With only two days remaining before client presentation and shortlisting, Diploma students have been busy refining and developing their presentation boards after meeting with Clayton and Vivian from PERTH CITY FARM for a one-on-one work in progress session last week.

Here is some of the nervous capture as students explain and push their design ideas. Plus, a small taste of their URBAN DOMINATION poster exhibition, currently on tour through Central’s main foyers.

Last week, my diploma students were acknowledged and winners announced for Central’s Film & TV advanced diploma screening night for 2011, cleverly entitled SMOKE & MIRRORS.

Winner and ultimately, the production manager, senior designer and art director (rolled into one) for all the collatoral required by Film & TV was Kharissa Sadha.

The piece of work had to reflect values of tolerance, democracy and development. It could be an artwork, essay, story, digital media, or a project. Coupled with the work, students were required to complete a 200 word description of how their project addresses the competition criteria.

Winners were judged on the quality and relevance of the submitted piece of work, a demonstrated commitment to studies and leadership and the capacity to represent the leadership.

Kathy Allam was one of the main winners for a piece entitled ‘The threads that bind us’.

“The piece symbolises how many relationships bind individual countries and people into a unified whole – the Commonwealth,” said Kathy.
“Separate fabric pieces have been frayed and then woven together to signify the ability of tolerance, equality, human justice, democracy, good governance, free trade and multiculturalism to bond diverse people. “On a smaller scale these high ideals are mirrored at Central: individuals from diverse cultures come together to study and in the process insight and understanding produce greater tolerance, and many friendships are formed,” she said.

Highly commended prizes were given to 5 students – Didier Bertrand, Prakash Rughoobur, Rachel Wells, Louise Southalan and Deborah Haslam. Plus a Certificate of Recognition went to a group of students who produced ‘The CHOGM Globe’. Its distorted shape representing an imperfect world and a tiara on top represented the Monarch and Head of the Commonwealth.

We found the James Crofts Hope Foundation via GoodCompany and acted quickly to brief this into our Adv Diploma group as their final integrated assignment.

The James Crofts Hope Foundation is committed to providing support and assistance to adults and children diagnosed with brain tumours, their carers and family, and also to the advancement of the treatment, and research of these conditions.

Student’s looked at all aspects of design, marketing, advertising, website refresh and a complete brand audit.

Below is some work in progress photos as students presented to John Crofts.

The theme for this years AGDA Poster Annual was “Inspired by Music”.

Diploma students undertook this as a class assignment and were invited to be inspired and interpret this theme however they wish. The results (collated below) showcase these outstanding responses to the brief. And with a fantastic Jury lined up to judge this years competition, fingers crossed Central students will be as rewarded as they were last year (previously, 5 out of 30 nationally selected students were from Central! View the 2010 gallery here.)

Music is perhaps the oldest of humanity’s creative endeavours. It is both an art form as well as a type of communication. The world over music is a source of entertainment, celebration, worship and expression. The diversity of music reflects the soul of the world and binds us all. We all experience music at emotional and cultural levels. It offers us our finest moments and records our trials and our joys. This is the power that we hope you can capture. AGDA POSTER ANNUAL

Congratulations to all my diploma advertising students who received an amazing brief from Parkerville Children and Youth Care, a non-government, not for profit organisation that has been providing care and protection to children and youth in need since 1903.

This ‘real life’ advertising pitch and campaign for Parkerville consistented of a high level briefing session and the subsequent ideas resulted in a fantastic outcome for Parkerville, with over 35 high quality advertising solutions developed and four finalist all award certificate and prizes for their concepts and campaign solutions.

Parkerville director’s Mark and Paul delivered a passionate brief, which was pivoital to the success of the outcome, by captivating the imagination in a highly prepared one hour briefing session, which students and lecturer’s alike responded to with collective awe. The student finalist artwork where:

• Myriah Jones (Using humour to create awareness)
• Dimitri Lenette (Foster Care Ad Campaign)
• Rachel Tay (to use for bequests)
• Layton Webber (to use for National Child Protection Week/Child AbuseAwareness Week)

Well done Myriah and Dimitri, Rachel and Layton.

