- The Power of Purpose-Driven Design
- Building Brand Capital Through Equity Models
- Data as Creative Catalyst
- Intuition and Emotional Intelligence in Design
- Generative Systems: The Future of Brand Identity
- Human-Centred Marketing: The Through Line
- Practical Takeaways for Marketers
- How Spicy Web Brings Design Thinking to Life
Notes
Spicy Web Attended The Design Conference in Brisbane.
News — Explore the core design thinking principles discussed at The Design Conference Australia and how marketers (like ourselves) can apply these insights to improve their advertising, UX, and campaign performance.
Posted by Dominic Hudson
30.06.2025
Spicy Web had the privilege of attending The Design Conference 2025 in Brisbane, a wonderfully confronting experience that expanded our creative horizons and introduced us to sacred knowledge at the intersection of marketing, design, and human behaviour. Hosted at the iconic Brisbane Powerhouse, this immersive three-day journey featured inspiring speakers, visionary panels, and bold ideas that left us buzzing with creativity and a renewed sense of purpose.
The Design Conference brought together friends, collaborators, and studios from across Australia and overseas. It blurred the boundaries between commerce, community, and culture. For marketers seeking to evolve beyond performance-driven metrics, it was a masterclass in shaping brand narratives, challenging assumptions, and imagining a dream future.
As a strategic digital partner, we seek out these moments of inspiration to ensure our clients benefit from the most progressive thinking in the industry. What we learn, we apply—directly to the work we do with businesses looking for more than incremental gains.
In this article, we reflect on the powerful sessions and personal moments that defined our time at TDC Brisbane—and how these insights can inform the way we create, connect, and expand our thinking.
In this guide, we outline how marketers can use design thinking:
The Power of Purpose-Driven Design
Andrew Hoyne’s keynote on “Profit with Purpose” exemplified the core ethos of The Design Conference. After 34 years at the helm of his studio, Hoyne has become a leader in designing with intention—placing human connection and community impact at the centre of commercial strategy.
“Purpose-driven organisations don’t just perform—they transform,” Hoyne shared. His work reframes marketing not as storytelling, but as a tool for systemic change.
This idea mirrors how we approach our own work at Spicy Web. We don’t bolt on messaging after the fact—we bake clarity of purpose into every layer of your digital strategy. If you're looking to build a brand that leads with meaning and delivers with impact, you need a partner who sees the bigger picture.
Building Brand Capital Through Equity Models
Phoebe Devine of Previously Unavailable challenged the room with a radically different approach: taking equity in the studios, businesses and start-ups they help build. This shift from fee-for-service to shared risk and reward is designed to foster alignment, trust, and long-term value.
“When you invest, you care differently,” Devine said. Their success with brands like Tracksuit shows how shared ownership drives both creativity and accountability. It’s an idea that resonated deeply across multiple sessions, hinting at a future where agency relationships become more like creative co-founders.
For marketing leaders, the challenge is to choose partners who’ll create with you—not just for you. If you're tired of transactional agency relationships, we offer something different: true creative collaboration built on trust, honesty, and accountability.
Data as Creative Catalyst
From Lithuania, Augustinas Paukštė of Andstudio offered a compelling perspective on using data to drive daring ideas. Their rebrand of Lithuania’s sacred basketball team, Žalgiris, was bold and risky—but grounded in over 2,000 fan interviews and cultural immersion.
Paukštė didn’t just analyse data—he managed to feel it. The result was a brand designed to honour tradition while provoking debate. Their use of synthetic data and instant AI focus groups points to a future where tools and information accelerate validation, helping marketers test bold ideas in near-real time.
This fusion of data and intuition is exactly how we operate at Spicy Web. Whether we're testing creative for a paid media campaign or redesigning a site’s user experience, our decisions are grounded in evidence, not guesswork.
For businesses balancing brand building with short-term performance, we bring the tools and the thinking to satisfy both. Insight-led, results-focused.
Intuition and Emotional Intelligence in Design
Sam Southwell’s “Design as Intuition” talk was one of the most quietly powerful sessions of the entire conference. He spoke about reading emotional currents—not just in consumers, but within teams, projects, and studios.
“Most people miss what’s being said without words,” Southwell explained. His method of showing clients only one, fully-considered concept was a lesson in emotional intelligence, clarity, and conviction.
In a world full of options, sometimes fewer choices lead to better outcomes. For us, we practise this daily. We don’t overwhelm clients with 10 half-baked ideas. We guide you through strategic decisions with confidence and care, bringing one clear, fully-realised solution to the table—crafted to fit your brand and your audience perfectly.
If you're looking for a digital partner who listens, who simplifies the complex, and who treats your brand like their own—you’ve found us.
Generative Systems: The Future of Brand Identity
Justin Colt and Jose Fresneda from The Collected Works showcased an identity system built for constant evolution. Their brand work for Slug Club kombucha featured a living, breathing logo—changing constantly but always recognisable.
Their question—“What if identity could adapt like people do?”—perfectly captured the mood of TDC Brisbane 2025. In a world of multi-channel fragmentation, websites, social, packaging, and media assets all demand fluidity. This isn’t just future-forward—it’s a dream future for performance marketers trying to maintain cohesion across shifting touchpoints.
It’s a reminder that designing isn’t just about control—it’s about intelligent flexibility. This is especially relevant for businesses operating across multiple platforms, where your brand needs to feel familiar but never stale. At Spicy Web, we build design systems and campaign assets that scale effortlessly across touchpoints—ensuring brand coherence, no matter the channel.
From rebrands to performance marketing assets, we’ll help you stay relevant, recognisable, and ready for what’s next.
Human-Centred Marketing: The Through Line
The design conference wasn’t just a series of talks—it was a string of human moments. That theme hit hardest in Daniel Ting Chong’s session. His move from South Africa to Australia and his work with his daughter on Super Stoma showed how design, storytelling, and identity come together in the most personal ways.
Ting Chong’s illustrated characters—crafted with love and purpose—reminded us that the best creative work doesn’t just perform. It heals. It helps. It moves. These are the stories that stay with you well after the ticket’s scanned and the lights come up.
That philosophy sits at the core of everything we do. Whether we’re mapping a user journey, designing a site, or launching a campaign, we never lose sight of the people it’s built for. We ask: What do they feel? What do they need? What will actually help them?
This is what marketing should be: human-centred, outcomes-driven, and emotionally intelligent.
Practical Takeaways for Marketers
- Embed purpose from the start: Don't bolt on purpose as an afterthought. Use Andrew Hoyne's framework to ensure every creative decision ladders up to a meaningful mission.
- Experiment with partnership models: Consider equity-based relationships with creative partners to unlock deeper commitment and bolder ideas.
- Use data to enable, not constrain: Follow Andstudio's model of using research to defend creative bravery rather than dilute it.
- Develop emotional intelligence: Invest in understanding the unstated needs of both internal stakeholders and customers.
- Think in systems, not assets: Build flexible, creative frameworks that can evolve with your brand rather than static guidelines.
How Spicy Web Brings Design Thinking to Life
At Spicy Web, we’re not just attendees—we’re practitioners. Every campaign, every website, and every marketing strategy we deliver is built with the kind of human-centred insight we experienced at The Design Conference in Brisbane.
Our digital marketing services are designed to connect, resonate, and perform. From brand transformation to UX strategy, we help clients create meaningful interactions that drive real results.
Let’s build something together—something special, strategic, and human.
