Shillington College

Shillington graduate gets her work up big.

Elisha Schnell graduated from Shillington College in May 2010 with an outstandingly unique portfolio. She is what I would call a 'chic geek'. She had an interesting path to design, originally trained as an actress then through an interest in the web became a web master for a corporate and front end programmer later working for a major charity in Australia.

She has always had personal passion for illustration which played a significant role in her design solutions during college projects and in her recently commissioned work for Canada Bay Council, Sydney.

Here are some images of illustrated street banners she sent me today.

Shillington student and graduate poster competition to HELP THOSE WHO HELP US.

 

Shillington College are running a competition to raise money for the State Emergency Service (SES) in QLD, VIC & NSW entitled 'I get by with a little help from my friends'. This competition is open to any current or ex-student of Shillington College or Shillington School worldwide.

I am sure every ex-student (Australian or otherwise) is aware of the severe floods that effected Queensland, Victoria and Northern New South Wales. All the staff at Shillington College would like to give back to those in the SES who have been truly heroic and selfless in their efforts across the country to save lives and help those most in need. Now again in the last 24 hours they have made great efforts to save and assist those adversely effected by Cyclone Yasi.

So if you are interested in flexing your creative muscle, and help those, who are helping us all the time. All you have to do is submit a poster design based on the title 'I get by with a little help from my friends'. We want to see the most original and striking artwork, it can be purely typographic, type and image, done by hand and photographed. It's completely open to interpretation, you can use the words in the title or choose your own inspired by the title.

The Lecturers at Shillington College will select the top 20 entries which will then be posted on 15th Feb on the Shillington facebook page for online voting.

Voting will close on the 28th Feb. The winning poster will be printed and sold online, with all profits going to SES in QLD, VIC and NSW.

The designer of the winning poster will receive a single print of there A1 poster, plus a $100 AU voucher for itunes.

Submission Deadline: 14th Feb
Poster Specs: (A1) 841mm x 594mm portrait, CMYK (no spots or pantones). Final artwork must be 300dpi.
For voting submit 72dpi file 427pixels x 604pixels to: info@shillingtoncollege.com.au
Please include your full name, which college you were enrolled, or are currently enrolled, at and the year of study.

We look forward to seeing all submissions and encourage you to put your design to a positive use, if not for this competition, for others who are in need across the world. 

The 6 plights of the modern day branding designer talk

At a recent AGDA talk by the infamous Chris Doyle (known for creating his own identity guidelines that went viral to design studios across the world, which is linked to his name below) now working for the branding studio Interbrand.

Unfortunately I was unable to make it. A couple of the students from Syd FT went along. Lucas, the kind chap he is, picked me up a copy of the newspaper style document they put together which I have photographed and put below. He also very kindly agreed to agreed to write about the talk. So thanks Lucas for the following words and choice links.

Faced with the epic, ever-growing body of work that has gone before, how can today's designers cut through the clutter, let alone create a genuinely original idea?
Presented by Chris Maclean, Mike Rigby and Chris Doyle, The Plight of the Modern Brand Designer covered six dilemmas facing designers today. These included the pitfalls of design by committee, the nature of client/agency relationships (read: master/slave), and standing out in an ever-changing media landscape.
The talk centered around the need to employ design thinking and processes to create solutions to problems in business, and society. They also discussed the need for us, as designers, to embrace a whole host of innovative ways to express ideas – going beyond graphic design, to produce a truly powerful and engaging brand experience. Examples of this included  'Let it ring' campaign and VW fun theory.
All in all a very entertaining and insightful talk, on top of that they gave out copies of 'This Year I Will Try Not To', a collation of common design trends that should be avoided, it is extremely funny and definitely worth a look.

Lucas Black-Dendle

 

Thanks Lucas really appreciate your words and the lovely paper gift. Lee :>)

Thanks Sydeny FT for participating in my poster

I managed by a hair on my chin to complete my entry to the AGDA Annual poster competition. Thanks to the help of my class iphone chums (downloading the images several times) and for some awesome contortionist hand models. So Cheers to Kathy, Lucas, Heather, Catherine, Jules, Justine, Adam, Mikey, Clare, Karlee, Mary, Dinu and Sean for taking part. Thanks to Jen for her speedy typing of my Rationale. It wouldn't have sounded as rational without you.

The brief was quite open which can sometimes make things even harder. The short version: Challenge the notion that design is only about beautiful things and show that design has a greater value and it is in this value that design can effect real change.The objective: To promote the role of graphic design as a key driver for business innovation, thought leadership and cultural change.

My entry is entitled 'Engage at a cellular level' and was a comment on the design communities future. Our success is our ability to embrace and harness social networking(communities) and mobile devices (any medium) as a platform for design communication in order to form closer and more meaningful relationships with the community, our clients and their customers.

Happy with the result. If you have a moment go and check out some of the other entries at the AGDA poster annual gallery.

