Weekdays: NOLA

Local studio Weekdays has revitalised Melbourne's CBD post-lockdown with colourful and welcoming designs. You'll find them on Metro Tunnel construction hoardings around the State Library Station site in the NOLA (north of La Trobe) precinct.

Artwork of walls painted in bold colours with words 'NOLA' and 'Our Community, ‘Our Melbourne’.

About the artist

We spoke with Todd Vanneste of Weekdays to learn more about the design studio's creative process.

I started Weekdays 8 years ago. It started out as a solo practice after I’d done a few years of designing in-house and found I wanted to work on projects I was interested in. The Weekdays team has grown to a core team of five with a collective of others that get involved where suited.

My overall philosophy is to relax and enjoy. Work-wise, I’m inspired by the timeless design we pull from the past and reinterpret for a contemporary setting, like we’ve done for this project.

We pulled a lot of inspiration from the urban landscape – manmade and organic – to graphically reinterpret our environment. We looked at themes around transport, signage, nature and positive thought. Through designing the artwork we ended up creating our own visual language from wording, images, icons, shapes and gestures.

The area has become almost like its own little tunnel world, as when you walk past the hoarding you are surrounded by the artwork. Our intention was to have it feel like its own little world that you have to enter and exit, with the construction being completely secondary as you pass through this visual portal.

I hope visitors don’t take on too much of a direct response but more of subliminal colour and visual imprint response in the back of their consciousness – more of a colour exposure for a brief moment than a direct response to the messaging.

Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys and Mulatu Astatke by Tezeta.