Type By Hand: Hand-lettering workshops with Wayne Thompson.

Yet again, my design & photography worlds collide. If you're a designer & type-lover living in Australia, then you've probably already heard of Wayne Thompson's Type By Hand workshops. Teaching you to refine your hand-lettering skills through a range of techniques, you'll learn the art of blackletter, brush type and even how to make your own ruling pen from a soda can. These workshops are a must if you love typography or doing anything by hand, not to mention you get a lot of one-on-one learning time with some of Australia's best typographers.

It was such a pleasure filming the workshop (which I've been wanting to attend myself for some time now). I first met Wayne when I photographed Typism 2013; almost a year later, it's great to be able to work with Wayne after our brief chats about videos & photos at the conference.

If you went to Typism, you'll also notice Wayne's fellow speakers Matt Vergotis (attending as a helper) & Nicole Phillips (attending as a keen student) appear in the video.

Just quietly: plans are already underway for Typism 2015, so keep an eye on the website for the line-up and more news to come.

More photos from my day capturing Type By Hand below.

Analogue/Digital Brisbane 2014 After-Party.

If you went to the A/D after-party at Greaser bar, you might spot your face in the video. The after-party was too good not to give it a separate video of its own. Some snaps below!

In case you missed it: go and watch the official Analogue/Digital Brisbane 2014 video.

Analogue/Digital Creative Conferences Brisbane 2014.

So pleased that I can finally post this. A month ago I had the honour of filming and photographing Analogue/Digital here in Brisbane. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I filmed Analogue/Digital back when it first started, just for fun from the safety of my seat in the audience when I was still experimenting with videography. Even then, Matt was incredibly supportive and encouraging—if you know Matt, then you'll know that he roots for the homegrown, the talented, the hard-working, and the passionate people who love what they do, whatever that is.

After attending A/D year after year and after taking photos from my seat at A/D again last year, Matt decided he wanted me to "do one of your sick films like you did for us the very first time!". I can't thank Matt & Alex enough for doing such brilliant jobs running the conference (which is now national!) and for giving me the opportunity to "officially" shoot it this year. I had an amazing time, as always—if you were there, I hope you did too.

Check out the A/D BNE after-party video & photos over here.

Behind the scenes with Jasmine Dowling.

Documenting creatives behind-the-scenes is definitely my favourite kind of project. There's nothing better than meeting a creative, like-minded person I admire in real life, seeing their home/working space and taking their photo. So it made a whole lot of sense for me to get together and collaborate with Brisbane creative Jasmine Dowling, who I've been "Instagram friends" with since late 2012. Those of you who attended Analogue Digital on Friday would have been the first to have seen our film (and on the big screen too).

Aurelie Maron: Chalk Lettering for Design Montage

Related: Aurelie Maron for Design Montage | Sneak Peek.

I was pretty very excited when Aurelie contacted me to produce a video of her working on her latest chalk lettering piece for Design Montage. Upon seeing her work at the QCA graduate exhibition last year and being in absolute awe of her serious type skills, I knew she'd be one to watch. Currently working as a designer for Tusk Agency in the Gold Coast, chalk lettering is still something Aurelie does frequently outside of her typical work day. When she produced her first chalk-lettering piece as part of a typography assignment at uni, she had no idea it would very quickly turn into something everybody would clamour to have—she still gets many requests to create pieces like this (for very good reason).

Check out Aurelie's Design Montage type project on Behance

After watching the film of Aurelie doing what she does best, I hope you'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for just how much attention to detail and hard work is required to produce such a gorgeous end product—it definitely doesn't just happen overnight.

Aurelie designed the logo for the Typism Inspiration Conference (which I will also be photographing!) and will also be a speaker on the day. If you haven't already gotten your ticket, be quick! Head over to the website for details.

Check out Aurelie's Typism Logotype project on Behance

Aurelie Maron for Design Montage | Sneak Peek.

Here's a little look at what I was up to for almost the entire weekend with Gold Coast's favourite chalk-letterer and designer extraordinaire, Aurelie Maron. I filmed her working on a beautiful piece for Jenica of Brisbane-based creative hub Design Montage, who I was also filming for just a few weeks ago. If you're attending Analogue/Digital Creative Conferences next week, you'll get the finished postcard version of this in your conference pack! Be sure to say hello to Aurelie, Jenica or myself if you see us around. Can't wait to show you the final videos from both of these shoots soon.

