Sorry this didnt go up yesterday, i had troubles with uploading pictures, and my posts are boring without pictures! so on with the show…

Timba Smits is an amazingly down to earth guy. When he was speaking at Semi-Permanent last week, he made everyone feel like they knew him as a friend, inviting us into his world, where he works as a graphic designer, illustrator, and one man band behind Wooden Toy magazine.  It is easy to tell from the way Timba talks about his work that he is a very passionate man, who throws himself at every project he has with enthusiasm.

wooden toy collectors edition contents page

Timba likes to work with a pencil and paper. Taking it back to basics and working with his hands has allowed his magazine, Wooden Toy, to grow and be loved, showing his hard work. Much of the title type used in the magazine are all hand drawn specifically for the article they are used. This love of typography has lead to Timba punishing himself to make each issue of Wooden Toy noticeably better than the last.

At Semi-Permanent, Sydney, Timba took us through how he puts together an issue of his magazine. The way he painstakingly lays out each page, pulling aspects of featured artwork to place around the accompanying pages in little flourishes. He stated that he may spend 15 minutes placing a small flower near the spine of a 2 page layout, even though people will barely notice, he knows that it’s there, and he loves that. The magazine, which started as a free, 86 page street style magazine has grown from 2000 issues to 5000 issues, with the latest issue, the Hand Made Edition, which features a twig and string font Timba spent about 40 hours hand drawing and colouring. The launch party for issue 6 of Wooden Toy Magazine will be held at the Gorker Gallery, in Fitzroy.

hand made edition slip cover

Gorker gallery is another aspect of Timba’s creative life. It is a gallery space he has run in conjunction with Luke Matthews, Nathan Holmes Trapnell, and Lauren Biedrzycki since June 2008. It features predominately Australian artists, in group shows, and has been home to works by artists such as Ghostpatrol, Eamo, Drewfunk, Miso, and many more. 2009 promises to be a big year for the gallery, with a great exhibition line-up.

Timba also works as a graphic designer and illustrator through The Fad Experiment. Recently having worked on illustrative portraits for The Sons of Stanhope, a photobook of Ghostpatrol and Miso’s works, and Diamondback bikes. Under The Fad Experiment, Timba has also spoken at many events and universities, such as Semi-Permanent, Shillington College, and Abu Dhabi Women’s College of Technology.

one of the sons of stanhope portraits

I have to say, after hearing Timba speak, he is definitely an inspiration. Someone who believed enough in himself and his dream to publish a magazine, and to open a gallery.

For more information on Timba Smits, here are some handy links:

Wooden Toy Magazine – www.woodentoyquarterly.com

The Fad Experiment – www.fadexperiment.com

Gorker Gallery, Fitzroy – www.gorkergallery.com

and a great interview with Timba, from Australian Edge -www.australianedge.net

below are some of Timba’s images, as well as my notes taken during his Semi-Permanent presentation.

semipermanent logo

Well, how do you wrap up an awesome couple of days at the Semipermanent Design Conference? By going home, cooking some dimsims and writing about it! yay!

First up, the announcments!

semipermanent WILL be in melbourne this year, oct 16 and 17, and i was the second person to get tickets! there will be 12 new speakers, but no announcements as to who they will be yet.

here is what the sydney sp09 program says:

For years now the lovely people of Melbourne have been pleading with us to host a Semi-Permanent even in their sexy city. We finally cracked and are pleased to announce the Semi-Permanent 2009 Melbourne event.

