Change lives: South East Asia

This poster Make Believe created was based around an idea dubbed the foreign visual slap. Its premise is that travel to the orient is disorientating to Westerners. The design took its aesthetic inspiration from Asian traditions and the work of Tadanori Yokoo. It sought to surprise, engross and delight the audience.

Semi Permanent: Wellington

The other day we went to Semi Permanent design conference in Wellington. First up was Joel Lewis from Hellicar and Lewis. He talked about loops, programming, being inspired by random books and the importance of visual communications to 'Just tell the truth.' He quoted Agnes Martin who said 'To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.' He also quoted Myron Krueger who said 'The only aesthetic concern should be the quality of the interaction, which may be judged by general criteria: the ability to interest, involve and move people, to alter perception and to define a new category of beauty.' I liked that philosophy. The studios best piece was a collaboration with the dancer Nina Kov. She danced and they developed a program that projected lights in response to her movement in realtime. The videos called 'Divide by Zero.' Check it out below. The next stand out speaker was Astrid Stavro. She talked about how design can engage with the community, how a product can inform the design process to create synergy between the form and content and how conceptual simplicity is different than aesthetic minimalism. Drypynz presentation also stood out, mainly because it was so confusing. His work is awesome so I shall discuss that instead. His uses street art to participate in the everyday life of a cities inhabitants. He is obsessed with deconstructing shapes, space, form, torsos and limbs. And it shows in his work. He paints delightful blobs of colour, surreal floating bodies and shapes filling dreamy voids. Quite ethereal stuff.

The star of the show was New York based designer Jessica Walsh. She is a player. She talked about how playfulness is central to her design philosophy, how she only pitches one awesome idea to her clients (rather than options for the sake of options) and how limitations can foster creativity and innovation. She described play is a state of mind rather than an activity, it requires just the right amount of challenge and opportunity. She seems to revel in it. Dressing up in lycra suits, splashing and smashing paint in glasses, re-purposing kitsch objects, birds pooping on children's heads and covert messages. Her 'Now is Better' collaboration with Stephan Sagmeister was exemplary of playful design. It was a real pleasure to view. She also had a few quotes I'll rattle off here. 'We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing' - George Bernard Shaw. 'Play is the highest form of research' - Einstein. 'Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life' - Confucius. 'Talk less, say more' - Jessica Walsh's Mum.

We can create 2012: Design conference

We recently got back from Auckland and the We Can Create design conference. First up was Sarah Maxey. She is obsessed with bears. And with words and the shapes they come wrapped up in. She's renowned for her delightfully whimsical typography. She uses blotches and lines that twist and swirl around each other creating letterforms of true beauty. She loves Outsider artists and 'The skip and bleed of nib on paper.' To illustrate this she showed a child's  drawing of 'The road to the beach.' It was a one of those twisting unsealed roads littered with potholes. The drawing was a giant red scribble created by holding the pen to the page for the duration of the trip. Awesome. Next up was Thomas and Martin Poschauko, designers and authors of 'Nea Machina'. Their work examined the creative process by exploring the multitude of ways a single piece of text and image might be combined and represented. In doing so they critiqued the relationship between their head, their intuition, their hand and their computer. Their designs were a visual stream of consciousness. One idea bouncing of the other, it was an exercise in freeing their creative perception. Their graphic playfulness and a willingness to see the world with fresh eyes made their work a joy to view.

Jonathan Barnbrook showed some slides documenting street art in Ireland. They used huge motifs, masked men, flowers, emblems and typography declaring loyalty to the crown or IRA supported liberation. One wall proclaimed 'Sometimes it is better to be kind than right'. I liked that. A team from Adbusters spoke about how it's emotions rather than facts that convince people. This is because facts are abstract and emotions are relatable. The day closed off with Taika Waititi, director of Boy and Eagle vs Shark. Aside from being awesome he likes to express his point of view. He likes his Dads art, Robocop, Outsider Artists, Henri Rousseau, Michael Jackson, Swastikas that magically become windows, knock knock jokes, Rugbaby and dolphins. He dislikes cancer, fish fingers, nuclear bombs and Nazis.

Check out the V Motion project by Assembly  who also spoke at We Can Create. They are designers who fuse art with science.

Photographing Asia

Here's some photos from our recent trip around Asia. A land bustling with the teeming, chaotic, crushing masses. A land where plastic protects and food is anything you want it to be. A land where recycled air and neon lights plead with you to eat mango pudding. A land where ancient rulers  rest beneath eternal moss covered ciders.

Surface too deep: Publication design

Heres some pages from the lookbook Make Believe recently created from boutique swimwear label Surface Too Deep. The dreamy photography is by Louise Hatton. A great project to be part of.

Wellington street art

We did a little tour of the street art around Wellington in the weekend. Love, love, love the Stellar Bike series we kept running into. The huge scale in some of these pieces is really breathtaking. You just don't see anything like it in art gallaries. Anyway, here's some snaps of our favourite pieces.

Texas hold’em poster

Lately I've been finding myself attracted to mono-spaced typography, Americana, surreal art and images with multiple layers. This poster invite to a poker night is my attempt at morphing these various obsessions into a design that can communicate and command attention. I like the results.

