Marty painting the walls – Last Thursday night we hosted Visual Response 6 – Native exhibition at Lo-Fi. Damien and I picked up the winning prints from Digital Press is Surry Hills in the morning, then met up with Marty at Lo-Fi for set-up.
Damien and I got busy getting the top 10 entries on the wall.
Marty spraying the new Aus Infront logo.
Awesome huh?!
Lunch was lovingly made by the awesome cats at youeni, from their awesome new store in Hill St. I had the beef brisket, so hearty.
Modern Pet is a little business I formed with Christina, my sister Jamie and her husband Richie. Sadly it never took off… it’s not losing money, but it needs more energy in order to really make more sales and right now, especially since little Miles is in the world, it’s time no-one has to spare.
I’m still proud of the branding and online shopping cart design. It’s running on Opencart and I worked farking hard to get it looking as clean as it does. Jamie found a site for selling sites, interesting! We thought we’d give it a go, check the online auction here: http://flippa.com/auctions/2732864/site
PS: We’ve still got some awesome stock left and if you enter the code “MAY” on checkout you’ll save an additional 40%. Visit: http://modernpetshop.com/
Our largest crowd to date.
Luca handing out my Bike T-Shirt.
Our speakers.
Our Apple talk featuring type obsessed creatives Luca Ionescu, Gemma O’Brien, Keith Morris and Wayne Thompson at Apple Store kicked ass last night. Click here for more images.
Cover.
Check the spine. It’s a monster!
Love the non-gloss stock.
I was greeted by a massive load of boxes around my desk @ Zen Garage this morning. Turns out the APA books are back from the printers! It’s such a weighty book, love it and I’m so proud of it. Narada and I have done so well (personally I’ve never designed and printed a book before!).
Now we’ve got to get them out there to all the people who made the book happen! There will be very few books left over for purchase too. Check the APA web site to view all the entries: http://automotivephotographyawards.com
Cheese! Nanami and I caught the same early flight out as Damien, my Aus Infront partner.
Nana and I on the plane, ready to go.
We scored a newer Qantas plane with personal screens. I selected The Pirelli Calendar Saga and was shocked that they didn’t edit out any of the tits and ass! Bit embarrassing and there were kids sitting behind us so I quickly changed channels.
Goodbye Sydney!
Aus Infront crew (Damien, myself and Zann). We headed straight to Lamington Drive to hook up with Zann and find out what our agenda was for the day.
There’s always something awesome on show at Lamington Drive.
Jeremy’s whippet.
And his mate :)
Zann had set up a temp office @ JW, he was in the Matrix working on the new Aus Infront web site (set to launch mid May).
We brought along more goodies for the Field Trip tote bags and the Jacky Winter Group team were quick to get cracking on getting the bags filled up.
The Music Issue – Desktop’s best issue yet (in my opinion). Find it at your local newsagent now.
We then headed direct to ACMI.
Zann and I in the theatre waiting for the tote bags to arrive.
All hands were on deck to offload 400+ tote bags.
Our Infront T’s (featuring our new logo) arrived too.
Nana and I hit up Degraves to grab some lunch. This Pizza from Lorca was perfect.
We then stayed off the main roads and went rummaging (best thing to do in Melbourne!) we came across a big bearded dude putting up photocopied signs on a door. He mentioned that Ferdydurke is a new bar (run by the guys at Section 8) opening up soon, the bar wasn’t ready but he invited us up to check it out (awesome right?!). Loved the decor, can’t wait to go back when it’s finished.
Bao hit to refuel us for more rummaging.
Later that night we braved the queue to dine at Mamasita’s.
Menu was in Mexican which made it a little hard to order, place was a bit pretentious but the food was alright.
DAY 2 – 7AM SHARP we were at ACMI setting up the theatre for Field Trip. First jon was to place all 400 tote bags on chairs!
Was more of a workout that we had imagined!
