All posts tagged: We Can Create

Labbits at We Can Create

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When I heard that Frank Kozik was coming to We Can Create this year, I was there already. I collect Frank’s bunny inspired labbit and dunny toys and he is one of my design heroes. Geek out! Frank Kozik was the grand finale for We Can Create and I was super stoked that he talked a lot about his toys. He even mentioned that his fans regularly sent him pictures of their toys on wedding cakes and in different scenarios. Frank Kozik Graphic artist, San Fransisco Unlike many of the other speakers, Frank seems to enjoy designing for niche and an underground. With any successful artist, Frank questioned if people were collecting his early gig posters because they liked his work, or because people were collecting their favourite band’s poster – no matter what it looked like. After many years in the music industry Frank called it quits and went to Japan for a while. There, he was inspired by toys and revisited old friends like Hello Kitty. Toys are non-exclusive because of their multiple nature. Unlike artworks, …

Day Two – Genius At Work

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Things I learned from the second day at We Can Create. Chris Graham Film director, New Zealand From Chris Graham, I learned that as a director (or a designer) you need to assert your vision. Even if you are working with big names and you are no-one. People will respect you for it. He also reiterated a concept about portfolios I’ve feel strongly about: If you present the kinds of work you want to do, you won’t have to pitch to do it later. Look at your portfolio as a pitching tool. Engin Celikbas from Kesselskramer Advertising, Amsterdam Companies are changing and becoming multi-disciplinary. Hype and a different perspective will make your project memorable. Eric Rodenback from Stamen Design Data visualisation, San Fransisco Eric Rodenback from Stamen Design brought together data with interesting ways to present it. It sounds geeky and it is geeky, but it’s wildly entertaining, beautiful and educational. He works with graphs, maps, diagrams like you have never seen them before. One thing that I found interesting: To protect their hard work, …

Day One – Inspired

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I’m officially a fan of Auckland’s new creative symposium We Can Create. Symposium is a pretty fancy word for conference. But conference isn’t the right word for my last 2 days at Aotea Centre. Hosted by Te Radar, who has hosted many Semi-Permanent events over the years. Te Radar always gives great anecdotes that aren’t particularly relevant, but always educational, entertaining and New Zealand inspired. Here are some photos I took as well as stuff I learned from each of the speakers. Te Radar Presents: I was in great spirits after the first 2 speakers. I go gaga over typography and illustration so kiwi typographer Kris Sowersby and New York illustrator Sara Blake just blew me away. Kris Sowersby Typography, New Zealand Who even knew that we had a typography designer here in NZ? I didn’t. Sara Blake Illustration, New York I was amazed that Sara was a freelancer on top of her day job. Freelancing hours being 8pm to 4am. Her thoughts on fucking up and having the freedom to make ugly stuff was inspirational. …

1 week countdown

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Just a week to go until We Can Create’s first ever edition. It seems like yesterday when they announced Frank Kozik as a speaker and I bought myself an earlybird ticket. Like a true geek, I usually take copious “cool stuff to look up later” notes when I go to see creative people talk. There’s so much cool stuff to absorb you can’t possibly remember it all. The WCC website has info an all the speakers as well as a handy little box where you can pose questions to any of them I’ve asked Frank Kozik a simple 2 word question: Why rabbits? Speakers are: Hort Morag Myerscough KesselsKramer The Rumpus Room Sara Blake Stamen Design Kris Sowersby Rafaël Rozendaal Chris Graham Imaginary Forces Frank Kozik Patrick Reynolds I’m also looking forward to seeing Sara Blake. Her gorgeous illustrations will make you weep. It’s not too late to buy or win tickets. I don’t have any to give away, but there are a few places online offering the chance.

Frank Kozik is coming to NZ speak to me.

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…and some other people…in August. Since Semi-Permanent has postponed their event until 2012, We Can Create will be the only big design event this year. What a relief! I was torn on whether to go to SP or WCC and after they announced a batch of amazing speakers, I quickly bought an earlybird ticket. The real attraction for me is Frank Kozik. Kozik’s client list includes MTV, Nike, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Melvins, The Offspring and Butthole Surfers. His lowbrow illustrative style is distinctive and has been imitated once or twice. Kozik is an illustrator/graphic designer/toy designer. He deals with bunnies among other things. The Koala bought Kozik’s Happy Labbit toy for me as a gift once upon a time. Here is the Happy Labbit hanging out with Sharmi a few years ago. The Koala painted the Labbit to look like Tofu and the Labbit attended our wedding in Christchurch in place of Tofu. The Labbit sat at the head of the table right in front of  The Koala and …

Semi-Permanent and We Can Create

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For the past 8 years, Semi-Permanent has been THE design conference to go to if you live in Auckland. Originating from Australia, it’s been going strong since I was a first year design student all those years ago and I’ve been to so many I’ve lost count. I know I’ve missed at least one but it was with a very reluctant, heavy heart. SP began as a one day event of creative industry speakers from around the world, but now it’s ballooned into a two day event with a myriad of side events (art exhibitions, after parties, subtle mobs) running alongside the conference. It’s a super inspiring event and one that no creative should miss. I swear I come home super charged and ready to explode with things to explore/make/research. This year, the New Zealand organisers of SP, The Church have branched off from SP to do their own conference called We Can Create. The two design conferences are 2 weeks apart. SP is 12-13 August and WCC is 26-27 August. With limited WCC earlybird …