I strongly advise that if you do see any poster comps that you enter them. Gets the grey matter working and demonstrates your skills and desire to do work above and beyond college. Can be a great addition to your folio and says a lot about you.

Lee :>) Here is the finished product. PS there is no photoshop trickery on the phone images, all for real.

MOFFITT.MOFFITT @ MART GALLERY TILL 28.08

MOFFITT.MOFFITT. These guys go into the 'two' good category. Twin brothers both successful designers and creative directors that worked independently for different studios, but in more recent times became infamous for their collaboration. In particular their collaboration on the beautiful and dramatic Australian music talent mag entitled 'DEMO'. It was an instantly celebrated magazine amongst the design community in Australia and the first issue soon became more coveted than the last beer at an Aussie BBQ.

What was so good about it? Well you just have to look at it to see that it transcends above any of the usual music press tat. Not only is it a platform for the up and coming Aussie music talent, it equally demonstrates the great creative talents the writers, stylists and photographers who's work shines out in this large format magazine. Have a look at some of the magazine, Issues 1 & 2 below.

I strongly recommend you go along to the exhibition on at the 'MART' gallery. Incidentally MM did the identity for the gallery. The exhibition is entitled 'NO MORE' and is only on until the 28th Aug so get down there on the weekend before you miss out. Mart Gallery 156 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills. Go now!

GRAPHIC at Sydney Opera House

GRAPHIC celebrates the brave new world of comic books, graphic novels, illustration, animation, music, and other new ways of telling stories in a weekend of specially commissioned productions. Here are ten of the highlights, but make sure you check out the full program.

The masked crusader gets environmental recognition

 

 

I started this job back in 2007 working on the original concept and execution for the flagship Mad Méx restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney Australia. Was stoked to get a mention in the Society of Environmental Graphic design merit award for the in-store branding. My wife and the guys at Holycow design advertising have continued to develop and champion the Mad Méx brand into several other locations across Sydney and in now in Melbourne. Its always good when Aussie design makes it into international awards, especially American ones. Check out the other contenders at SEGD there are some other Aussie entries.

LUCHANDO POR EL SABOR! VIVA MM!

 

Posted by Lee. Not Jen. Jen does not have a wife! Yet!

Creative Sydney 2010

Creative Sydney is a series of free public events, held from 5-13 June at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay.

Creative Sydney invites you to join outstanding entrepreneurs, creative practitioners and community campaigners to make Sydney a better place for creativity and commerce. Creative Sydney invites you to participate and celebrate; to be inspired by cross-disciplinary experiments; and to help shape the future of our city’s creative culture.

A mix of discussions, presentations, performances and parties provide an opportunity to spark connections across the creative industries. Register here to attend one or more of the 20 free events or join them in the Festival Bar or at the Creative Sydney Block Party.

A few personal picks would be to check out Matt Fayle and Pip Jamieson from The Loop (Saturday June 5, Crowds and Collaboration) and Andrew Moffitt from MoffittMoffitt (Wednesday June 9, Panel: Creative/Commercial) but I'm sure all the other sessions and speakers would be fantastic and insightful.

Some green design kudos

I noticed whilst browsing this years 'Semi-Permanent' conference website that desktop magazine is having a competition for the front cover of the June 2010 issue. Covering all design things 'green'. All you have to do is interpret or communicate 'sustainable design'. The top 10 will be displayed on the big screen at 'Semi-Permanent' Sydney and voted on by your peers on the conference and mag website. The top 4 will be printed as a set of four for the June edition.

So could be a good chance to get your work seen as it is probably one of Australia's widest circulated design mags. If you don't give a go you'll never find out.

 

31 THINGS, Sydney

Australia’s two premier junior creative organisations, Junior & Find Your Yang, have double-teamed their special powers to present…

31 things: A one-night extravaganza-themed event for creative hopefuls.

There’ll be free Rhodia notebooks and beer to share. There will also be a room filled with super good-looking people to drink the beer with.

And if you’re lucky, you can use the notebooks to record their numbers.

You might even find the Yang to your Yin. Romantically or careerially. Whichever floats your proverbial boat.

Three of Sydney’s smarterest creative industry leaders will be there, dishing out canapes of advice on a powerpoint platter, behind a microphone, in front of you.

Cameron Hoelter – CD of The Campaign Palace
Melissa Peters – Digital CD of Lowe
Andrea Nixon – Director/Creative Strategist of Play Communications

They’re each giving 10 tips in 10 minutes, which when you add it all up, means you’ll receive a total of 30 tips in 30 minutes.

Get it? 31 things. What’s the extra thing? Don’t ask. You’ll see.

It’s all happening at a place called Good God Small Club, 55 Liverpool St, Sydney CBD. (Enter through La Campana)

Be there circa 7pm. Speakers start at 7:30.

Tickets are $10. Available here