See Dimitri’s advert below (in the WEST AUSTRALIAN) and winners below:

Advanced Diploma ‘Just Desserts‘ marketing students enjoyed a review session with Mike Edmonds at Meerkats HQ today.

On the table was a bunch of raw gems that Mike expertly picked through and polished. Rocks with the ‘golden thread’ running through. Student’s were encouraged to name these core/raw ideas and justly rewarded for curious and engaging solutions to the ambiguous and broad-stroking CHOGM brief, which asks participants to creatively respond to what they think it means to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth?

Mike was ruthless in his dedication to extending and linking the ‘business of tease’ to standout public expression and mixed media concepts. Living up to the credo of ‘Respect the elders, teach the young’.

Photos below capture the rapture.

The Australian Graphic Design Association’s 2011 Education Policy is a document started by former AGDA National president Fiona Brine and then further developed and refined by  myself and several other AGDA National stakeholder team members to better inform educational institutions and students of graphic design of AGDA’s stance and position on graphic design training and education.

This policy is for education institutions, policy makers and students entering the graphic design industry in Australia.

The AGDA Education policy is available to all for download at education.agda.com.au.

Amanda Hay was pivotal in the success of ‘bringing the policy to life’ and some of here fantastic folio images are below. Her stunning rationale explains:

The final design for this EDUCATION POLICY was based on the popular woodblock puzzles which use letters, numbers and basic shapes as a way of teaching young children basic problem solving. As well as the obvious educational parallels ‘the shape of things to come’ can be interpreted as a literal play on words of the body copy and the visual content of the booklet and also metaphorically as the future of the graphic design industry in Australia. Woodblock shapes were laser cut to mount on the publication in keeping with the theme and to create dimension and interest.

• All photos © Amanda Hay.

With oversized novelty cheques and a recital of several of the best boyband acapella and pop-love songs (to some catchy dance beats), Chris Anstee from Cornerstone HR (wearing beanie) flew into Perth last week to present Elliot Klass (wearing Cap) and Rachel Tay (with cheque) generous prizes for their work on the re-branded Cornerstone HR corporate identity and website.

The class as a whole was also thanked, with each student who worked on a new direction for  Cornerstone acknowledged with a certificate (on new letterhead) and entertained with some of Chris’favourite sweet rhymes about heart breaks, first love and how he “Love’s The Way You Love Me”. Wait, what?

Another great term and partnerships with Diploma Graphic Design students and Music Business Students from CIT Leederville.

See the range below, in no particular order:

