is built from the insights and lessons shared on the show. A recording-light circle signals something worth hearing, while Juli Balla’s photography reclaims old-school symbols of power for the women rewriting the rules.

In less than a year: 7,000+ streams across 17 countries, 300,000+ social views, 60,000+ LinkedIn impressions and four direct job placements.

A self-initiated project, built on a shoestring budget with no media spend or podcast network behind it. Just word of mouth, reshares and, more importantly, the collective drive of women in brand to make other women more visible. ❤️

A huge thank you to all our supplier partners who helped us bring this brand to life along the way.

Full case study available via the link in bio

NEW WORK Excited to share our work for Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast a brand built by women, for industry women.BA...
14/09/2026

NEW WORK

Excited to share our work for Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast a brand built by women, for industry women.

BABIB was born in response to the creative industry’s visibility problem. Women make up around 60% of the entry-level creative workforce, yet hold just 29% of senior roles.

The podcast brings together women at every stage of a creative career, from finding their feet to the messy middle and established industry leaders, sharing their nonlinear journeys, failures, lessons and all the funny bits in between. It takes the conversations women are already having with each other and says them out loud, so others coming through can learn from them and feel a little less alone.

It’s been pretty special as a studio to watch this brand grow from an idea into what it is today. Created, produced and hosted by our GM Stacey Saunders, BABIB was brought to life by an all-female Houston design team led by our Design Director Jacquie Halloran, alongside Julia Mooney, Brittney Angus and Rachel Percival.

The identity was never going to be quiet. Rather than soft palettes and palatable femininity, we went for the opposite: bright red, bold, unfiltered, fun and unapologetically badass.

Bold typography puts women’s words first, while the verbal identity is built from the insights and lessons shared on the show. A recording-light circle signals something worth hearing, while Juli Balla’s photography reclaims old-school symbols of power for the women rewriting the rules.

In less than a year: 7,000+ streams across 17 countries, 300,000+ social views, 60,000+ LinkedIn impressions and four direct job placements.

A self-initiated project, built on a shoestring budget with no media spend or podcast network behind it. Just word of mouth, reshares and, more importantly, the collective drive of women in brand to make other women more visible. ❤️

A huge thank you to all our supplier partners who helped us bring this brand to life along the way.

Full case study available via the link in bio

18/08/2026

Delighted to hear we are up for 9 nominations at this years Best Design Awards. 3 nominations for our beloved Badass Bi***es In Brand The Podcast. 3 for Plan Partners and 2 for our campaign with Melbourne Quarter. Congrats to the other finalists, and excited to hear how we go over the ditch later this year.

NEW WORKExcited to share our work for Plan Partners – a special one for us.For anyone who’s tried to make sense of NDIS ...
02/08/2026

NEW WORK

Excited to share our work for Plan Partners – a special one for us.

For anyone who’s tried to make sense of NDIS funding, you’ll know the feeling: a wall of paperwork before you’ve even accessed the support you need. Plan Partners exists to lift that weight. So, we set out to build a brand that reflected the calm and clarity they bring to customers’ every day lives.

Calm by Design became the idea behind it all: with a system drawn from the familiar tools of planning – highlighters, notebooks, pens, sticky notes – designed to bring confidence and sense of organisation rarely seen in this space. 

Huge thanks to our collaborators on this project who ensured that accessibility was the rule, not the exception:

📸 Chris Gurney Chris D’Cruz Gurney B&A AUSTRALIA, who captured portraits of real customers with the kind of individuality and empowerment rarely seen in this space. 

✏️ Olivia King Olivia King, for a custom wordmark built from Inclusive Sans – a typeface so tied to Plan Partners’ purpose it was an easy call. 

✍🏼 Lisa Park Lisa (Kyung Jhin) Park, who brought our toolkit to life through hand-drawn illustrations.

30/07/2026

FINDING THE SOUND OF AUSTRALIA

Brand Australia’s sonic identity started with a challenge.

How does a nation sound? How do you make a country recognisable through sound, the same way it is through colour and symbol?

The answer began with BALARINJI who designed the Nation Brand Mark and worked alongside Houston to roll it out in 2022: 
a visual identity telling the story of Country through flowing waterways, flowering wattle and ancient songlines. The Brand Mark’s sentiment, yamulhu awara ambirriju, was created by Balarinji from the Yanyuwa language of Borroloola in the Northern Territory. It means “good country up ahead, good feeling for the future.” It’s about Australia’s deep Aboriginal heritage and the nation’s irrepressible optimism.

Last year, Houston was asked to bring that same story to sound, a brief we felt honoured to be part of. Building on Brand Australia’s visual identity, we developed a suite of soundscapes alongside Smith & Western Sound and Balarinji: Bush and Rainforest, Billabong, Desert Night, and Ocean and Harbour. Each one built from kookaburra and magpie calls, crashing waves, a crackling fire, alongside everyday expressions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture used with respect and care: clapsticks, didgeridoo, bull roarer, voices.

To honour the project, we commissioned digital artist Sai Karlen Sai Karlen to create a visualiser that weaves identity and sound together. Each note of sound, creating a node of motion.

Built to flex across various mediums, each soundscape runs from a 12-second signature to a full 3-minute composition, grounded in 65,000 years of culture, tuned to a nation moving forward.

21/07/2026

Hi Hello 👋🏼

Exciting news! We’re looking for a Senior Designer to join the team.

🖤 You’ll have 6+ years experience
🖤 Have good experience in building brand systems big and small
🖤 Comfortable combining strategy and craft
🖤 You’re curious, collaborative and passionate about bringing iconic brands to life

Full time. Sydney based, four days a week in our Surry Hills office.

Send your folio to [email protected]

Meet Amanda Szylo-Duncan, our new Chief Strategy Officer.Curious, collaborative and always ready to dive into complexity...
29/06/2026

Meet Amanda Szylo-Duncan, our new Chief Strategy Officer.

Curious, collaborative and always ready to dive into complexity, Amanda brings a wealth of strategic thinking to Houston. We’re so excited for what’s ahead.

Welcome, Amanda!

Last week the creative team got together and took themselves offline and offsite. Part 1: We workshopped our role in a c...
05/06/2026

Last week the creative team got together and took themselves offline and offsite.

Part 1: We workshopped our role in a changing creative industry. Where we’re heading, what we’re making and what kind of work we want to do next.

Part 2: After a few hours of big thinking, we handed the reins to Kubi at Sydney Collage Society and went back to something more tactile. Scissors, paper, glue, equestrian books 🐎. No screens. No prompts. Just making something with our hands, together.

Honestly the perfect one-two. 🧠 ✂️

Say hello to Rachel, our new Midweight Designer!We asked her five questions to introduce her properly. Swipe to see her ...
22/04/2026

Say hello to Rachel, our new Midweight Designer!

We asked her five questions to introduce her properly. Swipe to see her answers.

Welcome to the team, Rachel! 🖤

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Sydney, NSW
2065

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+61294090070

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