We’ll see you down there

Melbourne Semi-Permanent 2009 – 16 & 17 October 2009

melbourne convention and exhibition centre (southbank, melbourne)

speakers TBC (12 different speakers to sydney event)

so there you have it, i havent seen anything on the net about this yet, so i consider this to be an if forever exists exclusive!!! nothing is even on the semipermanent site as yet, but i would be staying tuned to get tickets before they sell out, cos if you guys wanted it that bad down there, its sure to sell out! (plus, you wanna sit next to me dont you? considering i already have tickets)

so thats the exciting announcement! now i just want to tell you, that starting monday we are going to be having profiles on each of the 13 people who spoke at this years sydney semipermanent, featuring works, information and exclusive parts of their presentations. as a bonus, i will include a scan of my raw notes for each presenter, so you can extract your own information if you want. that’s 13 amazingly talented people to be profiled over the coming weeks.

the lineup is as follows:

1. Timba Smits, of wooden toy magazine
2. Kris Moyes, film production
3. Ian Francins, mixed media artist
4. Tamara Dean, photographer
5. Dean Sewell, photographer
6. Danny Yount, film production/direction
7. Droga 5 (Ben Nott), creative advertising agency
8. XYZ Studios (Tim Kentley), animation studio
9. Kate Gibb, screenprinter/illustrator
10. Wired Magazine (Scott Dadich), technology/innovation publication
11. Daniela Federici, photographer
12. Ron English, billboard liberator
13. Digital Domain (Vernon Wilbert), digital production

it’s a massive lineup of some of the most creative people in the business, all of the wowed me at the event, and i hope they inspire you as well! This starts on monday!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thankyouthankyouthankyou to the event organisers – Andrew Johnstone and Murray Bell! without you guys, this wouldnt have happened! keep up the awesome work, and see you at the melbourne show!

dont forget, subscribe to the right to stay up to date with all the awesome on if forever exists.

and dont forget to check the semipermanent website for info on the brisbane, perth and auckland shows, as well as the freshly announced melbourne show!

www.semipermanent.com

peace

qwux

where to begin this one. ron english is a legend. his colourful, photorealistic and subversive style has been covered, and pasted, all over the world for near on 3 decades! and he shows no sign of slowing down. using recurring imagrey if characters he has created, as well as imagery taken from popular culture and art history,his works continue to be sociopolitical commentary at it’s rawest!

vernon willbert from digital domain had an amazingly polished presentation. the digital domain showreel was one of the most pressive reels I have seen in recent times, covering films like curious case of Benjamin button and transformers, to game trialers like halo and gears of war. the bulk of the presentation focussed on the emerging use of machinima in film producion, which started as lofi gamers making mini series like the popular red vs blue based on halo gameplay. vernon worked through the whole creative process behind the scarily successful gears of war trailer, set to Gary jules’ rendition of mad world. the presentation was filled with every aspect of the visual creation, storyboards, animatics, rough animation and the polished finished production. it was an amazng insight into one of the powerhouse digital production companies!

later tonite I will have my conference wrap up, as well as some announcements! so stay tuned!!

peace
qwux

wot can I say. Scott dadich is a professional. he put on an awesome talk, with lots if graphics, informatics and glossy magazine shots! great insight into how an issue of wired magazine is put together. very informative and clean presentation, great for anyone intersted in publications. also discussed the society of publication designers, which is a society devoted to beautiful publications.

daniela federici went through a great deal of her profslessional portfolio and talked through her career from beginning to present day, withgreat anecdotal stories about celebs, and the difficulties she has had shooting them.
now ron English and didgital domain!!

day 2 ha a really good start. tim kentley, from xyz studios in Melbourne set the mood with candles, fish and soothing music. then proceeded to wow us with his organic, hands on way of working. xyz’s tagline is ‘if the idea is original, then the depiction of that idea should be original too.’ which I think showed through the work presented. kentley’s love of labour intensive hand drawn feel is really amazing. creating an ad for Honda in 3d, then printing it out frame by frame and hand drawing it frame by frame, then scanning it and putting it all together. such an original, mind blowing idea that was expertley executed!

Kate gibb started off fairly slow and shy. but by working through her prepared speech and showing a great array if her massive body of work, including stunning screen prints and collages that have been used by the likes of the chemical brothers, and high end European fashion labels! really inspirational stuff for people like me, who love screenprinting!

now queued for session 2, but don’t forget. speakers will have their profiles posted over the coming week!! stay tuned!
peace
qwux