Dominique Falla: Tactile Typographer.

Related: Dominique Falla: Tactile Typographer | Sneak Peek.

Many of you were so very keen to see the finished project behind many of my teaser Instagram images (like this, this, this and this) whilst working on this piece with Dominique. 15 hours of filming, over 1,300 videos, many hours of editing and probably a little bit a lot of RSI later, I bring you the final video that will give you an insight into just how much goes into making one of Dominique's fantastic string art typographic pieces that she is now so well-known for. I mean, the amount of times she's been reblogged around the Tumblrsphere is intense.

Just in case you couldn't get enough of it, Dominique has founded a creative conference for all typography nerds called Typism, that will be held in the Gold Coast in September. The line-up is looking fantastic already (and Dominique herself is speaking), so I'd urge you all to like the Typism Facebook page and keep in the loop with the event's news, including the launch of the website and speaker announcements. It's going to be great!

We Heart Music: The Exhibition.

We kicked off 2013 and hit the ground running with this exhibition; most of us frantically prepared for the exhibition shortly after the holiday season with only weeks to spare. Our first exhibition for 2013, We Heart Music, opened on Friday night at the fantastic Crown Studios in West Burleigh. We produced quite a diverse range of works this time around—I myself hung my photographic portraits from the ceiling beams versus hanging them on the wall as I have done previously, and Rach's "interactive" illustrations were quite a hit! As each of our exhibitions has passed, we continue to think of ways to make the event better and better, and we hope that this much was clear with We Heart Music.

I will be posting the proper photographs of my work over the coming days, so keep an eye out for the portraits and the story behind each of my subjects. Due to the lighting at the opening night, I wasn't able to take many clear photographs of everyone's work, however you will see everyone's work featured in the video.

If you weren't able to make it to opening night, never fear—the exhibition will be up and open for viewing between 1pm-4pm until February 24 at Crown Studios. Thank you so much to all who paid us a visit on Friday night and said hello, and to those who couldn't make it this time: we hope to see you next time!

Wedding Videography: Alissa & Robert.

Last month, myself and Luke Chapman shot one of the most beautiful, heartwarming weddings we have ever had the pleasure to witness. Alissa & Robert were so kind and easy going and part of such a loving family; their simple celebrations a true testament to what weddings should be about: love, and love only.

Woodlands.

As a creative, my mind is constantly ticking away to generate a concept that you will get really, really "can't sleep at night because you want to write down all your ideas" excited. You're searching for a kind of buzz you can't really ignore; a project that has nothing to do with earning money, and everything to do with expressing an idea that came out of thin air, all from your own head.

This was that project for me last year. One idea came to me; I took it and ran with it, working for months to develop a more solid concept behind this hair shoot and putting together a team. After trying to get submit this shoot to magazines and not receiving a response, I decided to finally release it; we had so much fun working on this shoot (completed in November 2011) and I definitely wouldn't call it a failure just because it wasn't published.

It was a fantastic experience, one of my first "studio" shoots and the largest team I've had to manage to date (not huge in the grand scheme of things, but working in a team like this on a shoot like this definitely helped me to gain a better understanding/knowledge/experience for the future). So much could've gone wrong, and yet the entire day went by without any drama—apart from the time when one of the antlers broke, which we still managed to work with thanks to, yet again, my positive and hard working team of professionals.

David from Rokstar Hair & Beauty worked on this project in his own spare time with so much enthusiasm, and I am so glad to have had him by my side on this. He created the antlers using his own two brilliant hands and put everything he had into it. I cannot thank my team enough for their time, patience and input in helping me to make this shoot a reality, and for being as passionate about this as I was.

I quite literally couldn't have done it without:

Hair Stylists: David Stirling & the Rokstar team
Makeup Artist: Sheri Vegas
Models: Molly Walsh, Lilly Schneider (Busy Models), Uline De Villiers
Lighting & Video: Luke Chapman

Thank you, thank you, thank you. x

Alissa & Robert's Wedding (Preview).

A small little preview of Alissa & Robert's beautiful, heartwarming wedding, which Luke and I shot last month. Our first time shooting a wedding in video, but definitely not the last. Can't wait to share the video with you all.

