Fieldtrip Sydney 2012

While holing up in my house watching The Walking Dead and keeping fit by dancing Beyonce's Move Your Body in front of the TV became my daily routine, I was delighted to receive a message from one of my uni friends saying that she won tickets to Fieldtrip. This was the first time Fieldtrip came to Sydney and its basically a conference of design geniuses, except not really like a conference. To put it plainly, for me it was like a whole day of amazing Guest Lectures that (as the online magazine "Two Thousand" would say) has "less talking, more doing."

Seeing as the night before I had hardly any sleep (probably because of my stubborn desire to watch all 8 episodes of the third season of the Walking Dead in one night), I became really tired through the day and may have drifted off a bit. To be honest, some were really interesting and mind boggling and others reminded me of the not-so-interesting demonstrations by my year nine science teacher. I had immediately regretted not bringing along a camera to document the day, so there will be some tragic iPhone taken photos here and there. They really don't do the works justice.

Before the day of the event I oggled the line up and was very excited to see Gemma O'Brien on the list. She was also a COFA student (or still is I think?) and gave a guest lecture during first semester. To put it plainly - she's amazing. Whilst being one of the more bubbly and over-excited speakers, she took the audience on a journey of her design process. It was as if we were standing her very own studio (maybe due to the fact that her set up contained things ranging from a pile of drawings strewn all over the floor to her beloved studio plant. Forgot what it was called..)

During intermission we plucked up the courage to take a photo with her! (you can spot the prize I won hehe)

The other speakers I really enjoyed were Maricar/Maricor. They're fraternal twins who graduated from UTS and their specialty is uh-maaaazing embroidery work. At a first glance you'd think their pieces were printed or water-coloured, but its all thread! Witnessing the amount of time and precision they put into their work was just really something.

One other that blew my mind was Flutter who create amazing animation. Domenico, one of the founders and art director, talked us through what their talented crew does and how they do it. One thing I was amazed by was his thought process - the level of creativity and personal influence that goes into his vision. He used one particular project he did for a client that was based on the 12 days of Christmas and gave his own little twist to each and every aspect. Let's just say he makes something as ridiculous as "8 Maids-a-milking" look cute and interesting to watch.

 One speaker I thought would not interest me, but certainly did in the end was Nigel Buchanan. Once an artist of traditional airbrushing means, Nigel had switched to using digital programs to create his illustrations and never looked back. Having his work in the Times or the Wall street Journal just proves that he's fantastic at what he does and you don't really realise this until you actually watch his process. Never underestimate the powers of Photoshop!

Seeing as this post is long enough, the other amazing creative minds will have a brief mention. Benja Harney is a genius with paper work - really wished I had seen his talk before my Studio 1 Paper polyhedra helmet disaster. Anthony Calvert, who's career journey was very interesting, probably needed to liven up his presentation by more talking (maybe more jokes?) but nonetheless was still interesting. Lastly, Forge and Morrow! Their main man Fraser Shiers basicially makes these amazing (I think I've used that word too much) 3D looking images, wait for ittttttttt, from scratch! I mean, they look exactly like photographs!

Everything was just amazing (there I go again) and so inspiring especially with second year coming up. So glad I went. Major bonus points go to the free totebag/goodie bag that we received. My friends and I were taken by surprise at the quality of the tote bags - velcro sealed and a zippered hidden pocket - need I say more? To my excitement Sharpie was a sponsor which meant NEW PENNNNS.



Not only did I go home with that bag (and another I picked up for my sister from an abandoned seat) I also went home with this -

It's pretty fucking amazing. Excuse my french.
I won this during intermission from Good Fucking Design Advice. You guys should really look at their online shop. I have my eye on a "Form Follows Fucking Function" shirt, but knowing me I'd probably need the "Don't Fucking Procrastinate" mug.

Well, I think that's it! Major kudos to Two Thousand who my friend won our tickets from and the Jacky Winter group for putting on an amazing.. um.. "non-conference"!