With Day 1 of Semi-Permanent Melbourne been and gone, everyone was excited and all set for another day to be overwhelmed by creative inspiration. Day 2 featured an all star line-up of Ken Taylor, Entente, Benja Harney, Animal Logic, Scott Dadich and photographer Platon.
Day 2 kicked off to a flying start with illustrator and artist Ken Taylor. Now based in Melbourne he works primarily within the music industry and is well known globally for his striking screen printed rock posters. Some of his clients have included the likes of Philsh, The Avett Brothers, Bon Iver, Decemberits, Sound Garden, Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan and Flight of the Concords.
Highlights from Ken Taylor:
- • Ken use to use pen and ink and now he uses illustrator to create his works and he paths everything by hand using the pencil tool on auto fill
- • He insists that with every job he does that it needs to be screen printed, which gives the final pieces a chance at becoming collectables
- • When doing a tour poster Ken tries to relate the poster artwork to either the band or the city where the band is playing.
Next up on stage were The Entente’, a Brighton, UK based design and art direction studio formed by Anthony Sheret & Edd Harrington in late 2008. The studio is named after the relationship between both parties: ‘The Friendly Understanding’. Alongside the The Entente also run is an independent type foundry, Colophon Foundry.
Highlights from The Entente:
- • With each design job they get give they try to where appropriate create a new font to go with look and feel of the project, making each project unique.
- • They compile a creative book about each font once it is a complete as a way to add a sense of accomplishment to the project.
- • The guys mentioned that they enjoying working with typefaces because you can get rid of things and start again with ease, making it a great learning experience.
With our belly’s full of yummy goodness after lunch it was time to make origami chatter boxes with Paper Engineer Benja Harney. His done some amazing work for some world renowned clients such as Harpers Bizarre, Hermes and the Sydney Opera House. He has both a commercial and creative sides to his work. You’ve gotta love a presentation where it ends with paper plans being thrown around a conference.
Highlights from Benja Harney:
- • Benja mentioned how he likes to do a lot of collaboration work and believes it to be a big part of design and can push you.
- • His philosophy around deadlines is that, “deadlines really motivate me”, his reason is that he’s scared to let people down by not meeting them .
- • He touched on his frustration with being a freelancer and how it’s hard to get paid for what your worth, that sometimes you need to fight for it.
Animal Logic’s Art Director for the Legend of the Guardians spoke about the creation of the animation film. Stressing the importance of creating an experience for the audience and making them feel like they were apart of the world you’ve created.
Highlights from Animal Logic:
- • Speaking about the importance of creating a distinct look for an animation film and the addition to detail to increase the audience experience.
- • They dedicate the amount of detail required depending on the importance of the scene and in keeping with the narration of the story.
- • For the stylising of the Legend of the Guardians they adopted a live action mentality. For which staff required training and the there was the development of technologies.
After a short break come the final finale with the powerhouse line up of Scott Dadich (Vice President and Digital Magazine Development for Condé Nast) and world famous portrait photographer Platon from the USA.
If there was only one thing that you could take away from Scott Dadich’s presentation that would be the idea of ‘Wrong Theory’ where you consider your instincts and you do the opposite. He believes that it pushes you out of your comfort zone and allows you to create something you wouldn’t of done otherwise.
Highlights from Scott Dadich:
- • Scott finds that using info Graphics in media a re more compelling than using stories, in getting a message across.
- • He feels that good graphic design is more than just graphics it’s about the fine details, that make something well designed.
- • To finish his presentation his last bit of advice was to ‘pay it forward’ and do something nice to help someone else.
Platon has witnessed some of the most amazing moments in political history and his photography has also inspired some changes in politics. He started his presentation with “Hold onto your handbags it’s going to be a bumpy ride” and closed with closed with “That’s people power folks – that’s my racquet”. He wasn’t kidding, he spoke about what it was like to shoot the famous, the most powerful people in the world and those who represented humane rights. As well as what is was like dealing with security, ego’s and protocol.
Highlights from Planton:
- • Platon recommended that if you shoot famous and powerful people, you should never hang out with them, as the quality of your work becomes compromised.
- • Touching on the underlining topic of Semi-Permanent Melbourne, he spoke about he believed that the best collaborative relationships are formed when your the underdogs as neither person wants anything from the other. There is a sense of mutual respect.
- • It appeared that no matter who he photographed or how long he had to get the shot he always tried to get a human connection with the sitter, whether it be asking if they like the Beatles or applying sunscreen.
That was the end of Day 2 and the end of Semi-Permanent Melbourne for another year.