About R&B

We are thinkers We are designers. We create strategies. We dream. We construct. We connect. We build brands to belong to. We celebrate new ways of thinking.

R

Rob Bare - Director

Rob is the left brain in this right-brain outfit. Or vice versa. He has vision and can see both the wood and the trees. Rob has a marketing degree which, with his innate mix of style and street smarts, allows him to successfully run a world-class design agency.

Rob knows success is not only about good design, but about supporting and empowering clients at a strategic level.

B

Bel Bare - Creative Director

Bel is a designer by birth, born with sketchbook in hand and an eye for beauty and symmetry in all things. She is insightful and uncommonly creative. Bel turns the mundane into the beautiful, and the ordinary into the quietly powerful.

Bel has been privileged to work with an assortment of national and international clients over the past 18 years.

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The glue that makes it stick.

The secret of our success is no secret. We love what we do. The intangibles set us apart from our peers. We love making others look good.

We serve & service our clients. Good design is important. Good conduct is imperative.

BR&.

Culture. Vision. Rejuvenation.

R Rob Bare — Account Director

Rob is a born entrepreneur with a rich experience in marketing, business management and events. At age 29 he has completed a marketing degree, established a successful design agency, co-ordinated large scale events, won awards and established a popular live music venue. This combination of marketing and events is Rob’s passion as he understands the power of building brands through culture and experiences.

Rob attended Griffith University on the Gold Coast where he completed a double Major in Marketing and Management. After leaving University Rob made a living helping in his father’s importing business while also working as a volunteer for The Gold Coast & Hinterland Environment Council (GECKO), he began co-ordinating cultural events. These began as monthly community arts nights which then evolved into an annual large scale, one day festival. This outdoor festival marked the UN’s ‘World Environment Day’ now draws over 4000 people annually.

In October 2000, at just 23, Rob established his own business, Circular Concepts. With his business and arts background combined with a broad understanding of technology, the logical choice was to establish a graphic design business. His knowledge and experience allowed him to offer marketing advice to his clients which in-turn propagated his business through referrals. The business steadily grew over the next few years. Realising his strength as a consultant and manager Rob employed web developers, graphic designers, and project managers to service his quickly growing clientele.

In early 2004 Rob decided to re-enter the events domain. In co-operation with one of his clients, he established The SoundLounge which is the Gold Coast’s favourite live music venue offering weekly concerts to often sell-out crowds. This combination of marketing and events is Rob’s passion as he understands the power of building brands through culture and experiences. The approach is the foundation of creating strong brand recognition and loyalty. Brands in which people believe, belong and that influence their behaviour.

In 2005 Circular Concepts moved into a new premises which was a benchmark of it’s growth and success. In 2006, Rob’s sister Bel, who had been working in Sydney for 14 years as a Creative Director moved back to Queensland. After working casually on various projects together they decided to join forces. On July 1 2006, Circular Concepts became R&B Creative Communication, a very exciting chapter began.

For Rob, R&B Creative Communication was a natural evolution. Born on the same day 5 years apart, Rob & Bel have inherent synergy. Bel now directs the creative department of R&B bringing experience and knowledge that is rarely seen, especially on the Gold Coast. Rob now gives total focus to his role as Account Director, guiding clients on marketing, brand and communication strategies. Since it’s short inception the Gold Coast business market has realised the R&B opportunity with several multi-million dollar companies and organisations being added to the client list already.

B Bel Bare — Creative Director

With a distinguished 17 year career producing innovative design and brand strategies in Australia and abroad, Bel Bare is the creative strength behind R&B Creative Communication. During her career which began in 1988, Bel has worked successfully as a Graphic Designer, Art Director and Creative Director, as well as pursuing her interest in film production, working as an Assistant Director and TVC Producer.

At age 24, after working in a number of advertising agencies and design studios, Bel was appointed Creative Director of ABT (Sydney) where she began working with blue chip clients such as IBM, Panasonic, Schroders, Price Waterhouse, Micropay, Vodafone, Colonial, Nissan, BP Australia, BHP, The Salvation Army, Apple, Goodyear and Coles Myer. Her key responsibilities as a Creative Director of the Sydney team were to ensure creative briefs were met and delivered across a broad range of mediums including print, interactive media, internet, film, photography, environment and exhibition design and live performance.

After two years, Bel commenced freelance Creative Director work, while maintaining ABT as her key client. She soon attracted further blue chip clients such as Westpac, MLC, Micropay, PeopleSoft, Nestlé, The Australian Maritime Museum and AMP and was commissioned by ABT to pitch for a large scale Qantas project which her team won.

This project was integral to the success of Qantas Flight Catering headed up by chef Neil Perry and involved creating an internal brand for the Business Class cabin crew of Qantas. The aim was to inspire and educate in regard to the new in-flight service protocols for business class passengers. A name and logo was launched as well as a corporate film, photographic library and a ‘mock’ Rockpool inspired restaurant which was built within Qantas headquarters. The success of the ‘Re-Fresh’ project has resulted in Qantas Airlines winning multiple in-flight service awards

This freelance creative work provided Bel with the opportunity to work with a large variety of clients including being commissioned as Creative Director heading up a major brand audit and brand architecture project aligning 78 brands within the Challenger Group. The task required distilling the corporation’s brand essence and developing a consistent visual style which could be carried forward by the advertising agency’s permanent creative team. Also, during this time, Amirati Puris Lintas commissioned Bel to assist in the brand development of the Woolworths - Commonwealth Bank Ezy Banking product and she was flown to London regularly to Art Direct ‘Decorating Magazine’ for the Australian and UK market. Bel was also commissioned to take part in an intensive major brand rejuvenation ‘think tank’ for AMP.

She was approached by Momentum Pictures and Peach Advertising to act as Producer on a second series of three television commercials for the EPA ‘It’s a Living Thing’ campaign. This opportunity came about as a result of Bel’s involvement as Assistant Director on the first TVC shoot for the launch of the ‘It’s a Living Thing’ campaign. During this time Bel also managed to work as Art Director and assistant Director on several other film projects including documentaries, commercials and music videos for clients such as Sony Music (LA), Daikyo and Billabong.

In 2004 John Susman of Fisheads Marketing arranged for Bel to develop a ‘brand rejuvenation’ campaign for Steve Costi Seafoods which was rolled out across their 22 stores. This project involved retail environment concept development, in-store procedures manual, advertising and promotional campaign, development of the Quick Cook System (icon based instructions to assist POS and customer product identification and selection) and magazine concept development. Based on the success of this roll-out, Bel went on to develop the Costi’s Famous Fish Café brand with John, with stores opening in the Rocks (Sydney) and Sydney International Airport. This included menu development, packaging, ‘retail experience’ creative development and restaurant fit-out conceptualization. More recently, John Susman hired R&B to create the Kinkawooka Shellfish identity, retail and food service packaging and marketing program collateral which is currently being rolled out in Woolworths supermarkets.

Bel has joined forces with her brother Rob to launch R&B Creative Communication utilizing her global perspective and corporate experience. Bel is bringing her unique industry insight to some of Queensland’s largest organizations and is driven to be at the forefront of the brand development and creative strategies arena. Bel is equally concerned with providing her clients with completely personalized, high impact solutions.