Nearly gave up with finishing up this summary, but here I am! This was the last day of the forum, when the enthusiasm is still thriving but struggling to stay awake. Well, for me, it was. I still hadn’t recovered from the previous day’s madness. Who’d have thought sitting down in somewhat un-ergonomic chairs for hours on end would be so exhausting? We had free copies of Dumbo Feather, Pass it On on our seats; I had to make sure I picked a seat with a back issue that I didn’t already have (!).

Agnete Enga

Agnete is part of Smart Design. She established FemmeDen to “save good women from bad products”. It was interesting how she criticised the way products are biased towards the male target audience, when companies ought to place even greater precedence on women, who actually influence 80% of consumer products. She demonstrated the “differences” between the genders through a rather crude experiment—2 men and 2 women from the audience were asked to volunteer to come up stage, and both sexes had to hold hands. Once with the opposite sex, and once with the same sex. They were asked how they felt. I think the all-boy couple said it all with her “erms” and “ahhs”. Despite her emphasis on catering to different mindsets and biology/physicality, I think there was still a certain amount of generalisation in amongst the differentiation that still fails to recognise how diverse we (by that I mean both women and men) really are. It’s why androgyny is the way to go! I also didn’t like how it remained a Eurocentric point of view (I mean, I know the design firm tends to deal with a Western audience), but it would have been interesting to know what Asian, Latin American or African cultural perspectives on gender in design are.

Stuart Campbell

This guy reminded me of Mouse from The Matrix. I don’t know why. Maybe it was his surreal, sci-fi futuristic animation that reminded me of The Animatrix, or his rather youthful, grungy and sporadic mannerisms. Anyway, this guy has an amazing portfolio of motion and interactive graphics, but I love how he collects snippets of elements from his real-life experience and incorporates them into compelling narrative motion work.

Dean Gaylor

There was an arrogance about this man that I didn’t warm to; that said, (ironically) his lighting designs were quite stunning in their simplistic beauty.

David Lancashire

I felt rather humbled by David; his work encapsulates a whole part of Australia that our nation just “conveniently” chooses to gloss over, or worse, trivialise.

Rachel Dunn

While I admire the overall “spirit”/sentiment of Girl Director, it just didn’t seem credible to me as a valid philosophy; I don’t know, what I’m trying to say is there was something cheesy or insincere about it. Plus, my feminist sensibilities sort of flared.

Simon Taylor

I love the landscaping job he did in Kobe, Japan; this man is no Jamie Durie, and quite frankly the way Simon describes his job is exactly how I imagined a landscape designer to be, his personality came off as nothing above down-to-earth (oh, am I dripping with puns today or what). The gardens he designs are the stuff that dreams are made of.

Andreas Uebele

Andreas seemed to epitomise all that is German about German design. Actually, my poor eyesight led me to believe I was watching a copy of Erik Spiekermann, but that’s not to discredit either party! His innovative use of Futura (which he doesn’t even like) through pattern for labelling the various storey/levels of a building was quite probably my highlight.

Rob Galluzzo

Kind of a bizarre way of presentation, but it was engaging for the most part. By the way, this is the man responsible for completely “uneducating” everyone regarding the origins of the Great Wall of China and that entire dynasty in general (Nasi Goreng much?), with the infuriating (but almost endearing) Telstra/Big Pond ads.

Alex Ritchie

Well, this is one architect I could tolerate, but perhaps it was his wee Scottish accent that had me entirely enamoured.

Gerry Wedd

Mambo much? Gerry’s portfolio is really diverse; I particularly liked his ceramics

Sonny Day & Biddy Maroney of We Buy Your Kids

This partnership had me entirely intrigued; I mean, what kind of name is that! Biddy’s personal aesthetic and particularly her inspiration/sources resonated with me, given her love for trashy publications/graphics and kitsch, though I personally was never blessed with a plethora of inherited comics or magazines from my parents (Dad regrets not keeping all his Chinese Communist propaganda pamphlets and ephemera though; so do I!). Their working relationship is clearly a strong one; their strengths lying in not only their work ethics but also

Paul ‘Moose’ Curtis

This guy is phenomenal. What he does is basically “clean up” grafitti to produce new graffiti—he scrubs/bleaches the dirt and grime that’s accumulated over time on public monuments and displays, creating a new layer of meaning or message. Ironically he still gets in trouble for it, though all he’s doing technically is cleaning selectively to make a mark. Some remarkable results ensue.

Conrad Bodman

Conrad is curator of the upcoming Tim Burton exhibition to be held at ACMI. I AM SO. SO. SO EXCITED. OK, perhaps mainly it’s because there’s gonna be Batman stuff included, but come on, this guy isn’t overrated for nothing. His madness of vision just sucks me in like nearly no other director (not even Terry Gilliam). We got to be first to see an exclusive preview of the ACMI promotional advertisement for the exhibition. Can’t wait!

Alex Alvarez

By this stage my exhaustion was fully kicking in; mid-way through his (speedy!) speech, I struggled to maintain my attention. What Alex does is highly technical (he certainly made it out to be, anyway) but with incredible results. He showed bits of his involvement in films like Avatar and Star Trek, but he mainly went through his design process, from concept to 3D development to finish, which was infinitely more fascinating and productive, albeit heavy on the technical side, as I mentioned.

