Semi-Permanent05: Post conference review
Lumière's KIM LESCH made an intrepid journey to Takapuna, where she stumbled upon Semi-Permanent05 – New Zealand's largest creative event. She reports back on the highs, lows, and endless freebies on offer.
RETURNING from last year, Semi-Permanent, aka a Big Design Conference, made its return to a large crowd with a dynamite lineup of talent. The conference, which was held at the Bruce Mason Centre (in addition to Sydney) began with the amusing and certainly impressive TWiN, two brothers whose powers combined lead to music videos, commercials, and downright awesome photography. The urge to paw through the 'creative pack' (aka Goodie Bag) was easily thwarted with TWiN's relaxed but whipsmart presentation. They got us laughing at the right moments, 'oohing' at the correct times, and 'awwing' with jealousy every time they displayed more of their work. They both were also ridiculiously good looking, to further frighten off the next duo. Tough act to follow, for sure. However, dixonbaxi's song and dance was just as impressive, less humorous, but their jaw dropping redesign of MTV UK as we know it was so damn cool that again – the Goodie Bag had to be ignored. Luckily soon afterwards was a lunch break, said Bag was rifled through and the girlish squeals of delight from two hundred some designers could be heard from a kilometer (or two) away. Wristbands, buttons, stickers, and the Semi-Permanent '05 book were removed from the sharp black silkscreened tote.
Stomachs filled and seats reclaimed, we resumed the program with the weakest presentation of the day: Weta Digital. Disappointing and boring, little effort was put forth on the part of the Weta respresentative to invoke any interest in the pre-planned programme. However, faith in the native Kiwi's presentation skills (and humour) were saved by the RESN webdesign team. The Laurel and Hardy of the conference, these two lifted the crowd from their dowsy disappointment – displaying an off the cuff presentation that included, but was not limited to: repetitive playing of video games they created themselves, careful demonstration of just how much effort they put into the front page of a website, and plenty of "Wow! Isn't that cool? I mean seriously, isn't THAT cool?!" to their own creations. They were, to say the least, goofy, while their work was anything but.
Following RESN was a Aussie in his tighty whities full of fruit. After passing out a few bananas and succeding in not getting too visually stimulated, we were introduced to the two fearless leaders of Vice Magazine's Australian contingent. We were given a healthy dose of what precisely Vice strives for – humour at everyone involved's expense. Vice are also known for their crisp ideas, especially when it comes to any kind of bodily fluids. Any. They did a marvelous job promoting the magazine through improv, PowerPoint, fruit, and slapstick. Again, everyone laughed when prompted, but they also squirmed when shown 'erk' worthy material. Again, this was a tough act to follow. Who can beat the classic banana in the undies schtick?
Answer: A guy with a helluva career story, and not the boardroom sort – "so there I was, a gun shoved in my mouth and me thinking 'I haven't done anything with my life, fuck.'" Enter Bryan Collins, who works for one of the largest design firms in the world. Bryan redesigned New York City's emblem; he designs t-shirts for Abercrombie and Fitch (probably the ones that don't suck); he's been working on the new Cibo Matto album artwork. His company has pretty much worked with every one of those huge conglomerates that everyone knows that they shouldn't buy anything from. He started out without a design degree and a history of general slacking off. His presentation was his story, how one guy went from working at a pizza joint to working at a design firm that has five offices around the world, including NYC, LA, and London. Needless to say, the need to excorcise the free Red Bull I injested two hours earlier quickly dissipated.
Collins' talk brought to light the beauty of the crowd before him. Mainly consisting of creative professionals who knew what it was to struggle, half of whom probably were still in that struggle, listened hungrily, eagerily, avidly. They wanted to hear about how someone, but more importantly, someone Right In Front of Them, had made it. He was candid, unaggressive, warm, but mainly he was himself. There were slick presentations throughout the day (Weta not being one of them), but Collins didn't have anything to prove either way. He began his talk with the event that made his life come sharply into perspective, but when he began to show his beautiful artwork and design it came into focus on just how astronomically talented this guy was. He set an example of excellence, self belief, and humility. A fine ending to a fine conference.
