Category Archives: Design

Gotta Have Faith

rbw_pete

rbw_justinfox

ilovethisshit

I’m seeing a separated woman of strong faith (it’s complicated). Her husband (also of strong faith) broke one of the Ten Commandments. They have a gorgeous 4 year old son and have decided to go through divorce.

Does what we do here on Earth even matter? It’s hard for me to believe it does when, every now and then, you get blaringly loud signs from God that you’re not at all in control of your own life.

A few months ago I met 2 Elders. I’m thankful to both of them for taking the time out to invite a total stranger into their home. They listened to what I had to say; everything from earbashing Mormons on weekends as a kid to vultures trying to convert Dad to Catholicism on his dying bed.

Through visual storytelling they helped me to see Religion in different ways, they helped me to understand that God is not to there to be blamed for what others do wrong, it’s more about your personal relationship with God, and his offer to walk beside him is there for me if I wanted it.

They tried to convert me on the spot, but I ninja turtled into my shell. They’re not going to get me that easily! They then asked if I was at least willing to try to talk to God before I left. To make a prayer. I did this without much hesitation, and realised that speaking to God feels just like speaking to Dad.

When I speak to Dad I ask him to please look after my mother and sister (sometimes out loud at his gravestone, sometimes in mind), I feel that I speak to my father like one would speak to God.

I was then asked if it would be OK if they said a prayer for me. Of-course! I was SO down! They asked for God to show me a sign within the next 7 days, a sign so strong that I wouldn’t have any doubt about God’s existence.

I got that sign too, LOUD & CLEAR.

My mother let me know that an esoteric family friend looked into my future and told her that if I don’t settle down with this married woman, I won’t get another chance again to have kids and a normal family life. I’m like Mum, please.

Later that afternoon said married woman and I were slothing on the couch going through design posts on my personal blog, we scrolled all the way back to 2013 (yes we were bored) and we came across an interview I did with raised by wolves.

It’s a good interview! I really enjoyed re-reading it as I felt it encompassed quite a few of the things I had going on, that I’d like to get going on again!

The next morning the doorbell rang and I took delivery of this amazing parcel.

It’s the sign I was looking for! A smack in the face! A printed edition of raised by wolves with the interview that I did in 2013, the interview that I just happened to read last night, printed and laid out so beautifully in front of my eyes in the morning.

OK. So God exists. Does that change anything? Well… not really?!

I have more questions, and so long as I have questions I’ll forever ask them… because to question is to live, right?!

I’m a good person, but I could be a better person. I could learn to better respect others’ beliefs, to better listen and learn from them before so quickly deciding whether to give influence or take influence.

I believe God exists, but to be a good person has nothing to do with Religion.

Posted in Design, Family | 1 Comment

#zentiptoself

zentip_dontquit

Posted in Design, Zen Garage | Leave a comment

Facebook is Killing Your Website

faceboob

I’ve mostly enjoyed marketing on Facebook over the past decade. With ZEN Garage (est. 2011) we’ve had high highs and low lows but right now, we’re at our lowest low.

When Facebook added us to their “recommended” lists, they showed us that we could reach millions of potential customers each week through this medium, but like many ‘too good to be true’ things, it all went pear shaped pretty damn quickly; the boosting came to an abrupt end which then forced us to pay to reach the larger audience we had acquired.

Transparency as a theme for life is still very much in motion for me. Lately I’ve been posting on the ZEN Garage business page in a more personal manner; as me, one person, and not as a brand, company or whatever entity that some people might expect us to be.

Some of our recent shared posts have reached over 40k people, our own original content is getting anywhere from 2,000–15,000 and the engagement percentages are high. It’s amazing how much feedback I’ve gotten from the diverse posts made. Considering we left Facebook for a year and have only just come back on in the past month shows that the medium still helps you to reach a lot of people.

Ideally I’d like to run ZEN in the same way I run my Facebook profile. To run ZEN more personal than business. What would happen if I shut the ZEN Garage Facebook Page and instead ran ZEN from my own personal Facebook profile? All of this got me thinking about how Facebook could actually be hurting my business in the following ways:

– Facebook takes traffic away from blogs and hosted sites.

– Facebook requires that you cater to your audience, rather than allowing you to shape your audience.

– Facebook has too much control over content and marketing.

– You’re building an empire on someone else’s land

– Facebook connects you/your business with people you don’t actually want to market to.

– Facebook fans consist of people who actually aren’t customers anyway.

– Facebook can create a negative brand image of you from people posting negative crap on your page.

OK, so the negative points above are pretty damn depressing, but in reality it depends on how you look at it and how you choose to make it work for yourself. Right now we’re gaining in traffic. People are liking, commenting, and visiting. We’re getting traction and that’s a good thing.

Also; I enjoy Facebook, so really, wearing my marketing hat whilst on Facebook isn’t so hard, especially since I’m not trying to be anything but myself!

In conclusion: So should we delete our Business Facebook Page?

Probably not.

