australian rozie

Here’s my review of Semi-permanent day two – after a big night that included Gumshara Ramen and Dustones at The Beach Road Hotel.

Tin&Ed

Formed in August 2004, Tin&Ed comprises of Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting. Based in Melbourne, they work in a range of different fields, including graphic design, illustration, collage, photography and motion graphics.

They were a bit nervous but had some pretty cool work to show. Stuff you might be familiar with is the Crumpler campaign, Lose Youself (Melbourne tourism) and Visa GO. They also did an activity book for the Royal Children’s Hospital which I’d be really interested to see.
I didn’t think much of the work that they did for the Melbourne Design Festival – which was photographs of an low budget installation they did in someone’s house – too self indulgent! I can’t find any pics of it so it must be pretty crap. Other than that, they are very talented and dabble in sculpture, installation, interiors, fabric design as well as graphics.

Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische is a designer, illustrator and typographer working in Brooklyn. Her distinctive style and hand-drawn typography, from logos to detailed illustrations, has gained her popularity amongst the design and illustration communities.

What can I say? This girl is a freak (in a good way)! This is one of those presentations where the work is so good – you feel depressed and envious. She was also very perky and nice (well, she is in her mid-twenties, so perky is expected). She gave lots of advice (write down all the projects that you want to do – to – how to make a chalky smudge effect – draw in pencil, smudge, invert ) and was very open & honest about her experiences. The geekiest thing about her, was her tattoo – which said CMYK. Her work has a warm, muted colours palette.
References: Worked on Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love, Louise Fili, My Fonts – Buttermilk, Daily Drop Cap.

T-World Magazine

T-world is a magazine focused on T-shirt culture and every facet within. It explores the fabric of the T-shirt industry, showcasing the stories behind each creation and its creators. The founders, Eddie Zammit and Luke Fraser have worked together for over a decade and started the journal as an after-hours project in 2005.

Eddie the designer, is a t-shirt freak who said he had 1700 t-shirts in his collection. The other guy, Luke – well he said he didn’t like wearing t-shirts – so there. Their advice was that, starting a mag is really hard, so don’t do it. This is from a person who spent 36 hours press checking the latest edition (freak). They were the only people over the 2 day conference to mention a grid! The thing I didn’t like was the photo shoot with wet t-shirts. They said they tried to not make it sleazy, but really … girls in wet t-shirts = lame.
References: Lego, Satr Wars, Sesame Street, Muppets, D-mote, Bobby Hundreds, Jojo Design (for t-shirt finished art).
I’m not sure if this was the link to what they were referring to but these t-shirts are pretty cool by Imaginary Foundation.

Jill Greenberg – an amazing photographer from the USA. Jill has shot big name celebrities, ads, Wired covers, TIME covers etc etc. She was much more keen on showing her personal work than talking about her commercial work. She has strong political opinions and had a controversy with some photos she took of John McCain. Also had another controversy with her series of photos of children crying. This cause mass uproar across America. It’s not often you hear from people who have received death threats as a result of their art. It was her portraits of animals which were the most impressive. It’s amazing how the animals had expressions/poses that were just like people. And, she had to say it, film looks better than digital!

Jasper Goodall

Goodall was at the forefront of the reinvention and rejuvenation of illustration in the late nineties and helped pave the way for the huge resurgence of the medium that we have witnessed in the last ten years. His iconic work for The Face magazine has influenced so many image makers, it has almost become a school of illustration in itself.

He was a nice enough bloke, but by this stage of the day, I was pretty tired and I didn’t really get into his pornogothic illustration at all. He has done some awesome work mind you.
References: Allen Jones, Fetish Bad Bambi, Corruption of innocence, Muse, Big Active agency.

David Michôd • Director • Australia
There’s always one speaker I just don’t like. David spoke about his time in film school. He was really dismissive and was reluctant to show any work. I can sort of understand how he wouldn’t want to show a segment of a movie as it isn’t the whole piece of work, but still. Anyway he did show a short film he made which had Joel Edgerton in it which was nicely shot with a very dark story. In my notes, I’ve written he didn’t take himself too seriously – but I’m not sure why I said that, as it seems like he does. I also wrote during his presentation that I think he is going to talk about the 10 years it took to make his film, Animal Kingdom – but not show it. But hey, he won a Sundance award, so he must be good. I left early as he was the last speaker, and I’d had enough of sitting in the Convention Centre auditorium.

So overall, another interesting Semi-permanent – that inspired and depressed me, as per usual. See you again next year?

Here’s some notes from day one Friday 19 March.
Frankie Magazine – their presentation was: relevant, organised, informative, inspirational. Made me want to subscribe to the magazine.
Some references: Sirota Guess Who book.

Travis Millard/Mel Kadel – this couple were super casual, very laid back in their presentation style but personable and funny. They are both really talented illustrators/artists. I saw Travis later on and told him he did a great preso and he said thx.
Some references: Raymond Pettibone, Fudge Factory Comics, Michael Jackson in Exile comic, Strong Arms, Farts – a spotter’s guide.



Craig Schuftan – his presentation was different, unusual for Semi-permanent. I felt like I was at uni again in a theory lecture. Some guys near me said it was boring. For me, it was interesting because the talk was about neo-80s and as I was there the first time (before it was neo). He name dropped many of my 80s icons such as Madonna, Andy Warhol, MJ, Duran Duran as well as “future music” makers such as Daft Punk.
Some references: Susan Sontag, dada, surrealism, “perspective – master of infinite space” and he’s making a zine of this preso if you are keen to re/visit.


Fecal Face – this preso wasn’t so thrilling, I think he ran out of things to say. He showed his early work/influences – skateboarding, Thrasher Magazine. He did give some good advice.

Get a job not doing what you want to do, so when you get home, you really want to do it.

Glue Society – a short presentation, he showed lots of ads and documentaries of ads they have made. They did The Chaser promo where they bought billboard space in remote countries for hardly any money but received crap loads of publicity. They made an ESPN Fantasy Team ad but I didn’t get it. Maybe something for my teenage Canadian cousins to appreciate.
Some references: Metal on Metal music video, The Gamekillers, 42 Below Because We Can campaign.

Ashley Gilbertson – this photojournalist dude was intense, he looked older than his years because of the shit that he’s seen. His talk was very serious, very intense, the subject matter of war images were disturbing. (His voice reminded me of Sideshow Bob though) It was very moving when he spoke about the series he photographed of dead soldier’s bedrooms. He was so passionate and expressed a sense of responsibility to tell the soldier’s stories.

and that concludes day one of Semi-permanent 2010…
oh there was also an exhibition to co-incide with Semi-permanent at Darling Park called Brought to You by the Letter T – a collaboration with Sesame Street and a a bunch of artists and T World Magazine. What I haven’t/couldn’t work out is if the t-shirts they designed are available to buy.