Colour
Colour has a high importance to a brand – it shows up on the website, in pitch decks, on research papers, in credentials. If the palette isn’t right, nothing else sits properly.
Bench already had a colour palette, that is bold and an integral part of it’s identity. It wasn’t broken — it just wasn’t working as hard as it could.
The hierarchy wasn’t clear enough to apply consistently across everything: the website, research papers, credentials deck, brand guidelines. And when Bench Connect came along with its own UI needs, the existing palette didn’t have enough range to flex into a product environment without things starting to look off.
So we didn’t start from scratch. We tightened the hierarchy of what was already there — clarified which colours lead, which support, which are functional — and then built out a secondary palette specifically for the Bench Connect UI and across other formats.
Imagery
The three imagery categories were designed to keep the system flexible without becoming messy, imagery was structured into three buckets that teams can reliably work from:
1) Peculiar
Abstract, intriguing visuals with tension or scale—used to create emotional pull and a sense of “big picture” thinking. This category supports Bench’s bolder brand personality and keeps creative from becoming predictable.
2) Advertising
Real advertising environments: out-of-home placements, street-level media, transit, billboards, public signage. This keeps the brand anchored in Bench’s world and makes visuals immediately relevant to what they do.
3) Moments in time
Natural human moments in motion—commuting, walking, working, waiting—captured in a way that feels observational rather than staged. The intent is “attention in real life,” not polished lifestyle imagery.
Sourcing + AI approach
Stock sourcing
A clear standard was set for selecting stock imagery that looks modern and authentic (lighting, composition, realism, minimal cliché), with sourcing guidance to keep quality high and outcomes consistent. Adobe Stock was documented as the preferred library to support this.
AI-generated imagery
AI imagery was introduced as a controlled extension of the system—primarily to produce “Peculiar” concepts and one-off visuals that are hard to source. The guide included usage notes so AI outputs still align with Bench’s look (clean, high-contrast, modern), plus basic licensing considerations to avoid misuse.
About Bench Media
Bench Media is an independent, full-service media agency based in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne). They plan, buy, and optimise campaigns across performance, programmatic, and above-the-line channels, backed by data-led strategy and real-time reporting via their proprietary platform, Bench Connect.