So it’s that time of the year again—a week without classes so that we can attend agIdeas! But erm, that’s not why we go, right? Last year I started to write a summary post on my opinions on each guest speaker but that was too ambitious for me (!!!). However, I am determined this year to get it right. Just some brief words on all.
I may post pics of their works later, but for now Google is your friend. Or check out the agIdeas website for an overview of the speakers list.
Michael Mabry
A great prologue to the conference. Michael introduced his talk with a lively video using primitive but delightful animation techniques of all his “friends”, including Milton Glaser, Ella Fitzgerald and the President and Mrs Obama. There’s a warmth and humanity to his illustrations; he also showed us his process into making the “collagey, textural” look for one of his illustrations for Land of the Nod.
Richard Ferlazzo
Chief designer of Holden. Had a perky kind of manner of speaking which was engaging and enlightening. Form may follow function but there’s a balance between the two somewhere round the middle, for what’s wrong with beauty in life if it is possible?
Eamo Donnelly
There’s an affectionate devil-may-care personality that he shows in his speech but always underlying this is a passion born out of his nostlagia for childhood and the things he loves (word: drawing!). That’s really admirable, especially in a competitive, and as he put it, isolating, world of illustration. Love his colourful, psychedelic palettes and compositions crammed with imagery and motifs.
Dylan Brady
Now I have a score to settle with Mr Brady. Initially he had piqued my interest with his diverse portfolio of architectural facades, but during the time he detailed his process doing the signature facade of the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre, he made a casual, derisive remark about how Chinese labourers (and I am not quoting by word, only by his implication) are all too eager to do menial work. The context being that he had made a change in one of the designs of patterned tiles which meant there needed to be rebuilding. There was a hushed tremor of mortification in the audience, which I’m sure no one missed. Now for all intents he may have meant nothing derogatory by that statement, but it seems to underpin a certain bias, ignorance and indeed arrogance I continuously observe among Westerners in regards to well, anything and everything about China. Certainly the mass media is VIRTUALLY NO HELP WHATSOEVER. Yes, Chinese labourers ARE desperate for work, because in the world’s most populous country, at a staggering 1.3 billion people, I imagine it wouldn’t be so easy as pie to head to your local recruitment agency for instant, gratifying work. The pay for construction workers is pitiful, but they do it because they need to survive. They’re happy to do these jobs, yes; it’s far better than working in a mine, that’s for sure.
What I loathe more is that Western corporations take advantage of this desperation, to put it crudely, and then spit back into China’s face for its so-called horrendous human rights record, or its gargantuan carbon footprint, or what have you. And it’s not just land/property developers, it’s the recycling industry, the printing industry, by golly, every damn industry in the world benefits from China’s open market! Hardly anyone has not been touched by the Chinese in some way. Got an item “Made in China”? Yeah, I bet you have a whole house full of them. If these labourers started developing their own unions and speaking out for higher wages and better working conditions (not that these organisations do not exist; they are growing, albeit slowly) I’m sure the fat cats would start sweating some. Every big company ought to realise they owe big to China, for all its faults, since it’s still a “developing” country—that’s arguable, given its phenomenal economy, but as a nation coming to grips with the end of the darkest Mao years and embracing a new era of modern consumer capitalism, it has a long, long way to go. Innovation, morality, sustainability, political systems, the works. So, can you entirely blame China for its shortcomings? Change comes with time. Without severe capital punishments acting as deterrents society would be strife with social instability and the massive demands of a growing Chinese consumer society cause unprecedented problems: carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I do not defend China’s faults; however, equally I believe there are great things about China that Westerners must acknowledge. (And hey, when Ken Cato showed us the photo of the 20 year anniversary Design is Difference catalogues being delivered to the VAC, there was the ubiquitous CHINA SHIPPING tank. GO FIGURE.) And this brings me back to what pissed me off today about Brady. His suggestive passing off that his being involved in this design project was doing these labourers a great favour, a holier-than-thou benevolence, if you will, was arrogant, presumptuous and inappropriate, which is unfortunate because I thought the the final structure Brady produced was an impressive feat, but I could not get the offensive remark out of my head.
Okay, rant done (for now). You may think I’ve taken a tiny sentence way out of context, but this is what I believe, and what I believe needs to be said.
Robyn Beeche
I saw that a lot of her subject matter resonates with the neo-Baroque tendency; especially when she mentioned Vivienne Westwood’s New Romantics and David Bowie and Boy George. Fashionable kitsch.
Ali Vazirian
I’m sure I would have found this much more illuminating if I could just understand what he was saying half the time! I struggled. The great lyrical poetry of Islamic art and design was touched on though. Islamic calligraphy is so beautiful and sensuous.
Jacques Reymond
What a lovely, lovable man! Ah, these Frenchmen. Easy talkers and easy lovers. Oh wait, that’s Italians isn’t it. Never mind, Jacques was a real delightful charmer with an equally charming life story to tell. I want to go to his restaurant now.
Annabel Dundas
A great portfolio of motion graphics, but what I loved more is Annabel’s personal collection of chairs. Though my own collections don’t run so far and expensive as furniture—the sentiment is the same, and utterly relatable.
Dean Poole
I think Dean is quite possibly the strongest and most engaging speaker out of today, though you wouldn’t immediately think it, given his natural wry, deadpan delivery. He has a great folio of conceptual work, including an ingenious law firm identity, making an industry quite burdened by the pretentious stigma into a witty and approachable identity
Andrew Rogers
His sculptural projects are ambitious indeed. With the help of locals, Rogers crosses over to the deepest and most remote parts of the earth to build massive sculptures that speak of spirituality and humanity. I love the rock formation of the Tibetan (?) religious motif in the Himalayan mountains best.
Nicola Cerini
I’m on her mailing list! Her prints bring a real earthiness and liveliness to home decor; I don’t think I could actually use the bags. They’re artworks in themselves.
Michel Bouvet
For a second I thought it was Weird Al Yankovic. What an awesome portfolio of poster work! I’d love to do theatre and opera posters; his working process is interesting—it’s very methodical but obviously effective for him. He loves his cats too. Very adorable “homages” in some of his posters. 
Other noteworthy things
- I know I heard the word “kitsch” twice today used by Richard Ferlazzo and Jacques Reymond. I was much pleased.
- Lunch was at NGV International! On a Tuesday! Have you been inside NGV International on Tuesday? No, bet you haven’t, because NGV International is CLOSED on Tuesdays! It was like being among VIP guests, albeit 5000 of them or sommat. I think there was something off about the salmon (I felt nauseated afterwards), but I liked the idea of everyone getting a cardboard lunchbox, and a pink lamington for dessert!
- I has an Uppercase Magazine, thanks to Mag Nation! The first time I saw this on the net, I’ve been coveting it ever since! A gorgeously designed publication with the type of aesthetic sensibility that I simply cannot resist!
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!
I'm Jen, a graphic designer and (some time) artist from Melbourne, Australia. Eveninghour is a humble home for me to display things that inspire me and an opportunity to rant and rave about visual arts, design, books, film and other facets of popular culture. I have a 