Verdict

Overall agIdeas 2010 was insightful, as it usually is, with some strong and inspiring speakers, but with just as weak and asinine ones (OK, so my main issue is from day 1. See corresponding blog post). What matters is what I personally got out of it, which certainly wasn’t nothing.

Day 2 of agIdeas! A somewhat later start, but this gave Liz and I a chance to have “breakfast”, and what better way to wake up than with a large cup of Krispy Kreme’s caramel latte. HEAVEN!!

I’m pleased or not so pleased to say that no one particularly “bothered” me today; it was all generally pleasant… Though you’d think it’d be better to be roused into fury or fangirl delight. I did get Wayne Thompson’s signature on my sketchbook though; I may scan that in later, if anyone cares to have a laugh with me. Vincent said (somewhere along the line of) my being easily affected by fangirl tendencies. It’s called passion, and dedication, and yes, some healthy doses of obsession!

Also was able to collect our “free” agIdeas 20th anniversary book. I am so sad flicking through the 2007 speaker list. And I’m always sad about this because CHIP KIDD (The rockstar graphic designer who like, totes loves Batman, even more than me! How is this possible!) attended and I did not go to agIdeas that year. I was in first year; what did I know about design then? Zilch! This book is absolutely a brick, weighing more than 2kg and probably worth more than $100. A great weapon of choice I daresay!

Surface graphics of agIdeas. At least it’s not pixelated like it was in 2008! I’m still holding out for that year being a complete satire on bad design… I have more photos from agIdeas posted on my Flickr. Not a lot though.

Theo Jansen

He initially majored in the sciences (though he had orignally wanted to become a pilot. This was not to be) but he has instead channelled his physics background into producing ethereal mechanical creatures designed to be self-driven via the natural elements. Very intriguing fellow, with a quirkiness that could only become a charming European.

Nathan Drabsch

I love watching motion graphics reels; they’re just so mesmerising and surreal. The ABC3 channel graphics and shorts were mind-boggling. As a child I don’t know I would have appreciated all this digital flurry; what happened to the good ol’ days? Have we really grown up that fast?

Fay Plamka

I was looking forward to hearing her speak. Oh, the glamorous world of a court artist (and not the Velazquez kind!). It was riveting to hear Fay describe her experiences rendering the faces of some truly nasty criminals, and the legal entanglements she got caught in; she had much more to say I’m sure, but there just wasn’t enough time!

Amanda Henderson

There were some interesting “spectacles” in her company’s designs. I liked the rococo/baroque-esque interior created for one of the racing festival venues; they were merely facades—tiles of a massive image arranged onto a frame so as to deceptively give an overwhelming feeling of opulence and grandeur. Fashion parades are all about the façade too.

RESN

I wish I could design interactive interfaces like these guys! The website experience would be a whole lot more worthwhile.

Ghostpatrol

I’m still kind of mesmerised by his rainbow Lucifer T-shirt. Quite the oxymoron. He wasn’t particularly inspiring per se; I suppose he let his evocative imagery do the talking. At least now I know who did the street art on the very street where Classic Comics is! (It was Miso, Ghostpatrol’s partner).

Dan Formosa

Smart design indeed! These are the designers who leave you in awe, because what they do is ingenious and socially responsible at the same time. Also he validates my need to constantly check the internet for opinions on new products (from books to tech gadgets to music)

Peter Biggs

What can I say? I think I hate advertising executives for their (natural) self-congratulatory pomposity. I can’t believe in year 12 I wanted to enter this industry. Probably because I was such an ignorant twat. That’s not to say he didn’t have anything invalid to say; I rather thought his emphasis on pursuing the “dangerous edge” to be a good philosophy, though it’s hardly a new concept. Also amused that nearly every creative tends to quote T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland.

Wayne Thompson

The first Australian type designer to have sang a song about fonts? Quite possibly. But whether it was good is another question, though there was something very daggy and endearing about this guy. Liz pointed out it’s because he’s a dad, and I think that certainly rings true. It was interesting to contrast his fonts to say that of the classical masters, namely the Dutch and Swiss, or that of Tobias Frere-Jones.

Brendan Dwyer

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Australia Project

Very relevant and meaningful undertaking in defining Australia’s identity as a nation, a multicultural society, a people. I would definitely like to participate in some way.

Rico Lins

Rico has a really diverse folio of poster designs. He also mentioned a ‘Labyrinth of Passion’ film poster, describing it as kitsch (see, I am extremely aware of anyone uttering this word at any time now!). I want the poster; and I want to watch the film now.

Tribute to Les Mason

I suppose it’s blasphemy that I’d not heard of Mason until this conference (but I was not of this generation! In fact, I’m like 3 generations away), but now I do, and having heard various accounts of his life and career, it’s plain to see his obvious influence on people, and a wry wit about him too. His widow described him, upon their first meeting at some night club/discotheque, as Don Draper (Mad Men).

Javier Mariscal

Even though we were running well overtime, I’m glad I stayed back. Javier was really delightful; he went through one of his latest projects, an animated feature film called “Chico and Rita”. It’s set in Cuba during the 1940s (at this I’m already falling in love with it) and it’s a narrative simply teeming with passion for love, for music, for glamour, for life, for despair. It looks spectacular, and the soundtrack and set designs are sensational. I am so looking forward to watching this when it’s released in cinemas (goodness knows when in Australia though!).