Muscle Smile

The lovely Eriko at Muscle Smile asked Make Believe to create her business card and logo. Here's what we came up with. The hand drawn logotype connects the brand with the physical nature of massage therapy. The image, from Greys Anatomy 1918, is the pectoral muscle mimicking the form of a flower. It's a subtle dig at other massage salons who seem obsessed with lotus blossoms. Collectively the elements are an attempt to exhibit Erikos cute and quirky personality.

Semi-Permanent 2012

In the weekend I headed to Auckland with a bunch of other hipsters to attend the Semi-Permanent design conference. It was well inspiring. Here's a few moments that stood out. Alex Trochut did a presentation on his favourite design robberies. He talked about how to steal an idea, change it up and make it your own. He described his process as moving from immobility to imitation to intuition and then to imagination. When he talked us through his work you could see his process unfolding inside his brain. It made me jealous. Kelli Anderson also spoke. I think she was born on fire she is so talented. Her take on design is that it should challenge reality. She talked about how design creates an experience and it's only complete when an audience interacts with it. She said that we design to peoples expectations, we can break those expectations or conform to them. She likes to break them. The Monkeys talked about being provocative. For them a creative campaign should provoke an emotion, a discussion or a reaction and get people talking on your behalf. Special Group also liked being provocative. They launched their advertising studio with an ad proclaiming 'Don't waste your money on advertising'. I liked that. Florian, the creative director from Hi-Res, likes quotes. So I shall quote him here 'If you know what your doing you will do what you know.' The best part of the conference was when Benja Harney, a paper folding guru, had the entire auditorium make colourful paper plans and toss them up into the air. It was magical chaos.

Lost in translation

This book cover proposal was designed by Make Believe. It uses colour as a metaphor for translation and a compositional twist to make the title memorable.

Bon Voyage

Another party another excuse to create a sweet invite. The theme was inspired by the worst summer in 80 years. To celebrate seeing the back of it we got dressed up, found a nautical typeface, an old wave texture and some ribbon here's what we were left with.

Mission Adventure: Event promotion

This year at Parachute Music Festival Bible Society set up a flight simulator to encourage entries into their mission adventure competition. Make Believe created artwork inspired by retro tourism posters and vintage typography. We also developed branding for the truck, boarding passes, sick bags and safety cards.

A 30th invite

This year at Parachute Music Festival Bible Society set up a flight simulator to encourage entries into their mission adventure competition. We created artwork inspired by retro tourism posters and vintage typography. We also developed branding for the truck, boarding passes, sick bags and safety cards.

Retouching

Here's a little experiment we undertook to see how easy it would be to become the ruler of the world /  Napoleon Bonaparte. So with two pictures, Photoshop, lots of layers, clear-cutting, filters and airbrushing we have success.

Photographing New York

Have just finished up 4 days wandering the streets of the city that never sleeps. It smelt of warm vomit, rubish juice and piss. Loved every minute. Here's some snaps from the trusty Holga and Canon FTB.

We can create: Design conference

Just got back from the We can Create design conference in Auckland. Speakers from around the world got on stage and told us about their creative process. The presenter, Kiwi comedian Radar, got the ball rolling by mispronouncing design lingo, saying things like ‘I'm really into font’ and ‘So what exactly does a typographist do’. The first speaker was Kris Sowersby who designs typefaces to crush on. He talked about how he is like a magpie. He collects all things shiny and beautiful, eats it all up, then imitates it. Another speaker was a guy called Rafael Rozendaal, a digital artist from Brazil. He primarily created digital art for viewing on the interweb. His work mixed amateur visuals with complex thinking. The next day the first speaker to stand out was from Kessels Kramer in Holland. Their philosophy was a blend of humor, innovation and bravado. One of their stand out campaigns was for the Hans Brinker budget hotel which leveraged its lack of services as a positive. Another was a collection of photographs of a mysterious blurry shape that was slowly revealed to be a very dark dog. Following that was couple of presenters who had some pithy comments perfect for regurgitating here. The first was from Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces, an animation studio. She said that ‘a great way to test the success of a design is to see if it can be used for another product, if it can then its too generic and needs revising.’ The other statement was by the German designer Hort who said that ‘acknowledging your limitations gives you freedom’. That’s about all that can be remembered.

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Christmas & Easter posters

These posters Make Believe developed looked to take advantage of the human drama of the Christmas and Easter stories as a means to promote Bible reading.

Youth Bible: Cover design

This Book cover Make Believe created is filled with illustrations of various Biblical narratives. Depicting the Bibles stories, rather than its rules, aims to make the Bible more accessible and relevant to youth.

Mabstar identity

Mabstar is a music promotions company. For their logo design Make Believe drew on the close association between music and mathematics to create a isometric logotype.

Magnificent madness: Poster

This poster Make Believe designed seeks to present the American lunar quest as a modern manifestation of the lunacy myth. One definition of lunacy is that it either enlightens you or makes you mad. This conflict between polar opposites was a key device for ordering this design. By using colour, typography and composition as metaphors for lunacy, the design reflects the content. The poster connects with the audience by drawing on the visual traditions associated with astronomy and the reports of the Apollo missions.