Went to the Digit Expo conference yesterday and today. It's on again tomorrow. It's been an interesting couple of days so far. The Digit Expo format has been interesting in that they've asked speakers to present about a particular topic. Speakers have spoken about running a business, clients, process and more. Another interesting aspect is that a number of the presenters are also lecturers or have run their design studios for a number of years and were very generous in sharing their knowledge and lessons they've learned along the way. Below are a few v.brief summaries on a few of the speakers.
Day 1: Thu 12th Aug
Garry Emery - Garry Emergy Design (
http://www.emeryfrost.com)
Garry's a self-taught designer. He started designing when design wasn't even a formal course yet. He's now the Adjunct Professor at RMIT uni. Garry talked about the process of developing a font he called Buff. It was based on the concept of what Melbourne stands for. He talked about the values associated with Melbourne.
Elliott Goodman - Babyfoot Productions (
http://www.babyfoot.net/)
Elliott talked about the illustration and animation process involved in making 1200 Techniques' Fork in the Road video clip. He also talked about Will Young's (UK Idol) video and how it took 2 weeks to add little Christmas light effects onto Will Young's jacket.
Nille Svensson - Sweden Graphics
Nille's topic was "The worst of Sweden Graphics". Nille was a really terrific presenter. He was really funny. He delivered a lot of cool 'lessons' or tips in a very humourous way. He's also a lecturer in Sweden. He used some examples o fhis work to illustrate why those examples probably didn't turn out as well as they could have. His lessons included taking responsibility even if clients change their briefs at the last minute or whatever...
Day 2: Fri 13th Aug
Andrew Hoyne - Hoyne Design (
http://www.hoyne.com.au)
Andrew talked about his studio's design work, building client relationships and finding out what the clients are trying to achieve, and their agendas, how he creates a team where they all support each other, how he employs people with strengths that contribute to the studio's strength, how he has a general manager/accounts person who looks after the running of the business so he can focus on what he does best and is passionate about - which is being a designer.
Philip Brophy (http://www.philipbrophy.com)
He talked about his Body Malleable project which is a project that can be experienced at ACMI, Federation Square. He talked about the process of creating the project. He's an amazing presenter! He's so funny, witty, cool!
Richard Hogg - Airside (http://www.airside.co.uk)
Richard's a designer based in the UK. He talked about being a commercial artist. He talks about fighting for his designs if he feels the design as is will be of benefit to the client's objectives. He also talked about creating a shop section of the Airside site and making knitted 'animals' that sell out v.quickly so they're making an army of them before releasing them again. He talks about creating a community on their website. He talks about there being a lot of design aware fans out there but he also wants to design for everyone and thinks that everyone should be able to appreciate good design.
Also had a look around the Digit Expo exhibition - bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro 8 for $64 which I thought was a really good deal. Also got a free light ball toy and a free pen which flashes blue or gives solid blue light which is pretty handy. It's also a torch and keyring. Pretty cool actually. Will have to see if the market stalls also sell these.
W: http://www.digitexpo.com
Small unknown Sydney based firm, Farnan Findlay Architects gets selected by super cool Wallpaper* magazine’s as one of 2003's top 10 architectural firms. 