Posted in Design, Zen Garage | Leave a comment

The future of Australian INfront

7104467753_2f50fc9a55_z

8248207545_8a7917a95b_z

totebags-640x427

6958400876_8c8ea9a828_z

DSC2780-602x401

audience-640x427

6844288663_633d658fa3_z

7137828523_bacc092bfc_z

Discussions soon with my current Australian Infront business partners Damien and Zann. Are we going to put more energy into it, or is our work done? Since 1999 the Australian INfront has worked hard to inspire a community of Australian creatives to take inspiration from our own backyards instead of simply looking overseas to make it. Here are a few photos of Damien, Zann and I at work. It might be another lifetime ago for me, but INfront moments, including all who were the original founders with me back in 1999 are special moments.

Our work is done – Australian INfront – 1999-2019.

Visit: http://www.australianinfront.com.au

Posted in Design | Leave a comment

Shooting the shit with Seany Tee

seantorstensson_justinfox_mahonpool_1

seantorstensson_justinfox_mahonpool_0

seantorstensson_justinfox_mahonpool_3

seantorstensson_justinfox_mahonpool_4

I caught up with old Graphic Design mate Sean Torstensson yesterday, we’ve been friends since I launched the Australian INfront in the late 90’s. Sean was a founding member and he was on the stage beside me when we presented INfront at Semi-Permanent too.

Sean’s always been the young picture of potential to me, but over the years I felt the kid needed to pull his thumb out of his bum and turn attitude into genuine confidence. I’m sure I deal “tough love” harder than most, so I know Sean’s copped it hard from me over many years… funny then that even after all these years I find myself once again kicking him in the bum!

One of Sean’s inspirational quotes came up on my feed and I lost my shit:

51043317_10155593523647126_5154396952078581760_n (1)

I wrote in response: I’m in NO WAY AT ALL responsible for what comes out of other PEOPLES (why ppl?!) mouths Sean! I say everyone should take more responsibility for what comes out of their mouths, no? Your quote is in 2 parts, first part is hella confusing, 2nd part is pretty logical. IE: listen to people, if you do you might find greatness (also, why use the money related term of ‘gold’ here Sean? Very curious as to why people’s good words need to be associated with money?).

Sean dodged my response, which really took me by surprise (you can check the to-and-fro post responses here. After much blasting was done Sean thought it would be better to catch up in real life instead of Facebook. I agreed and yesterday I gave it to him even harder, no filter.

“As a Designer you’re a communicator Sean and you should know better than to completely confuse, or in this case, misuse words for no good reason. There’s nothing left-of-field about the first part of the quote, it represents victim blaming! You gotta stop caring for the fans who just put love hearts under every post and understand that the people who have taken the time to write long constructive posts are the real fans… and WTF you still using this light blue flowers background shit since the late 90’s?!” etc etc.

Amazingly Sean sat there with a grin on his face and just deflected the lot with “well that’s your opinion Justin”.

I give up! In the words of the great Elon Musk: “If you can’t beat them, join them!”. Sometimes acceptance might be the only way forwards? Less expectations, more rock pool.

Posted in Design, Photography | Leave a comment

Blast from the past


Blast from the past! Shot in 2006, thanks Martin Bierschenk for the memories!

Posted in Design, House | Leave a comment

Bionic

justinfox3

Designed as a cover for a magazine a few mates and I tried to get funded by the publishers of Rolling Stone magazine. We got close, we scored a deal to launch the magazine but had to work from their offices, not mine, so we let it go. Regrets? Kinda wish we at least gave it a go.

PS: Have had someone mail me about her penis, and was so into it that she wanted to use it to present to a group of political dingbats. I’m like… what penis?!!!!!!!!

Posted in Design | Leave a comment

How is this poster racist?!

australiansuper
Fact: Australia has one of the world’s largest superannuation pools.

Morgan Freeman maintained the way to get rid of racism was to “stop talking about it.”. OK, so I’m talking about it; but it’s hard not to when you see corporate advertisements like this. Discuss (or disgust?!).

Posted in Design, Spam | Leave a comment

Yes I was in a SAVAGE GARDEN music video


That’s me putting on the gas mask.

Funny story time!

I used to dress pretty punk at my first design job. I was asked by the agency next door to where I worked if I’d be interested in being in a rock clip for a band called SAVAGE GARDEN. The guys said I could come exactly as I was, and I thought “Hmmm, Savage Garden sounds kinda like SOUNDGARDEN so OK, why not!”.

We shot all day and were fed pizzas for lunch. During the break, the baddest dude there (I gave him a ciggie and he ripped the filter off it before lighting up) was on his phone to a mate yelling; “I’m filming for a couple of fags in this gay film clip”, thing is he said it so loud the Savage Garden guys heard it loud and clear. Fun times!

We shot all sorts of scenes morning to night and in the end Sony didn’t feel there was enough of the Savage Garden duo in the clip. They wanted way more close up face shots of the 2 guys so apparently a lot of footage of us was cut out. Probably a good thing, right?!

Posted in Design, Music | Leave a comment

Original Divine

originaldivine
Page 1.

I’ve got it all wrong! Totally somehow forgot that my book DIVINE was created as a memory container; glancing at the artwork would trigger the pages I wrote back in high school. Turns out I’ve got pages and pages of rawness all done on a typewriter. This is page 1. Looking at page 1 of the book I can see I’ve left a lot of the text out of the book. I’m now thinking I have to re-read what I wrote on the typewriter, and not the illustrated “memory container” that I have hardbound before me.

Posted in Design | Leave a comment