Next thing we knew it was 9AM and registration was open.
9.15AM and the theatre doors were opened.
The big screen above the stage.
Jeremy opened the show with some hilarious memes up on the big screen. This particular slide explained the process concept of Field Trip!
Charlotte’s been a massive help with Field Trip and being her Birthday, Jeremy got everyone to sing Happy Birthday for her (very sweet).
I found it near impossible to take shots of the presentations, but here’s a before and during shot of Illustrator Travis Price’s presentation to give you an idea of what the conference was all about.
Seeing everyone on stage creating artwork was too much for Nanami, who found it too hard to resist scribbling in her sketchpad.
Tin & Ed on the stage.
Jeremy wrapping up the event.
DAY 3 – The view from the Grand Hyatt.
We spotted a massive queue outside a tiny dumpling shop on Little Bourke St. so we decided to join in on the action.
The pan friend pork dumplings were awesome!
More rummaging led us to La Belle Miette, a shop that sold nothing but macarons (my favorite!).
Perfection!
Pistachio + Raspberry!
That night we hit St Kilda to dine at Cicciolina’s. There was a 2hr wait (!) but luckily they have a fantastic back bar and we ordered this amazing antipasto plate to tide us in until dinner (which was very late, but great!).
DAY 4 – On a tip from Desktop Magazine’s Editor Brendan McKnight, we hit Manchester Press for brunch.
We had to wait for a table, loved how they wrote our names on the brick outside.
Nanami’s coffee! So cute! Best coffee consumed on this trip, by far.
Happy Nana.
They’re known for their bagels. This one’s the Chorizo Bagel.
And this was the Salmon Bagel. The shop fit-out was awesome too. Lovely recycled feel was spot on.
We managed to squeeze in cocktails and a snack @ Chin Chin before heading to the airport.
Just got back (last night) from Field Trip Creative Conference in Melbourne. Happy to say it was a great success! Official shots from the event should be up soon. In the meantime you can check the tweets.
Checked out the newly developed Paddington Reservoir today. For as long as I could remember it’s always been a fenced up Petrol Station from the past, what they’ve done is amazing and reminded me of ruins I’ve visited in Greece, but with a modern design touch. Well worth checking out, click here for more info.
Speakers getting to know each other in the ‘Green Room’, hidden deep behind Apple’s Store facade.
Ready to hit the stage: Rhett, Damien, Dave, Sonny and Andy.
On stage.
As always we hit the awesome Grasshopper Bar afterwards for epic catch-ups and much chin wagging.
‘Aus Infront Presents’ is a series of talks put together by the team at Aus Infront (myself, Damien and Zaan) and Apple. Set to inspire and challenge – these talks will feature leading Australian creatives across a number of fields. Open to the general public, these talks are completely free.
Our twelfth talk last night was a panel discussion on the topic ‘Sounds & Visions’, regarding art and design in the music industry. On the stage we had Sonny Day from WBYK, Andy Kelly from Winterman & Goldstein, David Homer from design studio Debaser and director Rhett Wade-Ferrell from Moopjaw.
Made for an inspirational insight, especially the Q&A session at the end.
With quite some time to go until Field Trip Creative Conference Melbourne (20th of April) I’m glad to say that we’ve got only 100 more tickets to sell before it’s a sell out full house event! Our nerves in relation to ticket sales are somewhat calmed but we’re just as (perhaps even more) excited about how it’s all going to pan out.
As mentioned earlier, the concept revolves around process. I’ve been to countless creative conferences where the speaker on stage shows off their folio for an hour. Whilst that’s all good and dandy, what really inspires me is seeing HOW people make things. Process is king and for a speaker to give away their secrets, live, on stage is a big ask, one that we’ve managed to convince our speakers to do!
Head on over to http://www.thefieldtrip.com.au/ for artist info, tickets, schedules and more.
Logo design for ALL STARS, a car show we’re working on. More news soon!
