Gen shot the latest Shibui campaign at dawn on the Victorian Coast.  She also managed to get some amazing Super8 footage of Holly (probably pretty easy to do given Holly is AMAZING!)  Where does Gen find this light?  It’s so soft and un-Australian.  I love Holly’s hair cut.  If only I was 10 years younger. Oh, and stunning.  Holly’s booker is Helena at Work for anyone who is interested.

Beci completed this great little campaign for Simply Energy.  The concept, if you don’t get it from the pictures – which you should! – is ‘Reduce the Badness’.  Eliminate all the horrid things in your life – witches, spilt wine, monsters, all of it!  Including massive energy bills.  It’s super cute and I LOVE the palette.  Big hats off to the guys at BBDO for taking a risk with colour!  It should read ‘Reduce the Blandness’.  Should be more of it.  Click the images to see a larger version.

Andrew Van der Westhuyzen and Jonathan Zawada get creative with ‘Recorded time’

Palmer Projects is hosting the work of Andrew Van der Westhuyzen and Jonathan Zawada  in a a fab little exhibition where each artist has customised and created their own art on vinyl cut records.

The 24 local and international artists have all produced a sell out piece and all are completely unique in their design. Its definitely work a look.

Andrew’s Piece:

Jonathan’s Piece:

For those of you who are on Facebook, you can get all the details on the event here

Basically it’s 630pm tomorrow night at the Chauvel. You’ll need to book a ticket.  I unfortunately can’t make it (I will try though), but there’s some great work in there.  I was a judge.  They did a DVD which comes out with Captured Magazine.  Hopefully they won’t be doing an AV display with a recording of me saying all sorts of idiotic things like ‘all photographers should get bar jobs right now’. They interviewed me on a gloomy GFC-heavy day.

You know it’s a great interview when it reveals stuff you didn’t know about your own artist, right?  As usual Lucy has been completely insightful.  I encourage all my readers to subscribe to Design Files RSS Feed . Lucy does all this work OUTSIDE her day job.  Incredible and really essential if you want to know what’s going on in design in Australia.

To read the article click here

To see Jonathan’s updated site complete with cliff notes click here

and for a total treat, and because I haven’t blogged it before (didn’t have the know-how), see the Softlights clip that Lucy refers to below.

So, first things first, we’re back from China. Straight back into the old routine.  Blogging on the train right this minute.  The trip was brilliant.  I saw some incredible people and was treated like an old friend, this being my third trip.  I have been completely neglecting my blog for a few reasons, some legit.  The internet speed in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the Tianmen massacre was woeful making blogging images near impossible.  The Chinese authorities blocked everything on Blogger and Youtube.  So some of the stuff I am about to blog is old news – in internet terms that is.  The less legit reason I have neglected the blog is that I have discovered that social media costs money.  That’s right you read it here first. Check out this article and see if you agree with me.  If this is true then all the fascinating people I am meeting on Twitter are actually costing me a fortune.

Lastly, I am meeting my new business assistant Lucy for the first time today.  I am very excited.  She comes from the UK and has worked with Sarah Lane and has done lots of exciting things with the AOP.  Very lucky to have her.

Well it’s a proud day.  Three of my artists have made it to the Creative Sydney Top 100 list.  Andrew and Daniel from Collider, Annie, Jonathan and Shane were listed for Tru$t Fun! and Monster Children (Chris) also made the list.  There were some really cool characters listed but here are some of the more householdy names who made the list: Margaret Pommeranz, Glue Society, Vince Frost, The Chaser, and Sass&Bide. The list is actually a really good indicator of what’s coming out of Sydney.  You can see the whole list with links here.

I love it when an agency wants to put the special little touches onto everything that goes out the door.  Beci did these icons for Visa for their website and DM.  It’s such a small thing but it says so much.  TBWA commissioned them and it was really nice to be involved with an agency who takes pride in craft. Thanks Miles!

100 Photographers is one of Japan’s most prestigious photography publications.  It showcases Japan’s best photographers.  Gen has been featured three times and is one of the only (possibly the only) Western photographer featured.  This year’s theme was Love and Peace.  Gen’s work certainly is all about that. I am really pleased to see that they chose a shot from Gen’s Persia and Zola series that she shot in Tasmania while on assignment for Monocle.  This shot was one of the images that helped Gen secure a McDonalds campaign that she is shooting this week.  Of course images to follow!

Chris Searl shot this great POS campaign for Levis.  Glue Society put a lot of attention into the overall display in the windows with really cute touches like a mop.  Ok so a mop isn’t that exciting but I thought they did a really cool and interesting job.  And Chris does an amazing job of drawing out models’ inner coolness, although the casting was pretty incredible.  Kellie and Chris were a brilliant combination.  Chris was completely Zen (or maybe it was just the 5am call time) and Kellie was her usual bullshit-free self while being completely charming with client and Host.  There’s more Levis work to follow so keep checking the blog.  And while I am at it, thanks to all of you who are taking an interest in how this little agency is developing.  I see you all on the stats and just want to say thanks for your support.