Acknowledgement of Country

Right Angle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and pay our respects to the Elders past and present.

The Regent

  • Clients

    SMA Projects

  • Year

    2023–2024

  • Location

    Melbourne

  • Scope

    Creative Direction, Vision, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Display Suite Experience Design, Marketing & Communications

  • Photography

    Emily Weaving

Fitzroy, Melbourne’s first suburb, has a stranglehold on global cool lists, rarely dropping outside the top ten neighbourhoods worldwide. Over the past four decades its arc has seen it transform from working class suburb, to counter-culture capital, to culinary hot bed, to global destination. The arts are what built the neighbourhood we know today, and their legacy remains strong, with institutions, galleries and venues peppering its streets – but the number of forgotten icons has begun to outweigh those still in operation.

When SMA Projects took possession of the site at 84 Johnston Street – once a landmark of Australian screen culture – they didn’t want its legacy to be lost. For much of the 20th century, the stretch of Johnston Street between Brunswick and Nicholson was dominated by The Regent Cinema building – an opulent 2000-seat auditorium that was among the largest in Melbourne. As the glory days of the silver screen waned, The Regent became a live studio for Channel 7, where live-to-audience programs were beamed into the homes and hearts of Australians all over. 

SMA approached Right Angle to develop a creative vision for their latest residential project, we knew we wanted to honour this past and reflect it conceptually through their new development. Our team of creative directors looked high and low for reference points that might inform a treatment for the property: from Pharrell’s Good Time Hotel in Miami to Luca Guadagnino set design, and even our own Paramount House and Golden Age Cinema in Sydney.

This document set Right Angle, SMA Projects and Studio Tate – the interior architects for the project – on a journey as we delivered a storytelling experience that reinvented the golden era of the site. The name was staying – The Regent would provide a residential experience that married the glamour of the silver screen with everything that was great about Fitzroy.

Over the next 12 months, our involvement with the project expanded from creative direction and vision work to narrative development, brand identity, marketing strategy, an immersive display suite experience, a project film produced in collaboration with Rathbone and a full campaign rollout. All our touchpoints were imbued with the language of cinema – we introduced cinematic vignettes to sit alongside still photography; our art direction for renders embraced sweeping widescreen views; document design introduced subtle nods to script layouts; our tone of voice was prosaic and dramatic. An immersive 

Our work was recognised at the 2025 Melbourne Design Awards, where we received awards for both our Brand Identity work and our collaboration with Studio Tate on the display suite experience.

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Paramount Recreation Club
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Golden Age Cinema & Bar