Mad Skills and Milestones

 Well, it doesn’t get more personal than celebrating a significant birthday. Our boutique retail space is turning two! We will be celebrating this milestone by signing a new lease and completing the renovations on the store which will then complete the Byzantine Design concept. As I’m not a person to do things by halves, I decided to acknowledge our presence by adding the Byzantine Design logo to the building. Naturally I wanted to do something different, in a way that reflected the beauty of the products we work with. Having moved to Melbourne almost 3 years ago, I think that commissioning an art piece such as the one now wrapped around the building, makes me a true Melbournian! I really love how Melbourne embraces the Arts and it is literally a part of the landscape.

We have all heard the doom and gloom stats on the longevity of small businesses, so the fact that we are in an even stronger position than originally, makes me extremely proud. Byzantine Design has evolved so much from the first day we opened the doors. The aim is to be able to supply surface finishes from the front gate to the back fence and we have even added an installation team to keep up with demand.

Now the logo has been completed and I couldn’t be happier! The concept started with simply wanting my logo on the side of the building. I approached two urban artists DEM189 and Sirum1, who were working on a piece on the neighbouring building. I learned that they have been involved with graffiti murals in the area for the last ten years. DEM189 came up with a brilliant concept which involved redoing the entire wall incorporating my mosaic patterns within the piece. I was sold.

Their creative process was a fusion of styles. The starting point was Byzantine Design’s logo & palette - grey, white, black and pops of yellow. Inspired by the logo's colours and patterns, they then mixed it up with their signature style. Dem189 explained “We wanted the mural to be a balance of commercial and something organic. The piece is actually an extension of a wall we just painted around the corner. We wanted to have it as an art piece creeping and evolving in the buildings”. The idea is that Byzantine Design is meant to be here and is part of the local urban landscape. This gives permanence to the business’s presence but in a modern application. “We have painted a lot of different walls around Collingwood, Fitzroy and Coburg. We also paint a lot in abandoned places, so go for an adventure and discover them.”

Here are the links for the artists if you would like to see more of their fab work:

http://www.dem189.com/
http://komplexgraphix.com/about/

Thank you all for your ongoing support of Byzantine Design. 
Stay tuned for more exciting news as we continue to add to our offering.

That's it from us for this week, 'til next time our tile obsessed friends... 

XOXO Byzantine Design  

Changing the World one tile at a time.