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Jesse Hayes. Founder of Eclat Coworking Melbourne. Forme Director. Creator. Designer. Systems Architect

Creating brands, environments, systems and companies that elevate how people live, work and connect. Melbourne, Australia.

ECLAT Coworking Melbourne began with a single word, trademarked and acquired in 2011, as its Founder I spent more than thirteen years building it into Melbourne’s first hospitality-led luxury serviced office brand. From its earliest concepts and foundations to the award-winning ECLAT Hawthorn East; enabling its expansion across multiple Melbourne CBD locations.
 

I proudly led its creation across virtually every dimension of the business, bringing together a diverse team of exceptional consultants and international collaborators while co-designing its brand identity, creative direction, enterprise technology, digital ecosystem, property strategy, interior design, and delivery of the Hawthorn East flagship.
 

Through it all, a founding principle remained constant: the environments we inhabit should elevate the way we live, work and connect. From the outset I wanted ECLAT to be far more than just a place to work, it was about building a thoughtful, distinctive and enduring company. A brand that combined creativity, ambition and care, a brand people could be collectively proud of sharing together.
 

This website is the documented record of that work, authorship, persistence and leadership. A portfolio, resume, and professional record spanning design, technology, systems, creativity, property development and governance.

Jesse Hayes. Founder of Eclat Coworking Melbourne. Forme Director. Creator. Designer. Systems Architect

Creating brands, environments, systems and companies that elevate how people live, work and connect. Melbourne, Australia.

ECLAT Coworking Melbourne began with a single word, trademarked and acquired in 2011, as its Founder I spent more than thirteen years building it into Melbourne’s first hospitality-led luxury serviced office brand. From its earliest concepts and foundations to the award-winning ECLAT Hawthorn East; and enabling its expansion across multiple locations in Melbourne’s CBD.
 

I proudly led its creation across virtually every dimension of the business, bringing together a diverse team of exceptional consultants and international collaborators while co-designing its brand identity, creative direction, enterprise technology, digital ecosystem, property strategy, interior design, and delivery of the Hawthorn East flagship.
 

Through it all, a founding principle remained constant: the environments we inhabit should elevate the way we live, work and connect. From the outset I wanted ECLAT to be far more than just a place to work, it was about building a thoughtful, distinctive and enduring company. A brand that combined creativity, ambition and care, a brand people could be collectively proud of sharing together.
 

This website is the documented record of that work, authorship, persistence and leadership. A portfolio, resume, and professional record spanning design, technology, systems, creativity, property development and governance.

WHAT I DO
& HOW I DO IT

Shaped by curiosity, systems thinking and the conviction that imagination is only as valuable as the discipline needed to make dreams reality. Meaningful outcomes are the product of purpose, process and genuine care, where considered decisions at every stage influence the whole. Detail, efficiency and experience compound as ideas are responsibly developed and resolved with intent and understood in context of the bigger picture rather than in isolation.

Everything I do begins with some simple questions: why should this exist, why does it matter, and why should it be done well? This is a compass for every decision, action and investment of effort. I aspire to create things that genuinely benefit people, and to develop assets that generate opportunity, excitement and lasting value. The sections below reflect the core disciplines, capabilities and body of work that have shaped my career.

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  • Before creating ECLAT I invested a decade across Microsoft Game Studios, Nintendo of America and Rockstar Games, live event production in Las Vegas, and four years in the Australian Army. Digital worldbuilding and development, quality assurance,  hospitality orchestration and military service; exposure to a diverse array of industries and challenges to build a future on.

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  • ECLAT, Melbourne's premier hospitality-infused luxury coworking brand, was founded in 2013. I acquired the eclat.com domain in 2011 while serving in the Australian Army, then opened ECLAT CREATIVE as a sole trader in Williamstown. I spent the next seven years developing its business case and pushing the dream up the entrepreneurial hill, then began crafting ECLAT Hawthorn East in 2020. Coworking redefined, built on branded hospitality, elevated interior design and seamless technology. The founding catalyst was a single phrase: "to be brilliant." 

    Explore the full story of Eclat, from its original concept through to the development of its brand, workplaces and operating model.

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  • As Creative Director of ECLAT coworking Melbourne, I authored, directed and protected the ECLAT brand from first word and first principals. Identity, narrative, digital, campaign, soul, intent and experience. Creating the design system and the substance of ECLAT and its family of brands: Bureau, Parlor, Galerie, Noted and FORME. One language across every expression: restrained luxury, honest materiality and authentic human experience, realised in full at ECLAT Hawthorn East.

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  • The ECLAT operating logic was enabled by Nexudus, the CRM platform behind ECLAT coworking Melbourne. On this vanilla foundation, my creative and digital partners and I developed a bespoke deployment of branded apps and systems to enable the company to scale and achieve its hospitality operations. The result was a digital experience as a consistent branded touchpoint, which defined the working model of the business itself, from first enquiry to each cup of coffee.

