‘A field trip’ wrap up
I attended a creative meet last Friday at ACMI in Melbourne. Presented by the Jacky Winter group, Field Trip was held for the first time. I usually do not like to attend these industry events because of their ridiculous costs, far too many people in attendance and often attracting the pompous designer stereo type which I very much dislike (you know the one I’m talking about, black turtle neck, black rimmed glasses, massive chip on their shoulder). When my friend Kelly told me she was going I was a bit reluctant but eventually thought ‘what the heck, if all else fails we can hang out in the city for the day’.
Turned up to fed square at 8:45am, nowhere open for coffee!! In Melbourne I hear you say?? This could be world war 3, denying a theatre full of creatives no coffee at that hour. 8am is early for most Graphic Designers I know. Anyway, found the coffee and settle into cinema two for Field Trip. I was feeling excited!
Jeremy from Jacky Winter gave the intros about the sponsors. I totally appreciated that he made it interesting by showing us funny animal pictures from the internet. I love funny animal pics and I’m not that keen on hearing sponsor explanations. So he really nailed it there.
First speaker was Beci Orpin. Beci’s work is amazing. Even if you are in the design industry or not you would have seen her creations and probably not known it. What I actually loved most about watching Bec show us how she works in Illustrator, is that you dont have to be whiz bang at operating the software. Not being able to use software should never be an excuse to not be creative. I have often used this escuse myself when trying to make my designs. It made me feel really good and not as inferior as I might otherwise watching one of the greatest creatives bust out a beautiful illustration right before our eyes. (Mental note, no excuses about software restrictions anymore).
The next speaker to grace us was Jeremy Ley. Prior to this I had never heard of Jeremy and I was fast becoming a fan. A highly respected storyboard artist, he showed us how he draws using the most amazing Wacom tablet I’ve ever seen, the Wacom beast I shall remember it as (you can get a squiz of it in the pic below). Puts my little desk top Wacom to shame. Said it only cost him a lazy 3k! I feel that Jeremy has an unhealthy obsession with Rolf Harris, which I will point out right here. But he certainly makes up for that by being an incredibly funny guy, jaw dropping hand illustrator and a little on the beau side. I like how he tied in his presentation by making up and storyboarding a tale about Beci being so nervous to show us her Illustrator skills. I hope she was not offended by this! It was very clever and of course all in good humour. I loved the utensils coming to life and popping out of the screen to attack her in his story. Really awesome.
Last speaker before lunch is always a tough gig. Tummies rumbling and concentration spans waring. The work they do is amazing and I could never even begin to understand and create the stuff they do. It was 2 gents from 21-19 (worth visiting the website to play a game of paddle ball!!) and they showed us the process they would go through to create the Telstra campaign. I really appreciated the fact that so much planning has to go into one job, all the time they need to spend of rendering their little changes into the work and then at the end of it the client may say ‘change this’ and they have to do it all over again. This 3D animation stuff is a completely alien world to me and I salute these guys, especially Ash the ever hard working man on stage pumping out the project as it was presented. Here is video of what we saw being created….
Bit of pho and wontons and it was time to resume after lunch.
First up after lunch was perhaps my most favorite of the day, Travis Price. Travis is from country Victoria and had PLENTY of jokes to tell about it. Most of which I fear were over the audiences’ heads. None the less Travis was a fantastic presenter. Funny, charming, creative and swore a lot (its part of the creative process yeah!?) This guy is a walking/talking Illustrator tip Encyclopedia. I wish I could just transplant some of his brain into mine and be that awesome. His talents as an illustrator are versatile, creative and completely awe inspiring. The favorite part of his presentation for me, is the point Travis made about being good enough. If you want something, and you are not making the cut, do everything you can to get where you want to be. Learn new things, discover new techniques and basically just work your frikin’ ass of to get it. Travis is a shining example of this as a success.
Next up was the quirky Tin&Ed. When these guys started cutting up coloured paper, using craft glue and glitter I was a little concerned of the validity of what this presentation was going to be. But as they went on through, chatting away and doing something with their hands, all of a sudden appeared these awesome owl mask costume installation type things. I don’t really know what to think of them other than is that they were colourful, quirky, unique and a whole lot of fun. What I loved about these guys is that they totally love what they do and they are so comfortable in their own creative world. There is something to be said about being comfortable with what you can create and these guys seemed to have that down pat. Great presentation!
Jo Duck photographer took the stage and after explaining her creative process, which I am glad to see is just as crazy and all over the place to mine, she embarked on a live photo shoot. I have spent many years working with photographers and many of my closest friends are professional photographers and I know from this that a live photo shoot is no easy task. I loved that Jo incorporated the previous presenters work (Tin&Ed) to make her shots. Taking inspiration from a spinning owl youTube video, Chubby Checker and Tin&Ed here is a little snippet of how that photo shoot went…
Last and certainly not least was Toby and Pete, or was that Toby and Steve, or Graham and Peter or Paul and Elizabeth? I couldn’t tell you who was talking up there but I can tell you that is was F*$%ing awesome. Photo editing and manipulation to the complete max. Making the surreal world real right before our very eyes. Some serious channel masking (gotta learn that!) and an outre way of thinking, any world is possible in their minds. Our eyes feasted on a Ed Sullivan variety show type set up which included Travis’ amazing owl wise guy as the back drop, a 3D surreal neon light and environment from Toby and Pete, Jo Ducks images from the shoot wearing Tin&Ed’s head dress as the entertainment. Confused yet? Don’t over think it, just have a look at the image below and you’ll see what I mean. They really went out with a bang on this one!!
And just like that, Field Trip was over for 2012. It was an inspiring, though provoking and admiring of peers day. I loved it, it had cool showbags (totally important) and I’d go again for sure in 2013. See y’all then!