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Bending Time & Space

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

SUB:3

PositionBending Time & Space

Context

SUB:3 was a new performance nutrition brand with its name already in place. The task was to create the identity and packaging for its launch.

Role

Creative Direction
Visual Identity
Packaging
Motion

Working Context

Developed while working with The Colour Club.

Idea

Bending Time & Space. SUB:3 takes its name from the pursuit of a sub-three-hour marathon — a goal defined by time. That became the organising idea for the identity: time not simply as information, but as something runners are constantly trying to compress, stretch and overcome.

Shift

The identity became stronger when it stopped behaving like a fixed graphic and started behaving like the idea itself. Type stretches, compresses and reforms; time becomes an active part of the brand rather than something simply recorded beside it.

System

The idea moves through the system: changing typography, timecode lock-ups, packaging built around moments before and after the run, reflective material and motion that continually forms and reforms. The same principle gives static and moving applications a shared behaviour.

Sectors
Sports Nutrition · FMCG
Disciplines
Visual Identity · Packaging
Year
2025
Collaborators
The Colour Club
Credits
Mark Blackler, Nick Mitchell, Matt Cherubino, Teel Studios