People and place.

Two years ago, our organisation embarked on an ambitious but necessary journey to unite four entities under one new name and brand. As the visual identity began to take shape, we realised it was crucial that we were authentic in every aspect. After all, rebranding a 43-year-old organisation is no small feat and we had one opportunity to do it right. This led to an idea to engage an Aboriginal artist to create a custom artwork as a way of embracing Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people and culture.  

The talented artist behind the artwork is Jasmine Miikika Craciun, a multi-media artist and graphic designer who resides on Gadigal land. You can read more about Jasmine here. 

The brief  

Zeal Futures was very much a departure from our previous brands, bringing a modern and fresh approach to the industry. Despite this transformation, one constant throughout the project was our commitment to retaining and protecting our heritage, legacy, and reputation. This formed one part of the brief; the connection between our past, present, and future. We wanted the artwork to celebrate our future while paying homage to our past.

The second part of the brief was to incorporate our purpose of helping others because, at its core, that is what Zeal Futures is all about. Our purpose is to help everyone thrive and we do that by connecting people to learning and employment, by upskilling, or by helping businesses and communities to grow. That’s why one of our core values is putting people first.   

The result  

The core elements you see in the final piece are the green waratah anemone, the shellfish, the U shapes, and the abstract blue map. The layers are reminiscent of the Land, People, and Place.   

The shellfish tells us where people connected, gathered, and shared food. The U shape is also symbolic of people.   

The waratah anemone represents the NSW coastline, while the abstract blue shape is inspired by a map of the places we service across NSW.  

We connect a lot of people to training, education, and employment, so this artwork resonates with who we are both as people and as an organisation while paying homage to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees and students in our organisation, both past, present, and future.