Category Archives: Design

I was doing pretty regular design talks at various schools a few years back and Daniela, who used to teach at Shillington College, remembered me from a talk I once gave there. She’s been teaching design at Kogarah TAFE for the past few years and a few weeks ago she asked me if I’d be interested in talking to her students. Despite my initial hesitation (no matter how many talks I do I always cringe at the idea of getting nervous in front of a crowd) I said yes and today I headed in to talk.

I spotted this in the TAFE carpark. When I got to the lecture theatre I realised I needed to borrow a laptop to present with (!) and it turns out that the guy who owns this car was also the guy who lent me his laptop (I realised this because the desktop wallpaper on the laptop had this car on it!).

The room before students came in.

The students after the talk (I presented for about 1.5hrs).

The only catch was that there was no money to pay for my time but Daniela did promise to pay me with some good wines and that she did!

I’ve come full circle with talks. I used to focus on creative process but now I focus on getting to do the things I want to do through design (for me it’s cars, bikes, fish tanks or anything else I choose to be obsessive compulsive about!). It’s about being in the zone all the time because I want to be in the zone, not about forcing myself to be in the zone on something I’m not at all into.

As usual I walked away on a high. It’s rewarding to reflect on getting out of my comfort zone and hopefully I planted a few good seeds in the minds of the students too.

A good turnout!

I met Ravi. He’s deaf so we communicated via his iPhone. Highlight of the night for me!

Speeches (in which I was handed a bag of goodies and a bottle of wine!).

Our installation went off. I got so much great feedback on the night and people were actually playing with the 3D shapes which was great to see.

Despite feeling tired (my left eye is twitching uncontrollably!) I made it to the See-Saw opening night tonight. All the students I mentored were there, all the other students, mentors + friends and family too.

It’s been a really fun experience and I’m super happy with how it all went. The emails I got yesterday from my group thanking me for being involved made my day (it’s most important to me that they had fun!).

Today was the final day of the See-Saw project for my group (group 4, one to come). Time crept up on us but we got everything done and displayed by the deadline (Gaffa Gallery shuts at 6pm). It’s been a challenging and rewarding experience for myself and the students in my group too I’m sure.

Day 2. Ben and Yerevan hard at it.

Dave was meant to be the “invisible” photographer but it was hard to not notice the guy, he’s a giant! (PS: top guy too!).

Another killer lunch today.

Setting up our space looking in from Gallery 1.

Our massive golden mean sits on the right wall. Below it you can see the pieces which we cut out of the golden mean to form our letter shapes.

Our little room sits between Gallery 1 and Gallery 2 so we aptly named it Gallery 1.5 (our typeface in action!).

Visitors are encouraged to move the 3D shapes in front of them to form letters from our typeface on the far wall.

Be sure to drop into Gaffa Gallery this Saturday afternoon from 5-7pm for some drinks and to check out what all the groups have done.

For more information visit: http://www.gaffa.com.au/#171073/Gallery-One-29-July-9-August-2010SEESAWGroup

Yesterday morning I headed over to Gaffa Gallery to begin the 2 day See-Saw project (a part of Sydney Design 2010). The 4 students I’ll be mentoring over the 2 days received the brief, basic design materials (paper, card, tape, pens, knives et.c) and a room to work in (a video camera in the room projected our progress in real time into the main Gaffa Gallery space).

Our theme was typography and semantics and our brief was fairly open ended. After an hour or so of bouncing ideas around we ended up de-constructing the golden mean into basic shapes (like a tangram) and using these basic shapes to form a typeface which we’re also creating in 3D for people to play with on opening night next Saturday.

Basic materials we were given to use. No computers? Oh noes!

Our progress was projected all day into the main gallery space which was open to the public.

My team (is awesome).

No compass set. Irina and I creating the golden mean with the tools we were given.

Tracing the logarithmic spiral.

Using the ancient Chinese tangram game concept we cut up the spiral into basic shapes.

Lunch break on the rooftop (so good to get out of the studio!). Food was supplied by The Commons in Darlinghurst (yum yum).