 

A Love Affair with Melbourne: Part Three

Part Three brings you our weekend around the city, stopping by Little Cupcakes and visiting the ever popular Degraves Street. We continued our culinary education at Lindt Cafe and Haigh's Chocolates, enjoying mochas, hot chocolates and macarons. Sunday brought us to Federation Square for Mark-It Designers' Markets, where we marvelled at the handmade, intricate and eco-friendly creations from some of Australia's best designers and made plenty of purchases.

Our last night in Melbourne and Martin's birthday were celebrated at the famed Cutler & Co, where we thoroughly enjoyed an 8 course degustation together with a brilliant wine matching. There was a surprise pre-dessert course thrown in, followed by one of the most brilliant mochas I have ever had.

After packing our bags on our final morning, we took a leisurely stroll along Albert Park and Chapel Street, having a quiet lunch at Morris Jones, taking in the chilly air and the scenery one more time.

To complete our Melbourne posts, I made two separate videos: one for agIdeas and one for Melbourne in general (the general Melbourne video just has a lot of food in it. Sorry.). The Melbourne video isn't as in depth as I'd like it to be but that's pretty much because we only had time to eat our way around town. Next time, it'll be different; hope you've all enjoyed the series.

Part One // Part Two // Part Three

A Love Affair with Melbourne: Part One.

Last Tuesday, Martin and I began our love affair with Melbourne, to attend the renowned international creative conference, agIdeas. Albeit both being first timers to the city aptly named the capital city of graphic design in Australia (to which we have both frequently received a chorus of "and you call yourselves creatives?!"), I didn't have a doubt in my mind that I would love Melbourne. I just underestimated the extent to which I would.

The colourful cacophony of street art; the cosy, bustling laneways; the chilly air; the visually impressive boutiques, cafes and restaurants; the autumn leaves that reminded me ever so much of my first home away from home, New Zealand—I did all I could to take it all in, so fast-paced and fleeting, stopping at every moment to record it through the lens, my eyes searching hungrily for the next brilliant thing.

I took my 40,000th photo on my 5D MK II (only one and a half years old) in Melbourne, recorded 1,310 videos and took 922 photos. Video is still yet to come: after only having returned on Monday night, I haven't yet even had a chance to take a look at the videos. There may appear to be a lack of photos from agIdeas itself, but a majority of my video will be dedicated to agIdeas.

In the meantime, enjoy the first chapter of our journey through stills. Our journey began with our 5:55am flight, our first Melbourne brunch at Dukes Coffee Roasters, our first Melbourne tram ride (during which I got caught between the tram doors), and ended with the first day of agIdeas, visiting The Hungry Workshop's wonderful Melbourne studio, and having delicious Middle Eastern pides with them at The Moor's Head.

Part One // Part Two // Part Three

Goodbye Helvetica: The Exhibition, by Dominique Falla.

Tactile typographer and graphic designer Dominique Falla slaved away for five weeks to bring art to a very urban scene: Surfer's Paradise. Myself and many other alumni, graduates and students of the Queensland College of Art, Gold Coast count ourselves pretty damn lucky and proud to have been taught by such a multi-talented, passionate and devoted person.

Analogue/Digital Creative Conferences 2011.

On Friday I went to the Analogue/Digital Creative Conference and listened to five great Australian, home-grown speakers who have had a strong stance and influence in the creative industries to date. My favourite speakers were Billabong's art director, fashion photographer and graphic designer extraordinaire Claudio Kirac, three-man Melbourne design studio South South West and co-founder of Deus Ex Machina and ex-owner of Mambo Dare Jennings.

After attending many of these conferences over the years, I've noticed that most of these great creatives sing the same kinds of songs: to do what you love without concern for rules, money, fame or any other trivial pursuits. If you're interested in something, keep doing it, and forge good relationships on the way.

South South West said that we as creatives have both a privilege and a responsibility: we have a privilege in that we are gifted with a talent that not many other people share, and we have a responsibility not only to ourselves but to others to use our abilities as best we can for good.

I find that time and time again the people whose work I am most inspired by are those that, like me, take a rudimentary approach to their creative process before it becomes a digital reality: to concentrate on idea generation and inspiration outside of design, to spend time sketching, conceptualising and developing those ideas and then refine the process until the end point. It seems that most who use this approach end up with much stronger, more solid bodies of work that stand on their own.

I hope everybody who attended the conference had a great day and came away with something that will help them for the rest of their creative careers, whether that be the motivation to keep moving forward or the knowledge that in doing what we love, and what makes us the happiest to the core of our being, we will always be okay.