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A Smuggler’s House

Work
  1. SCKIntersecting RealitiesArchitecture · Interior Design · 2026
  2. SUB:3Bending Time & SpaceSports Nutrition · FMCG · 2025
  3. KOJAUnapologetically GoodFood · FMCG · 2024
  4. CLOSEDA Smuggler’s HouseHospitality · 2024
  5. Chris SisarichBeauty Amongst The MundanePhotography · 2024
  6. Our Boy RoyThe Friendly NeighbourHospitality · 2022

Independent Practice

How by Why is an independent brand and design practice led by Mark Blackler.

I work directly with founders and teams, bringing strategy and creative direction into the same conversation.

A brief might begin with a name, an identity, packaging, a website or simply the feeling that something isn’t quite right. We use that as a starting point, then work out what the brand actually needs.

Mark Blackler in the HBW studio

Our Philosophy

The answer is rarely in the brief alone.

We ask why before deciding how — looking beyond the immediate request to understand the problem, opportunity or change behind it.

How We Work

Our work begins with understanding.

We don’t run a set process. Strategy, naming, identity, writing, design: we use what the job needs.

(01) Clarify

Understand what exists, what’s changing and what actually needs to be solved.

(02) Shape

Find the position, idea or organising principle that gives the brand direction.

(03) Express

Design the identity, and everything it needs to work day to day.

(04) Support

Stick around after launch, so the brand can grow without losing what made it work.

Contact

If you think we should work together, reach out: mark@hbw.works

Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains, Australia

Brand is not what you see.
It’s what you feel.

Brand is often reduced to what’s visible, a logo, a colour palette, a system at the end.
But that was never the point.
Brand is the feeling that remains after the interaction.

Strong brands don’t begin with design.
They begin with clarity.

What do you stand for?
Why does it matter?
What should people feel?

When that’s clear, everything that follows becomes intentional.

There is no gap between what you say and what people experience.

When they align, trust builds.
When they don’t, people notice.

Consistency is what turns moments into memory.

We start with understanding.
We shape what it becomes.
We express it with intent.

Not as a deliverable,
but as something people feel.

By asking why, we discover how.
How by why

CLOSED

PositionA Smuggler’s House

Context

CLOSED began as a new bar in Newcastle.

The venue and architects were already in place, but there was no name, concept or broader idea connecting what the place could become.

The initial conversation was about creating a brand. The work revealed that the venue first needed something more fundamental: an idea people could build around.

Role

Brand Strategy
Creative Direction
Visual Identity
Signage & Wayfinding
Print
Digital Design

Working Context

Developed while working with The Colour Club.

With

Jordan Lucky / Playstate — Mural
Rebecca Whan + Afifa Intanjudin / Patternshop — Interior & Architecture
Stanley House Studio — Photography

Idea

A Smuggler’s House.

Newcastle’s history of steelworks, docks, the sea and old trade routes became the starting point for an imagined house filled with things accumulated from elsewhere.

CLOSED emerged during that process.

What began as an example of how the concept might be expressed became the name of the venue itself.

Shift

Instead of designing an identity and then applying it to a bar, the central idea gave the venue a world to inhabit.

CLOSED could be elusive, welcoming and slightly illicit at once — a place that felt discovered rather than announced.

The identity became one part of a larger experience rather than the thing expected to carry all of its meaning.

System

The world of A Smuggler’s House extends through the identity, cut-out menus, Raw / Rotten / Loud language, signage, photography direction, print, digital applications and details within the physical venue.

Each expression feels like another object, message or fragment belonging to the same place, allowing the idea to remain coherent without requiring every application to look the same.

Sectors
Hospitality
Disciplines
Brand Strategy · Naming · Visual Identity · Signage & Wayfinding · Website · Print
Year
2024
Featured
The Brand Identity
Credits
Mark Blackler, Sasha Burger