Tall Rabbit's Melbourne Adventures

I've just come back from a whirlwind trip to Melbourne and boy did I pack a lot in! I went to markets, met some lovely crafters, went to a conference, visited galleries, got some supplies, ate yummy food, caught trams, got some cool new magazines, saw gogo dancing nerds on vacation, partied in the National Gallery of Victoria, found some very cute goodies, visited the Etsy Showroom and even managed to fit in some sleep! I've got so much to report back on so check back soon!

Semi-Permanent Perth 2011 - A design conference with beer!

It's not at many conferences that you can enjoy an alcoholic beverage* whilst listening to the speakers but this typifies the relaxed atmosphere of Semi-Permanent Perth - where speakers present with a hangover (remarkably well, considering!) and our books don't quite make it on time (I finally got mine 2 months later!).


I'm not sure why Semi-Permanent extends its conference tour to Perth but I'm glad they do. I can only assume it's more of a franchise with Semi Permanent lending the name and a few speakers and Artrage/Bakery doing the the rest. I've been to the conference in Sydney and it's a slick 2 day affair to an audience of hundreds, unlike the Perth event! It's nice to be able to see speakers in a more intimate setting though and helps Perth feel not so forgotten by the eastern states. I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to go to a design conference in my own city for once. Yay, no airfares!


We had a rather dapper MC with a self-proclaimed "pleasing baritone" (who was that guy?) and after a few technical issues, the conference was underway.

The first speakers were Sonja and John from Nude Design Studio, based in Perth. They have been producing their minimal contemporary designs for about 3 years and had some valuable tips about alternatives to using stock photos and some legal 'advice'. They seemed disappointed that in their first year, they barely made $28000 but when I found out they did this while travelling the world and working on a mini laptop, I was impressed!

For Sydneysiders, Morten & Daniel of Supervixen seemed awfully nice! And they actually got through their presentation in the allocated time, which they said was a first. Well done! They both started out in motion graphics by learning on the go and believe that mistakes don't have to be failures, they are just another part of learning. I was quite excited to find out they developed the cute food characters on the Wrigley's ad! I love that doughnut! :)

Next came Gemma O'Brien, an ebullient & passionate type enthusiast. She shares her love of type through her blog which amazingly enabled her to be invited to speak at a design conference in Berlin as a 2nd year design student - wow! She just loves type!

Ken Taylor, a Perth-born, Melbourne-based illustrator was the 4th speaker. I've seen him speak before but he is such a talented illustrator, I'm not complaining! He shared a glimpse of his working technique which is always interesting to see.

Lastly, Brendan Savage from Fuel VFX told us about how he was 'living the dream' getting to work on big movies including a lot of Marvel Comics movies and a prequel to the 'Aliens' movies. Although it was potentially financially very risky with the company not being paid for their work they did for pitches, even though they could spend weeks on it. But without doing a pitch, they would never get the job.


Overall, it was an interesting day, surprisingly not as well attended as last year's conference (maybe due to their lack of a 'big name' international presenter). Thanks to all the speakers and organisers and I look forward to next year's conference! 


* They did wait til 12:30 to open the bar...


P.S. It is a few months since the conference but I have been so busy, I've only just had a chance to post this!

Semi-Permanent Perth 2010

(Left to right) Little Design Horse, Clare Martin, Tin&Ed, 

Leif Podhajsky, Beastman and the Semi-Permanent goodies

A few weeks ago, it was Perth’s turn for the Semi-Permanent conference, and while it is significantly smaller than the eastern states’ incarnation, it is still worth getting along to if you are interested in creative events. This year it was held in The Bakery (which looked surprisingly similar considering it had been closed for renovations for so long...). It wasn’t the best venue for a conference because the seats were not very comfortable and they weren’t tiered meaning we had to peer between people’s heads to see the pictures. First up was Little Design Horse who told about the jetsetting life of a textile designer and their latest venture of Future Shelter. I was quite jealous of all their machines including the laser cutter, the silkscreen printer and the screenprint drying machine - I was imagining how many hours I could save if I didn’t have to iron my prints to heat set them! Next was Clare Martin, a photographer who showed some of her photos, mostly of people from ‘ghetto’ areas in Canada and America who were often drug addicts – some of these images were quite confronting. After a short break came Leif Podhajsky, a graphic designer with some unusual views. He had some techniques which seemed a little dodgy e.g. using images from porn websites or scanned in from old magazines without permission and then altering them. After an extremely short lunchbreak (too short to get any lunch as we found out when we got back and the next speaker had already started!) was Beastman, an artist who does a lot of grafitti type work i.e. painting on walls. I liked his idea of getting a group of artist friends together and organising an exhibition to promote all of them. That’s something I’d like to do, if only I knew enough artists! Lastly were Tin&Ed who seem to have got some pretty good opportunities to do some interesting work. Overall, it was a good day to hear about how other creative people work and we came away with a Semi-Permanent book, bag and some posters! Yay for free stuff!