Foundry LIVE | Creative Conference April 2019
I was lucky enough to attend the very inspirational Foundry LIVE conference at the Cameron Street campus in Launceston recently.
Accompanied by the newest member of the Stream team (enter Robert Apse) we enjoyed three hours of inspirational talks by industry heavy weights, all with amazing and varied stories on their experience in design and how it has shaped them into the talented creatives they are today.
The first speaker was Andrew Hoyne, Principle of Hoyne. Andrew has 30 years of experience in branding and now focuses his time and efforts on the culture of space – creating meaningful urban places for everyone. He is currently working on 15 cities around the world, designing place and property spaces that bring people together in a meaningful and positive way. His words were truly inspirational.
The second speakers were Di and Robert Elderton founders of Future Days. Their design philosophy is to take a simple idea and amplify it, change perceptions slightly to create a work that is different (and slightly disturbing) as way to stand it out from the crowd. They spoke about generative design – a style they developed, which involves incorporating data sets into design work. The process begins with a base image that is manipulated using data in real time. The result is a large collection of different images which work together as set. This technology has been used to great effect on wine labels, with each bottle of wine having an individual label (see PREECE examples pictured below). They are developing this technology further – watch this space.
Angela McCarthy was the third speaker. She delivered a very entertaining speech on her experience of going from top agency designer to stay at home mum and running her own design business from the spare room. She cleverly made the analogy of wooing clients to dating tactics, from attraction and foreplay to seduction and proposals. As a side project, she runs Materialistic, where she produces hand screen printed textile pieces for the home in bright graphic colours.
The last (but not least) speaker was Jason Little, an internationally-renowned designer who specialises in ‘place branding’. He spoke in depth about his recent project ‘Into the Wild’ – the promotion of visitation to the West Coast of Tasmania. After community consultation and many months of research uncovering a sense of place, they developed a cutting-edge, iconic brand for West Coast businesses to use to promote visitation to the area. The brand uses outstanding emotive photography, an original and unique typeface and iconic badging system to promote the idea that visiting the West Coast is ‘just outside your comfort zone’. The branding is daring, bold and emotive and it works (see example posters pictured below). Also look out for the merchandise, it is selling like hot cakes.
We really enjoyed the event and can’t wait for the next one. Thanks go to the Foundry for hosting the event and congratulations on their recent recognition of their courses by Swinburne University.
Find out more about this event at foundry.com.au
Pictured: Foundry founding director Chris Billing opening the event.
