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From School Friends to Successful Founders, Paul Buljevic of PBD Architects and Nick Sammut of TOAST have a collaborative creative history that has seen them successfully helm independent design businesses with near two decade tenures. A friendship spanning close to 30 years, dating back to their shared school years in The Shire, Paul and Nick are an impressive force to be reckoned with.
Paul Buljevic is the Owner and Managing Director of PBD Architects, a multi-disciplined design practice working on residential, commercial and interior projects across Australia’s East Coast. His firm is committed to creating buildings that meet objectives of the project brief and adhere to the highest architectural standard. The ethos of PBD is a combination of functional, efficient spatial planning with quality, timeless architecture.
Nick Sammut is the Founder and Managing/Creative Director of TOAST, a strategic branding agency based in Sydney and Brisbane that partners with independent startups through to corporate conglomerates. With a core belief that brands have the power to improve people’s lives and change the world we live in, TOAST crafts brands, shapes experiences and supports the strategic growth of businesses and institutions across Australia.
The successful foundation of Paul and Nick’s respective businesses winds back to a shared beginning. With similar passions in business and design, the two shared an office in the Holt & Hart precinct of Surry Hills and for four years worked together in a creative cache, building their thriving businesses of today. Despite moving out to separate offices (due to positively rapid team expansions!) their fields of work continue to connect, with PBD and TOAST having worked together on numerous award-winning projects, recognised for both architectural and branding excellence.
Such as,
This success of their business partnership is testament to the unified power of brand and architecture. Imbued with detailed Place Visions, a tailored Place Narrative, captivating Community Engagement and purposeful Placemaking, brand is what brings a place to life.
Through evocative site activation and nuanced logotype assets, a successful branding suite elevates architectural projects with tangible and relatable platforms from which to launch and foster longevity. Using the avenue of brand to bring a place to life is evidenced in all of TOAST and PBD’s collaborations, with Stage 2 of Sekisui House’s masterplan ‘Sanctuary’ as a key example. Our teams collaboratively brought to life the Sanctuary creative vision through a brand-first approach, TOAST’s ‘Branded House’ framework translating into PBD’s design vision to build a robust placemaking foundation. Both TOAST’s multifaceted masterplan logo design and PBD’s Stage 2 architectural style take inspiration from the naturally occurring intersections of nature, the variations in colour and texture across our landscape and the beauty found in the richness of our earth.
Employing a brand-first approach in architectural design and property branding crafts places that are engrained with depth of meaning. Through exploring the inspiration behind a project’s architectural vision and auditing the surrounding site, its historical connections, existing wayfinding and community engagement, strategic branding can build on sticky, resounding findings to individualise a site and bring it to life.
Following this approach, PBD and TOAST have an extensive portfolio of successful project collaborations:
The teams’ combined skill is unmissable. TOAST and PBD’s most recent collaboration was on the ‘Coastal Collection’ by luxury developer, Luxcon, launched in October of 2022. This 2-part renowned beachfront offering, featuring projects Escape and Bohemian, is set to redefine the Gold Coast and Byron Bay beachfronts, akin to the residential masterpiece ‘Coast,’ which broke real estate records in Queensland.
A well-established property or place brand tells a story, it connects customers to the design vision, site history and overall place narrative. Crafting a brand identity and personality around a property creates an emotional connection between place, brand and customers.
As Future Makers™, TOAST empowers places by providing compelling brand footprints that enthral audiences with the unique attributes and core purposes of the spaces they experience, whilst PBD ensures the end product is designed not only to be of the highest aesthetic standard but also meets the intended target market.
When the fields of architecture and brand come together, places of power, passion and purpose come alive and remain impactful destinations for years to come.
We always seek to support brands, organisations and initiatives working to better the future of our world. Please reach out to our team with any questions and project queries, or email our Head Strategist, Emile Rastoll, or Nick Sammut our Managing / Creative Director at hello@toastcreative.com.au.
For more information about our brand and business solutions, please get in touch with our team.
At TOAST, we create strategic campaigns and creative brand identities which engage multiple stakeholders, uniting them around a common goal - to create a better future for Australia.
We are Brand Makers.
We are Place Makers.
We are Future Makers.
At TOAST, we are Makers.
