The process of working in communication design is often about change. A brief is cast, one design outcome is developed to supersede another outcome.

When designers create work for people/ clients, one is simply making a personal expression – contributing experiences, ideas, vision to ultimately making something. There are many pieces on this site that investigate the process of clients changing the communications mix to meet changing marketing needs. These written pieces often tip upon how the incumbent designer feels about the changes a client makes with their graphic communication with the new designer – it can lead to a colourful read.

In such cases the new designer often works with the client to adapt the existing work, evolve the work or introduce a new work. The incumbent designer either expresses annoyance, disappointment, jealousy, or admiration for the new work that takes place. In an environment where a sound critical process isn’t in place – this is where the sparks fly – opinions fly, rumours are formed, few learnings are drawn upon, few processes are given the opportunity to evolve and improve…

In this case, as the incumbent designers of Chamber Music Australia since 1999, we would like to flag the new look for Chamber Music Australia designed (depicted above on the right) by Derek Samuel Design.

We dedicate this post to the mixed feelings that the incumbent feels about seeing their efforts change direction, and the joy that new designers feel about their new output. May a critical forum come to our profession soon.

The State of Festival has had tensions running high down on Moreland Street, Footscray. Will months of preparations for Iron Designer finally pay off for global design sensations – 3 Deep Design?

“Poop and Who are all huff, huff, fluff and no puff, Mace & Girly are flashes in their own compacts, and BKK will be smee bloo bloo when we design rings around them,” Phillips exclaimed in a tapped mobile call to Richard Henderson. “We dug deep, pardon the pun Richard, raided our vanity publishing fund and engaged Karl via telepathy for some real design who-ha”

Will Karl be the difference? Will 3 Deep reign supreme? Will Brett be match fit for his black Diors? Iron Designer, Trades Hall Melbourne, 7pm 23 July 2008, will have the answers.

There will be no links to 3 Deep’s website this post.

The studio and Studio Round will have a stall at the Melbourne Design Market at the Federation Square Car Park this Sunday. In a design industry first the Studio will settle its competitive differences with fellow design studio – Studio Round, and share a market stall.

“Studio Pip and Co has agreed to not steal potential or existing clients that visit on the day” stated Round’s Rob Nudds at the daily Round press conference, “We have agreed to help Pip and Co with transactions – ten only during the day, and smile in a designer way at visitors also.” Nudds continued.

Studio Round will be selling it’s Hold All bag range, Studio Pip and Co will be selling cards, paper, badges and whatever it can get away with – it is rumored Pip and Co shares are on offer too.

In a statement released prior to this post Ashton stated – “To be aware and not alarmed. This situation is temporary, both studio’s will be bitter enemies again come Monday 9am.” He concluded — “that it is not healthy for the design profession to see eye-to-eye and I am keen to have egg on my face to make this point clear.”

When prompted by Ashton’s statement, Vince Frost poked his tongue out and threw in a three fingered hand gesture (the bird in brackets) as a show of support.

See you all this Sunday

Sunday 20 July, 10am to 5pm
Melbourne Design Market
Federation Square Carpark
Stall 31

To continue the World Youth Day theme… let’s turn our gaze upon St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. People come to Melbourne for many reasons – business, the shopping, for a grey experience (per Ruby Wax), the culture, the lane ways, the bar scene, the markets and AFL (especially to see the Tigers soar – lately to a depressing end).

In 1999 when Andrew came to Melbourne from Sydney (to start up a new Precinct office), many locals pointed out a selection of local sights – the graffiti in Richmond, Leo’s restaurant building type, the Butterfly Club, having a drink in the Melbourne Wine Room on a late spring afternoon, the West St Kilda RSL, the Yellow Peril when it used to be opposite the Casino, the Goth Bars at the bottom of King Street, the Labor In Vain bar and its tiny drinkers hallmarks, Fabio’s odd appearance in a Richmond vodka bar, the Long Room in the old MCG Members stand, the Public Office, ARM’s Story Hall, the Wood Marsh Pod on top of an Art Deco flat off Acland St in St Kilda, an old Four and Twenty Pies advertising mural that briefly appeared on the corner of Barkley and Blessington Street, Elwood’s building lettering, the western sunset in early summer, and the Jeff Kennett gargoyle.