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  • As CTO of ECLAT, I led the architecture and technology deployment and skilled consultants that existed behind the Melbourne workspace: enterprise networking, VLANs and redundancy, server and cloud environments, Salto access control, CCTV, AV integration and device fleets, infrastructure engineered so members never have to notice it, reliable, powerful, futureproofed and flexible. In luxury coworking, when technology fails, the experience fails with it.

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  • My incredible digital partners and I developed the innovative ECLAT digital ecosystem, a bespoke suite of technologies, including the award-winning ECLAT App, ECLAT Dashboard, ECLAT Order API and web platforms, recognised by many Australian and International design awards, including the Good Design Awards, Better Future Melbourne and the World Design Awards. Digital products designed as native extensions of the ECLAT brand, not bolted-on software.

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  • Leading the interior design of ECLAT was a pursuit to create a unique and identifiable design language, ECLAT Hawthorn East is 1,970 sqm of soft luxury, built on restraint, honest materiality and consideration rather than excess. Through FORME DESIGN, the furniture and design studio co-founded with Mark Miller, every desk, surface and joinery detail was authored for ECLAT, recognized at the Australian Interior Design Awards, ADR IDEA Awards, Melbourne Design Awards, Good Design Awards & The Local Project.

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  • Between 2016 and 2018 I led and directed the Creative Quarter proposal, an urban planning proposition for the Footscray CBD, prepared and presented in consultation with Maribyrnong City Council. It championed a new public auditorium, a contemporary library, a town square and seamlessly integrated commerce: a living, breathing hive of activity at Footscray's civic heart. A decade on, the same land, the same structures and the same language would come to define the council's Creative West precinct.

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  • From market research and strategic site identification to fully resolved and branded industry leading EOI proposals, financial feasibility, risk assessment and fit out delivery. I led the commercial property strategy that brought ECLAT to Hawthorn East, in parallel to the interior, spatial, creative, technological and operational elements of the business. My list of authored EOI submissions include Footscray, Hawthorn East, South Melbourne, Prahran, Cremorne, as well as multiple ECLAT Melbourne CBD locations in the vicinity of Bourke and Collins Street.

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  • My project-management scope encompassed the delivery of ECLAT Hawthorn East, end to end: program, consultant appointments, and leadership across every deliverable. Within the business I was the sole point of leadership and delivery across creative, design, IT and digital. I'm proud of defending quality and first principals from persistent challenges, and held the standard across every element, and each discipline that brought ECLAT together as one brilliant endeavour.

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  • After first establishing ECLAT Creative as a sole trader, I expanded the business and became its founding Director. I've carried governance as a devout responsibility. Seeking to uphold lawful practices, legal & regulatory compliance, accountability, transparency, stewardship, risk management and championing logical, market reactive and market leading strategic planning, in service of one ambition: to build a proud and ethical company that deserves its success, whilst protecting the principals and integrity that the brand I created represents.

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UPCOMING ENDEAVOURS & BRILLIANT PARTNERSHIPS

PIETRANERA

While the Visconti lineage grinds down the land and its people, a merchant's son climbs a ridge above an alpine corridor and begins to build. To honor his father's vision, he must outmaneuver bishops, lords, rivals, love, hope, betrayal & conflict, waging everything and everyone on the one thing that does not move. The black stone, of Pietranera.

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AMIDST

A new format of escape, rewriting and disrupting an industry, and how we access memorable experiences & iconic destinations. Somewhere out there in the beautiful landscapes, in the wilderness, the land itself is incubating change. Places where people come together, work together, and build together. Where will you find yourself Amidst?

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DONE TALKING

A not-for-profit advocacy platform for workplace rights: standing with people through workplace injury, unfair treatment, bullying and abuse. Calling for long overdue reforms to systems of safety, prevention, justice, accountability and compensation. Lobbying for urgent and impactful change. Those suffering are Done Talking.

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01

ADR IDEA AWARDS 25'

02

GOOD DESIGN AWARDS 23'

Eclat APP - Eclat x Exo Digital

03

BETTER FUTURE MELBOURNE 24'

04

WORLD DESIGN AWARDS 25'

Eclat x Exo Digital - Hospitality Workspace APP

05

AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR DESIGN AWARDS 25'

Forme X Eclat - Workplace Design

06

ADR IDEA AWARDS 25'

07

GOOD DESIGN AWARDS 24'

08

BETTER FUTURE MELBOURNE 24'

Eclat x Exo Digital - Hospitality Infused APP

09

WORLD DESIGN AWARDS 25'

10

THE LOCAL PROJECT

Eclat X Forme Design - Hawthorn East CV

BRILLIANT PARTNERS & FRIENDS

Zita Fernandez

Brand | Web

  • Behance
  • Dribbble
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Exo Digital

Digital Partner

  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

Mara Tonetti

Brand Partner

  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

Stone Digital

Web Partner

  • LinkedIn
  • Dribbble
  • Instagram

Elec Reid

Technology Partner

  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

AWD Digital

Web | Digital

  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn

Tech Sapiens

CRM Partner

  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn

Viktoriya Sreda

Content Partner

  • Pinterest
  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn
  • Behance
  • Instagram
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