Step into Alma Supply Store in the sandstone heritage corner building on Macquarie Street, Hobart where owners Aneka and Mark have curated a selection of hand-picked homewares, apparel, textiles and objects from around the world. Each item is beautiful and useful.

Lousy! was hired to translate the atmosphere of the store into a brand identity. A contemporary sans-serif typeface was chosen for the logo, coloured in a bright vermillion red. A secondary script font was selected to juxtapose the blockiness of the logo type - a seeming contradition of old and new; contemporary and classic, like the store itself.

‘Alma’ was named after Aneka’s maternal grandmother, one of the first Italian immigrants to Australia. Described as ‘a glamorous woman who was very resourceful, making little look like a lot’, Alma loved birds and painted them often. To honour her story, we created a series of six bird illustrations. Three are woodblock-inspired illustrations, full of detail and Australian flora, while the other three are flat, geometric shapes.

The contrast between the style of birds, the typefaces, and the colours allow for an identity that can be ‘mix and matched’ depending on use.

We also assisted with the design of a simple Square website, for the business to be able to track inventory across the physical shop and online store.

Ongoing work for Alma includes e-commerce photography, merch design, and graphic design for print items such as gift vouchers and tags.