NFSA Exhibition Concept & Brand DesignSpeculative concept, submitted as part of job application, 2025
The brief: Make Australia's audiovisual heritage feel urgent and relevant to contemporary audiences.
What I developed: An exhibition concept and visual direction titled "Archival is Cool" — repositioning the NFSA as a cultural pattern-recognition institution. The concept drew direct connections between historical collecting crazes in the NFSA archive and contemporary phenomena: Cabbage Patch Kids riots to Labubu queues, 1980s arcade obsession to mobile gaming addiction. The central argument was simple — human behaviour hasn't changed, only the products have.
I explored a visual look and feel across colour, typography and layout to communicate the conceptual direction and demonstrate how a refreshed aesthetic could attract younger, culturally curious audiences while remaining grounded in the archive's heritage.
The thinking: The same FOMO, social contagion, and dopamine-driven collecting behaviour that drove 1980s toy riots is alive in every Labubu queue today. Archives don't just preserve the past — they decode the present. That instinct has since found an echo in CJ Harvey's work with JujJU dolls, which engages the same cultural territory around slowing down and reconnecting through tactile, community-oriented collecting.
The outcome: An exhibition concept where contemporary audiences — from teens to young families — can recognise themselves in the patterns of the past. Not a lesson in history, but an invitation to see how fascinatingly, reassuringly human we've always been.
Speculative submission — conceptual and strategic thinking only, not a fully executed project. Photos from Unsplash & Pexels.
Sinclair's Restaurant, Penrith Architectural & Interior Photography
Sinclair's Restaurant sits on the banks of the Nepean River in Penrith — a beautifully considered interior by Team Two Architects, Sydney, that brings warmth, materiality and a strong sense of place to Western Sydney's dining scene.
Sinclair's was awarded its first Chef's Hat by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide in late 2024 — just twelve months after opening — and has since retained it, a remarkable achievement for a restaurant that has helped redefine dining in Western Sydney.
These photographs were taken to capture the quality and character of the space — the way light moves through it, the texture of the materials, and the relationship between the interior and the river beyond.
Photography: Gayna Murphy, 2023
Graphic Designer,
editorial eye.
Gayna Murphy | Thirty years of design experience. Selected work below.
Brand Assets & Content Creation You have the brand — the logo, the colours, the guidelines. What you need is someone who can take that foundation and run with it, producing a consistent stream of polished assets across every channel and format.
Social tiles, EDMs, newsletters, web banners, presentation templates, internal communications — I work within your existing brand framework to create content that looks considered and on-brand every time, without needing the brief explained twice.
This is what I do best — embedded in a brand, understanding it deeply, and producing consistently to a high standard.