RETURNING from last year, Semi-Permanent, aka a Big Design Conference, made its return to a large crowd with a dynamite lineup of talent. The conference, which was held at the Bruce Mason Centre (in addition to Sydney) began with the amusing and certainly impressive TWiN, two brothers whose powers combined lead to music videos, commercials, and downright awesome photography. The urge to paw through the 'creative pack' (aka Goodie Bag) was easily thwarted with TWiN's relaxed but whipsmart presentation. They got us laughing at the right moments, 'oohing' at the correct times, and 'awwing' with jealousy every time they displayed more of their work. They both were also ridiculiously good looking, to further frighten off the next duo. Tough act to follow, for sure. However, dixonbaxi's song and dance was just as impressive, less humorous, but their jaw dropping redesign of MTV UK as we know it was so damn cool that again – the Goodie Bag had to be ignored. Luckily soon afterwards was a lunch break, said Bag was rifled through and the girlish squeals of delight from two hundred some designers could be heard from a kilometer (or two) away. Wristbands, buttons, stickers, and the Semi-Permanent '05 book were removed from the sharp black silkscreened tote.
Stomachs filled and seats reclaimed, we resumed the program with the weakest presentation of the day: Weta Digital. Disappointing and boring, little effort was put forth on the part of the Weta respresentative to invoke any interest in the pre-planned programme. However, faith in the native Kiwi's presentation skills (and humour) were saved by the RESN webdesign team. The Laurel and Hardy of the conference, these two lifted the crowd from their dowsy disappointment – displaying an off the cuff presentation that included, but was not limited to: repetitive playing of video games they created themselves, careful demonstration of just how much effort they put into the front page of a website, and plenty of "Wow! Isn't that cool? I mean seriously, isn't THAT cool?!" to their own creations. They were, to say the least, goofy, while their work was anything but.
Following RESN was a Aussie in his tighty whities full of fruit. After passing out a few bananas and succeding in not getting too visually stimulated, we were introduced to the two fearless leaders of Vice Magazine's Australian contingent. We were given a healthy dose of what precisely Vice strives for – humour at everyone involved's expense. Vice are also known for their crisp ideas, especially when it comes to any kind of bodily fluids. Any. They did a marvelous job promoting the magazine through improv, PowerPoint, fruit, and slapstick. Again, everyone laughed when prompted, but they also squirmed when shown 'erk' worthy material. Again, this was a tough act to follow. Who can beat the classic banana in the undies schtick?
Answer: A guy with a helluva career story, and not the boardroom sort – "so there I was, a gun shoved in my mouth and me thinking 'I haven't done anything with my life, fuck.'" Enter Bryan Collins, who works for one of the largest design firms in the world. Bryan redesigned New York City's emblem; he designs t-shirts for Abercrombie and Fitch (probably the ones that don't suck); he's been working on the new Cibo Matto album artwork. His company has pretty much worked with every one of those huge conglomerates that everyone knows that they shouldn't buy anything from. He started out without a design degree and a history of general slacking off. His presentation was his story, how one guy went from working at a pizza joint to working at a design firm that has five offices around the world, including NYC, LA, and London. Needless to say, the need to excorcise the free Red Bull I injested two hours earlier quickly dissipated.
Collins' talk brought to light the beauty of the crowd before him. Mainly consisting of creative professionals who knew what it was to struggle, half of whom probably were still in that struggle, listened hungrily, eagerily, avidly. They wanted to hear about how someone, but more importantly, someone Right In Front of Them, had made it. He was candid, unaggressive, warm, but mainly he was himself. There were slick presentations throughout the day (Weta not being one of them), but Collins didn't have anything to prove either way. He began his talk with the event that made his life come sharply into perspective, but when he began to show his beautiful artwork and design it came into focus on just how astronomically talented this guy was. He set an example of excellence, self belief, and humility. A fine ending to a fine conference.
