JHB

Graphic design · Book

Private homes, luxury hotel interiors

Interiors for the Palazzo, the Beverly Hills and 54 on Bath. A coffee table book and a site built at the volume the work set.

Client
David Muirhead & Associates
Year
2014
Scope
Coffee table book, Stationery, Web design, Build
A flat-lay grid of interior spreads from the David Muirhead coffee-table book.
Interior spreads, coffee table book.

(Overview)The book came first. Everything after it took its measure from a printed page, not a screen.

(The brief)David Muirhead runs an interiors practice working across four areas: residential, retail, hospitality and corporate. The work was already photographed, and photographed well, so the job was not to dress it up. It was to build a book and a website that could carry the pictures at full size without getting in front of them.

The Design Process spread from the David Muirhead monograph, the words set very large across the left page.
Design process, in the book
The David Muirhead site open on a laptop in a dark lounge, the whippet and wordmark filling the screen.
The practice's own image
The Design Team spread, the studio photographed under lights across both pages.
The design team, in the book
The David Muirhead site on a phone left on a marble side table, the whippet and wordmark on screen.
The site, on a phone
Finished rooms, in sequence

(The pace)A book sets its own pace. A full page of image, a short caption, then you turn. The site was built to that rhythm rather than to a template.

(What shipped)The book divides the practice into its four areas and gives each one its own run of spreads. The website follows the same split, with a separate index for the hotels, one for the ten homes in the residential collection, and one for the exhibitions at Decorex and Rooms on View. A six-person studio, and the home page opens on a greyhound rather than a building.

Colour

Type

Aa set in Triste.Triste Primary
Aa set in Avenir Light.Avenir Light Secondary

A display serif for the spreads, a light sans underneath them.

Website

Home. DM&A over a whippet portrait.
Home, scrolled. The practice introduced.
Philosophy. David Muirhead, photographed in studio.
The team. Six-person studio portrait.
Showcase. Residential, hospitality, corporate, exhibitions.
Showcase, scrolled. Residential into hospitality.
Residential collection. Ten homes listed.
Apartment Living. Kitchen, living area, bedroom.
Hospitality collection. 54 On Bath, Beverly Hills, Palazzo.
54 On Bath. Lobby, marble floors, contemporary lighting.
Exhibitions collection. Decorex and Rooms on View.
Exhibition project. Botanical wallpaper installation.
In the media. Press coverage, filed by date.
Andrew Martin Interior Design Review. One press feature.
Contact. Randburg office, map, contact form.
01 / 15
The David Muirhead monograph closed on a marble table in a low-lit lounge.
The book, on the table
An open book spread dividing the practice into residential, retail, hospitality and corporate.
Practice areas, in the book
The Hospitality collection divider in the monograph, a grid of project photographs facing the section title.
Hospitality
A hotel restaurant in the monograph, patterned red walls and a chandelier over the tables.
A hotel restaurant

Print set the pace. The website kept it.

More work

View all work
A single Urban Barista No. 22 bag in teal and ochre, the Pretoria skyline along the bottom.
Packaging Three roasts you order by number
A woman in a pale blue coat walking the full length of the Fine Living storefront, the carrier bag at her side and the shop sign above.
Storefront A 600m² showroom, on every surface
The ANS mark: layered orange and red chevrons beside the Australian Niugini Services wordmark.
Trade A mark for the Australia⁠–⁠PNG corridor
A nurse checking a small child in a consulting room.
Product One immunisation record, three readers
A scuffed white Oiltech hard hat hanging on a steel column, the workshop running away behind it.
Identity An identity for forty years of hydraulics
The Ogese Group wordmark in gold, centred over Africa on a dark world map traced with city lights.
Group One parent mark, three businesses
A black swing tag on a cotton string hanging against deep grey buttoned velvet, the YSD monogram embossed on it.
Furniture Every sofa named after a stone
The South China Clothing mark as a white neon blade sign over a wet Hong Kong street at night.
Identity One corporate clothing spec, four cities
The Officine Italia mark: a Venetian gondola and gondolier in black silhouette above the wordmark.
Experiences Three ways into Italy, from Johannesburg
An architect's office at dusk with the Veld Architects site open on a laptop.
Practice Twenty years of houses, philosophy second
The Social Link heart mark: clustered dots in many colours forming a heart.
Portal Carers placed, one shift at a time
A sheet of CT slices held against a clinical interior, the IntriHEALTH mark over it.
Platform Africa's largest clinical image archive

Most of these are still in use.

Contact

Oiltech Systems. Brand and website, 2016.

A small hydraulics office at night, lit only by the monitor on the desk. The Oiltech Systems site is open on the screen, a work jacket hangs over the empty chair, and framed hydraulic schematics line the block wall beside an open doorway onto an unlit workshop.