Vertically endowed or challenged?

Recently Lloyd Garver from CBS wrote this…

“Tall people have a special status in our culture… they are thought of as leaders — as ‘standing tall above the rest.’ In school, the tallest boys are the first to get dates. Tall girls are told they look great — “like beautiful models.”

…What a load of slosh. Everyone feels sorry for short people and that the sky is the limit for tall people, but it just isn’t so. It’s pretty obvious that Lloyd Garver is not 6’7”, otherwise he would know what a pain in the neck height can be (pardon the posture related pun).

If you are short you probably never thought about what you take for granted in your life. Bet you never realized how lucky your are that you can…

…fit in your car, even in the back seat
…fit in a train, bus, tram or airplane seat
…fit in a rollercoaster
…always find shoes because they’re manufactured in Asia and you know they just make extra size 8 shoes for the fun of it
…always make a pair of jeans shorter, you can’t make them longer
…move through door ways without banging your head, including every vehicle design known to man
…sit anywhere you want at the movies, you won’t block anyone’s view
…get people to let you near the front of a concert because all of the big people are blocking your view.

If you read through these things and think “hey yeah, maybe it’s not so bad being short after all, I never did think about it like that” your right. Being tall generally sucks unless you play basketball, but if you’re white and can’t jump then that’s out of the question as well.

The one bright side is a little known 2004 study by psychologist Timothy A. Judge, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, and researcher Daniel M. Cable, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina. They found that for every inch taller you are than your colleague you would earn $749 more per year, thus a six foot tall person could earn over $5000 more than their 5’6” work mate.

Doesn’t matter really, that poor tall guy is probably an accountant and will now be spending that extra money on physiotherapy because office furniture only comes in one size, short.

Back to Adelaide where it’s still okay

After an amazing experience with the team at Studio Pip and Co. as a four-week intern, Owen has (finally) left the building. Thank you very much for this opportunity. To learn and experience truly good design, with very friendly and intelligent people, is a rare and special chance for any design student. Many best wishes to Andrew and Shelley at Studio Pip and Co for the future. Thank you!

By Owen Ridgwell.

On a strange balmy autumn evening in Melbourne, the warmest in 150 years, the AGDA design night, Forty-eighty, gave around 200 people the chance to congregate in RMIT’s Kaleide theatre for two hours and become intimate with a few designers, and their work.

With a tight schedule in hand Andrew Ashton kicked off the night introducing Alex Tyers. Tyers touched on his career success in using research and critical analysis told to deliver functional information design.

Kate Hannaford, from Moth Design, gave some exciting samples of her work and collaborations in retail design, public art/design events, and interior design from her career to date. Her “cushion thrower” term for the amateur interior designers was something one will keep in mind for the next interior design conversation. Luca Ionescu followed, delivering an enormous range of images ranging from early influences, to fashion, to digital/motion and anything else he thought was street fresh, funky and cool.

After a ten minute break everyone crowded back into the theatre to see Shara Henderson and her wanderings in portraiture photography. Shara’s commentary was spare and heart felt, her work was a visual treat for anyone with a creative bone, even if it’s only in your ear.

Soren Luckins from Büro North showed some interesting process and way-finding design, and shared with us what made him tick. His effort to make whole projects environmentally accountable was a staggering example for those of us that want push the sustainable design cause.

Last, not least, we were treated to Wendy Ellerton from Hofstede Design. Wendy talked about her work in developing and designing typefaces in Australia and at the Royal Academy of Art in The Haag, in the Netherlands – a skill set that is a rarity in this corner of the world, and a simply inspiring insight into a world of black and white – a life in type design.

The night was a resounding success. Attended by mostly creative industry related people who witnessed an array of design disciplines in a successful format. Big thanks to AGDA; it’s sponsors, and the speakers for putting on this event for a bargain $10, or $1.67 a speaker.

By Owen Ridgwell, UniSA

A recent exhibition at the NGV International “Cinema India the Art of Bollywood”, hosted a staggering array of Bollywood film posters. This was a visual treat for people of any background. The posters displayed were made by brilliant artisans, typically on a peasant wage, documenting the amazing flavour of Bollywood in decades past. The example above is a glimpse of what the exhibition had on offer, and has driven one to seek out more Bollywood films and ‘Deewaar’. Who is this ‘Deewaar’ character? Where does he come from? Why the look of pensive determination and the thousand yard stare?

Indeed one felt like the ‘outsider looking in’ while eagerly digesting the amazing use of colour, type, composition and restraint evident in the pieces. One wanted to drop everything for a ticket to India – Is there countless evil fathers sending their beautiful daughters off to an arranged marriage with an equally evil and ruthless husbands? Will the ‘Deewaar’, or whoever the hell he is, burst in with red hot guns blazing (John Wayne crossed with beef vindaloo style), save the daughters, kill the bad guys, maybe put the fathers right as well?

That is the spell of Cinema India – inspiring. The Bollywood mix of emotion and thought in film posters is something that Western posters lose in their persistent image making formula and annoying credit lists – including the Third Director of Makeup, Third Director of Makeup’s dog, and Third Director of Makeup’s dog assistant. No offense to Make-up Directors, their dogs and their dog’s assistant of course.

By Owen Ridgwell ( and Aunty Di we suspect )

by Owen Ridgwell, the studio’s intern from UniSA, Adelaide

I like Adelaide. I don’t mind Melbourne either, but it just isn’t the same as Adelaide. Melbourne is a vibrant, multi-faceted, contemporary Australian city, becoming a bit of a mover and shaker on the international stage. It is reminiscent of lavish, high fashion, always something new even if it’s been done before; it’s always ‘different’ in Melbourne.

Adelaide, on the other hand (the right hand, not the left) is like those favourite pair of jeans you have. Maybe they’re a little worn, but you just can’t seem to find another pair that fit so well, that make ‘you’ feel so good. God, if only SA Great (Adelaide’s centre for propaganda) could hear me know, how proud they would be.

It’s nice in Adelaide because…

• Not a day goes by that you don’t meet someone you know whilst strolling down Rundle Mall.
• You don’t need to organise where to meet up with friends when you go out, you’ll all be going to the same pub anyway.
• A cabby can’t rip you off taking you into the city from the airport, because you’ll have landed right in the middle of it.
• Winter only lasts for about 2 months, it doesn’t snow, and until recently it didn’t rain either.
• The summers are long and hot, but not Darwin hot, they don’t make people go crazy.
• The majority of the population is old, so it feels a bit like grandma’s place, only all year round.
• Adelaide is the city of churches. If Jerusalem was wiped out tomorrow, Jesus could always launch his comeback tour here.
• Speaking of Jesus, Adelaide is the home of the blood of Christ. Wine labelling also being the one staple income for graphic designers here.

So while I immerse myself in the hustle and bustle of big city life, I remind myself from time to time of some of these quaint little traits of Adelaide