Jeff Kennett was Victoria’s Premier from 1992 to 1999, for the Liberal Party (conservative). Kennett had a background in the military, advertising and as a career politician. Kennett was no fool to spin, and his style made for an unpredictable, colourful and out spoken public figure. Kennett’s tenure was instrumental in privatising many Victorian public assets and services. He was either loved, or loathed by the electorate and his exit from office, was as cut and dry as his style of leadership. One minute Kennett was campaigning for a confident re-election, the next he was out of a job, when served a surprising public backlash at the polling both.

The Kennett gargoyle is located around the eastern transept of the Cathedral, it was finished in 1992. The gargoyle was carved by master stonemason Tom Carson and for ten years it was rumoured that the sculpture was of Kennett, yet this rumour was unconfirmed until 2002.

In an article from The Age in 2002, Carson sited his influences as the cartoonist Spooner and the Gothic masons from the 12th century. He sited that these masons were cartoonists of sorts, as well as fine crafts people. Often Gothic masons exercised their musings via their gargoyle creations – a stone spout that directed rain run off from built structures. It was popular to embellish and decorate these features with caricatures of animals, mythical and public figures.

Kennett’s outspoken presence in Victorian public life during the 1990s inspired Carson to continue this tradition for this Cathedral maintenance project. It is uncommon to find this practice in modern times, as the city’s older buildings are robust and scarce. Also it likely that the practice of parodying local figure heads via structural details, such as gargoyles, has been lost, or made inappropriate, due to the clean lines and forms of contemporary architecture.

While the battle of the bubble hits a dry spot, a symbol of searching and faith is happening on mass across Australia – Pilgramage. Next Sunday in Sydney some 500 thousand Catholic Pilgrims will descend upon Randwick Race Course (on the door step of the defunct Randwick Design School) to celebrate the visit of the Catholic faith’s supreme representative on Earth, Pope Benedict xvi, to Australian shores. From World Youth Day’s website:

World Youth Day (WYD) is the largest youth event in the world and will be held in Sydney from Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 July 2008.

It is an enormous event, apparently more people will be visiting Sydney than 2000 Olympic games, like Father Alexander Salazar and friends (second from the left) Mipo Island from Chile.

Bands of pilgrims can be seen on the streets, with flags, lanyards, and smiles throughout Melbourne. Say hi, they love a chat.

From Wikipedia

Pilgrims are common in many religions, including the faiths in ancient Egypt, Persia in the Mithraic period, India, China, and Japan. The Greek and Roman custom of consulting the gods at local oracles, such as those at Dodona or Delphi, both in Greece, is widely known. In Greece, pilgrimages could either be personal, or state-sponsored.^[1]

In the early period of Hebrew history, pilgrims traveled to Shiloh, Dan, Bethel, and eventually Jerusalem, leading the way for the other Abrahamic religions to include the practice. The great Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia), is obligatory for every able Muslim, and other Islamic devotional pilgrimages, particularly to the tombs of saints, are numerous. The early Christians made pilgrimages to the scenes of the Passion of Christ in Jerusalem. Even after Jerusalem had been occupied by the Saracens, the liberty of pilgrimage, on payment of a tax, was secured by treaty; the necessity of protecting pilgrims, however, gave rise to the medieval military orders, such as the Knights Templar.

While religious pilgrims usually travel toward a singular destination, a physical location is not a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ, (Pilgrims for Christ), or “white martyrs,” where pilgrims left with the intent to wander.^[2] This sort of pilgrimage was an ascetic religious practice, leaving home and the clan for an unknown destination, in complete trust of Divine Providence. These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and spreading Christianity among the pagan population in Britain as well as on continental Europe.

Travel well Father Alexander and friends.