Kids these days, so hip.

Back in the studio we started designing our typeface using the various pieces we cut out of the golden mean.

Numbering the separate parts of our tangram made documenting each letter design easy.

Cressida working on the letter “a”. We made a grid using string and tape and using cardboard cut-outs of our shapes we started laying out our typeface in the gallery.

Ben working on the 3D element.

Yerevan working on 3D element.

One 3D shape almost done.

Type wall almost done.

Yesterday was a blast. We’ll be at it again today from 10am – 6pm so feel free to drop in and say Hi! Otherwise be sure to check out the final show on Saturday where the results from all 5 groups will be on show.

For more information visit: http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/2010/index.php/exhibitions/see-saw-a-collection-of-short-stories

Yup that’s me x 4!

My desk.

Some of my toys.

I was recently photographed for an exhibition at the Object Gallery in Surry Hills titled “BIG” (a part of Sydney Design Festival 2010) where Stephen Goddard and photographer Keith Saunders have captured the stories and the small spaces of Sydney based creatives doing big things.

I stupidly missed the opening night last week. Apparently the 1st image above is presented on a big lightbox! I’ll go check it out this week some time.

For more information visit: http://www.object.com.au/springseries/event/big-sydney-small-studio

A while back I mentioned that I’ve been invited to be a mentor in a 2 day Sydney Design 2010 project called See-Saw. Yesterday I got to meet the 4 students I’ll be mentoring at Gaffa Gallery where we’ll be participating in the project (as well as where the project will end up being displayed). Each one of them is from a different design school (COFA, UTS, Billy Blue and Enmore) and all of them have been specially selected by their respective schools to represent.

I’m pretty excited about the project and I think I’ve got a pretty cool crew. It’s hard not to be competitive (there are a few groups and disciplines, each with a different mentor) and luckily for me I have the brief before it all begins on the 4th of next month.

The 4 students I’ll be mentoring (excluding the big guy who was taking pics of us).

The brief the students will be getting on the 1st day of the project.

To find out more about the project visit: http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/2010/index.php/exhibitions/see-saw-a-collection-of-short-stories

I’ve been invited to be a mentor of See-Saw which will be one of many events that will form Sydney Design 2010. Fitting as the annual Sydney Design event was where it all started for me in 1999 (I had the opportunity to present the INfront manifesto in front of a large audience at Darling Harbour).

See-Saw will be: ‘a collection of short stories’. 25 students, 5 mentors, 1 story. The art of storytelling is a collaborative effort. Through design we take the same back and forth process of storytelling beyond a verbal exchange into more visual and tangible outcomes.

Yesterday Daniel Dittmar (who’s running the project) sent me an email asking for a little content from me (about me). He asked a couple of questions which I had fun answering (as it all just came out without thought).

I used to do a lot of interviews for various design related online and offline magazines and web sites. I enjoyed doing them too as I found that every time I answered questions I was defining where I was at that very moment. Sometimes I read my own answers back and realised that I was proud of where I was at, sometimes I read it back and realised I had to change my ways or push harder.

I thought I’d post up a couple of his questions and my answers:

– A short spiel on your approach to design practice

With more creative stuff (art) I always liked the idea of taking from my personal background. Sometimes I’d photoshop a photo of my grandma (or another relative, or personal belonging, or anything I loved at the time or times before) into a layer and work it into the image. The end viewer might not see it in the final image but I know it’s there and that makes all the difference to me.

With less creative work (design) I tend to try and be as invisible as possible. I still believe that good design is invisible. You can’t/shouldn’t have to see it, it just works. If a client is asking for a mac operator I fire them, if they’re asking for art I fire them too (sometimes).

– The focus of your design practice

I’ve been working for myself for so long now and I’m very inconsistent with the amount of commercial work I take on. But my focus is very much on my passions, or more importantly whatever passion I value the most in the current moment. I’m only ever capable of being in the zone when I am truly obsessive compulsive about something be it art, design, cars or bikes.