GRAPHIC STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

MAY 2011

• LUKE SWEET and SAM CARMODY: Maritime fence idea pulled off nicely with simplistic line art and grunge styling adding punch
• ASH RAINBIRD and 10past6: Loads of laughs and fun solution for loose brief and general absurdity.
• SASHA DOYLE and THE SEEN AND HEARD: Excellent process and development into strong atmospheric final.
• NICOLE HURLE and I AM ETERNAL: Solid research but falls short of delivering full death metal credentials.
• HAILEY SIMS and THE CANNONELS: Mis-guided pirate theme turns into a spooky and well resolved newsprint front page and restrained triptych.
• CAITLIN MOLONEY and SAM CARMODY: Delightfully strong concept development leads to some of the best work produced to date.
• ALESHA HARRIS and I AM ETERNAL: Enter the crazy zombie turtle and then add drumsticks to the coolest pencil case in school.
• VICKY WAKE and THURSDAY’S PAGE: Starts with stong typo blocks applied well to outdoor and advertising spaces.
• DEANNA SCORDA and THE WITNESS: Reflect on the issues of copyright and the development of customised wordpress website.
• STEPHY CHAN and ALEX THE KID: Present three well defined concepts and forward thinking future focused final poster.
• SARAH BUCKLAND and THE PAINTED BIRDS: Proves that starting a new direction often improves the process when a design isn’t working.
• REBECCA CAPUTI and HAND STANDS FOR ANTS: Painterly approach and unique ‘split personality’ works well, albeit under resolved.
• RAYMOND HARVEY and I AM ETERNAL: In a fun packed presentation, Raymond explores having his feelings hurt after rejection of a leading concept..
• ALANA EASTVELD and THE PAINTED BIRDS: Provides a dark themed symbolic design direction with gorgeous logo type script.
• NICOLA FARROW and THE VANS: Repositions well with simplistic logo type and straight forward eclipse direction.
• NICHOLAS YIM and ALEX THE KID: With excellent logo device and typeface although lacking punch with information on poster.
• NATHAN MILLARD and THE SEEN AND HEARD: Develops fun posters for ‘young hipsters’ and introduces a lady King Kong.
• MAYO KIKUCHI and UPON THE SHORES: Develops a timeless logo and awesome heartless robot T-Shirt.
• LEIGH MAISEY and RED SKY: Extensive design choices with the STROKES inspired range of different design directions. Smooth running project.
• KIRREN JONES and ORIGINAL FORTUNE: Excellent logo solution after multiple refinements complemented with a great WordPress website.
• KHARISSA SADHA and SAM CARMODY: Pushes a memorable logo and exquisite poster concept under the gun using SLR focus as the punctuation.
• KARINA BOYDEN and GEORGI KAY: Follow intuition as the approach and deliver a gutsy logotype and starting points of a good poster.
• JEN MCKENNA and THE CANNONELS: With loose starting points for an un-common sounding band, Jen finds herself in a spooky swamp.
• IGUSTI WISESA and 10 PAST 6: Arrives quickly at an unresolved ending.
• EMMA VOGLER and THE VANS: Demonstates good logo development which matches eclipse theme and typo driven lyrical texturing.
• ELLIOT KLASS and ORIGINAL FORTUNE: Proof that good client communication can result in great theme and text driven solution to possible “geiselnahme”.
• ELEANOR BRIGG and THE VANS: Extensive poster and merch work with minimal logo retouching.
• DAVID PEKEL and THE ENERGY COMMISSION: In a ‘censored’ development and unseen presentation, falls short of pulling it off.
• CRYSTAL CORNELIUS and THURSDAY’S PAGE: Strong logotype solution with single colour inked band posters provides striking counterpoint.
• BRANDON RODGERS and THE PAINTED BIRDS: Works on a strong conceptual base and aims for the sky. Interesting type and graphical imagery solution.
• AYE AYE and GEORGI KAY: Complex layered solution seems a little too generic, but is branded well outdoor.
• ALEX HWANG and THURSDAY’S PAGE: Push strong concept driven solutions with refined polish and sensible design motifs.
• ADRINA AVENDANO and THE WITNESS: Battles a sore throat to document dealings and communication importance to arrive at website solution.

Further presentations (not presented to client and full group)

