The theme and creative concept for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebration has been unveiled – with designer Marc Newson announced as the event’s artistic director.
November 7th, 2011
Creative agency Imagination Australia – the first agency to be appointed by the City of Sydney to direct the creative of New Year’s Eve at Sydney Harbour – has revealed the theme and concept behind this year’s event.
The Artistic Director of the event will be Australian-born, Europe-based designer Marc Newson – considered by many to be one of the most influential designers of his generation.

Newson will work in collaboration with Imagination Australia, led by General Manager Heath Campanaro, to deliver the event, which is televised to 1.1 billion viewers across the world.
“Working with Newson on a project like NYE has been a dream come true for our creative team,” said Campanaro. “His vision and design ethos have given us a great platform to create a fresh look and feel for every element of the event, and our combined excitement for the project has been really energising.”
The theme for Sydney NYE 2011 is Time to Dream and aims to send a message of hope and optimism to all Australians.

The event logo features purple, turquoise, green and yellow. Violet represents community, peace, social stability and connectedness; blue symbolises the harbour, sky and future aspirations; green represents the environment and new growth, and yellow symbolises optimism and happiness.
“It is essentially the great Australian dream, the dream and possibility of a better life that we all share,” says Campanaro of the thinking behind the design. “We see midnight as a time for people to approach the coming year as a blank canvas.”
Imagination Australia have been engaged by the City of Sydney to creatively direct the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations for the next 3 years.
Imagination Australia
imagination.com
Marc Newson
marc-newson.com
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The Geelong College’s Sport and Wellbeing Centre ‘Belerren’ designed by Wardle is designed around bringing in natural light. But Shade Factor’s job was to help modulate and precisely control it for the most important competitive moments.
Blending versatile cooking with smart performance, Bosch AccentLine appliances bring a quieter sense of order and simplicity to the modern kitchen.
In the second instalment of our performance seating three-parter, we turn to DKO’s Michael Drescher and Jacob Olsen to peek behind Sayl’s confident architectural form and explore the ideas of inclusivity, adaptability and freedom to move as hallmarks of what sitting your best actually means.
Andrew Cliffe, of The World Is Round architectural firm, has recently completed the new commercial fitout for the combined media forces of Grundy and Crackerjack Entertainment: FremantleMedia.
An architectural exhibition curated by one of this country’s leading architects has drawn strong praise and thrown the spotlight on home-grown talent
Australia’s first tertiary campus with the facilities to host both trade and digital skills-based education under one roof is now complete. Designed and delivered by Gray Puksand, the campus is ready to address Australia’s skills shortages.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
As a significant renewal of an established social housing project, JPW’s recently completed Cowper Street Housing in Glebe, Sydney aims to bring sustainable and community-focused density to an inner city suburb.
At Salone del Mobile 2026, Catalan designer Eugeni Quitllet launched Libre, a new seating collection with Pedrali that focuses on form, function and ergonomics.