Monthly Archives: March 2009

I tried to avoid sprinkling more red bits on the SE Lager, but failed :) More pics here.

Running the Australian INfront, JDM Style Tuning, Bikes Move Us and Sex in Art keeps me pretty busy but I do actually work, as well as play you know! So here’s just a few links to some work I’ve been doing.

The Australian Centre for Photography – I’ve always been a huge fan of the ACP, a photography gallery and school on Oxford St. When they contacted me to come in and act as a designer/consultant for refining their brand and image I was more than happy to get busy. I’ve just finished designing their new DL sized brochure, you can see a larger version of it here.

CAN Collections Australia Network – This was a big job, took a long time, but it’s always fun working with the great people at the Powerhouse Museum.

MeMe Creative – This is my sisters web site. Her and her husband Richie are getting off the ground with their new design business and I’ve been helping out with HTML work.

JDMyard – Zi wanted a face lift, and he wanted to take off a whole lot of stuff off the old site. So here’s the new site, for now.

Diagnostic Medical Co-operative – Corporate work is rarely fun, but it pays for more bike parts!

Pamela Dean – Sometimes you meet really nice people who have no money to make a site, but you help them anyways! I just gave Pamela a simple wordpress driven site so she could go in there and easily edit her own content.

everdure – expensive BBQ’s! Due to too many reasons to mention, this job was a bit of a nightmare, shame as it could have been a really sexy site.

MC Cyclery – I’ve been running the site, blog, print advertising and shop, which a mate of mine Damien designed earlier this year.

I’ve got much more, but they’re either too horrible to show, or not live yet!

Christina and I checked out the Sydney Tattoo expo at Homebush on the weekend and we were both quite shocked at how hardcore the event was (it was meant to be a family friendly event). A whole lot of tiny overly cramped stalls (I even saw a tattoo artist tripping over themselves whilst tattooing someone!), packed with people getting tatt’s done in front of the crowd looked both un-professional and un-inviting.

So what was missing? Well the shows on TV focus on the stories people have behind getting their tattoos, which in my opinion is the most important and interesting part of getting a tattoo. It’s personal and so too is the process of sitting down with your tattoo artist and sharing with them your story whilst getting your tattoo done.

I’m sure many of those who went to the show after being inspired by shows like Miami Ink were shocked enough to not want a tattoo anymore which I think is a shame.

In other news Suga and I travelled far (central coast even!) to visit display homes. The cost of renovating is almost the same cost as pulling down my house to build a new one (albeit a project home which isn’t double brick). Still, we’re looking into all options.

Sketchy ride this afternoon, pics and text up here.

After a few close calls where the Jazz just wouldn’t pull up in time I finally invested in some better brakes.

I got Zi from JDMyard to hunt me down something and he ordered me a set of RDA slotted disc rotors and EBC pads.

The manual Jazz I had before was fine when it came to braking but the CVT just doesn’t use the gears to slow down so you’re left doing a brake burner early every time you want to stop. This has totally eliminated the sloppy braking and the car hauls up a LOT better now. I’d even say it was punchy and the smell of new brakes bedding in rocks. :)

All in all, for just $375 (Slotted disc $185 pads $190) it’s an amazingly radical change. I only wish it was that cheap to make this little slug accelerate faster!!!

Ooooh yeah I finally bit the bullet and bought up on a period correct Rolls saddle for the Paino. Black suede, gold bling details, she’s so yummy for my bummy.

Something I hadn’t blogged about, but have been meaning to for along time. In 2007 Christina and I attended the AGIDEAS conference in Melbourne. Amongst all the modern and funky styley designers was John. W. Thompson, an old man, who reminded me of Kernel Sanders. He got on the microphone, seemed very nervous, had a great English accent and excused himself in advance for having Attention Deficit Disorder!

A lot of the young audience began to leave the auditorium when John started speaking, shame really as they missed out on an amazing presentation.

It turns out that John’s a master hand engraver who still uses the same methods to engrave as were used in the Middle Ages. In the 1960’s, he was the last apprentice in his craft to be taken on anywhere in the United Kingdom. Engraving is in the blood, his ancestor was the famed 18th century Hand Engraver William Hogarth.

He was turned down from some schools as his skills surpassed his lecturers, he was then recommended to work for the royal family. He’s an amazing typographer as well as engraver and designed Prince Charles’ and Princess Di’s wedding invites and ring, he came out to Australia and failed to get work at the Mr. Mint as they use electric engravers (he does it all by hand!) but he eventually started his own little business in the Dymocks building on George St. Sydney.

He more recently did the ring for Lord of the Rings and he’s been passing all of his skills over to his son who will soon take over the business.

That was a calling card for me. All that history, and he was in Sydney! I just had to pay him a visit, and that Christina and I did. He was so happy to greet us once we told him we’d seen him speak at AGIDEAS, apparently we were the only people who gave him feedback on his talk. Whilst most of his work is with gold and white gold he was so keen to help us out with a special little something and we decided on a font, a message (Inter nos perdite amare volumus [We agreed to love each other madly]) and in silver (which he rarely works with).

It was a long wait but we finally got our rings and we’ve never taken them off since! Last night I used my super buffing machine to buff them up and they’ve come alive again :)

I’ve been a huge fan of everything Ezra Caldwell (aka fastboy) ever since I first visited his site. I’ve got him on my Flickr contacts and he’s always uploading amazing photographs of his life.

It didn’t occur to me until this monrning though that he’s been diagnosed with cancer (it explains the few shots I’ve seen of him without hair perhaps).

He’s sharing his fight with the world, read up and if you’re up for it, offer him your positive words here.

Epic 2 lap ride at Loftus tonight, so buggered. More info and pics here.

Found these Vans on 1-Day for $40. They’re more like slippers than shoes, very comfy! I like!