• BRANT BEBGINGTON and THE ORIGIN OF: Takes a fun, well communicated brief and only minimum logo development into a good web concept but lacking in the poster department.
• MYRIAH JONES and THE ORIGIN OF: Takes on a detailed brief and paces the development of logo and direction responding to feedback. Logo works well and redeveloped poster shows promise.
• JULIA DAVIS and HAND STANDS FOR ANTS: Battles poor and late feedback to illustrate an amazingly rich and symbolic direction with multiple refinements, amends and seeks feedback to improve typographic placement. Direct band feedback would have worked better in this match-up, but exceptional final nonetheless.
• CHIARA ADAMS and THE CANNONELS: Good example of how face to face meetings can really help sharpen the direction, this good grpahic team relationship covers vast amounts of ground and works hard to deliver on some crazy requests. The poster is a WINNER and used, the EP cover in ink perhaps not quite finished but epic results either way.
• CAITLIN DEASY and THE WITNESS: Solving the copyright issues and redrawing the troublesome ‘peacock’ is fantasic and a real saviour. Cool and hip minimalistic EP a great solution also.
• KIRSTEN SANFEAD and BEYOND NEVER: Menacing spikes with a fighter pilot theme, Kirsten produces some great work for her own band and capitalises on the decay and end of the world. The concept album direction is fun and diverse, as is the merch and comes with a Website to boot.
• DIMITRI LENETTE and TWO MUSIC: Good brief although little feedback sees super-clean ideas self edited and refined to colour explorations and funky translucent card idea to replicate old cassette tapes.
• JAQUELINE GIACOMAN and 10 PAST 6: Experiences a far amount of frustration due to poor communication. However, proceeds well into powerful logo with spunky personality. Type on posters suffers from readability issues, which may have been solved by better client communication and feedback when requested.
• GINA THOMPSON and TWO MUSIC: Produces a strong logotype solution and refines well onto stationery application, however, has to wait a week for 5 minutes of feedback. Excellent repeatition of major logotype on reverse of letterhead and positions TWO MUSIC with a fantastic ‘screen printed’ starting point for posters.
• LAYTON WEBBER and BREAK: Working with close friends and bandmates sees a strong rationale well researched and refined into a well set and moody suite of materials of this crew. Punchy posters and great logo rolls out wonderfully to brand the band experience.
• ALANA NOTTE and THE PAINTED BIRDS: Good brief and communication starts with large inspiration pull and three solid finals. Poster is “smart and efficient”. Excellent process of smart thumbnails and professional sleeve-ready artwork. (Thanks to Aiden for additional ‘live’ notation)
• PUJI LESTARI and UPON THE SHORES: What begins as a straightforward brief, quickly develops into a city on fire with some dark and difficult decisions that result in difficulties with readability. Final logo choice strong and presentation demonstrates commitment to work ethic.
• RACHEL TAY and THE WITNESS: Research rich out of the blocks, Rachel showcases how excellent refinement and committed logo development can amazing and capture attention. Eye poster top notch and that logo does grow on you (eventually).
• KIAH WEAVER and THE ORIGIN OF: Communication with client slowed unfortunatley, as feedback on logo was received well and more of the same may have help ‘refine’ the bloated feel. Posters lack direction and missing a driving concept of which client communication may have helped. Saved by roll out onto merch, flyers and alternative options.
• AIDEN THOMAS and UPON THE SHORES: Fun filled presentation and strong intuition helps keep the ball rolling after both client and design “let go of it at the same time”. Long wait time for feedback may have helped kick-start fresh logo direction (vast improvement) and illustrations are super cool. Strong typography always wins at the end of the day.
• STEPHANIE WEIR and THE ENERGY COMMISSION: A shocking, sexually challenging brief is well handled by Stephanie who guides a one hour talk about penis’s into a less confrontational refined German / Russian hermaphrodite. Satisfactory logo development leads into a ‘safe’ stationery set and stuff, and strong initial posters concepts.

And using PREZI, which is a great way to ‘step’ the viewer through the process

DIEGO AGUIAR and THURSDAY’S PAGE: Works up a strong direction with little to no feedback from client and whilst more variations could have been explored, it does have a refined edge.

BEN COLE and FEAR OF COMEDY: From a mixed brief and no band contact, Ben successfully executes a complicated narrow down of options to deliver an excellent empty belly poster and standout logo and CD development all within the final two weeks. Interesting to see ‘uncredited’ use of the logo showcasing how poor communication is typically the roadblocks the band manager places between the band and the designer.

JESSICA KIPPS and ORIGINAL FORTUNE: With Hiphop lotus styling an excellent starting point, Jess explores various ‘street cred’ directions and geometric type solutions.

PAULA FARIA and 10 PAST 6: Loads of research and loads of initial design options delivers a fantastic final logo and exceptionally strong branded collateral.

And, some pics of the action