Melbourne’s hottest Japanese bar is booked, copies of Astro Boy and Blade Runner are sourced too. We were tasked to develop event collateral designed to shake the woes of 2009 and welcome in 2010.

We started with exploring traditional Japanese symbols and images and developed an illustration of intertwined Koi that also is an abstract of the Ying and Yang symbol. Vertical type setting is exploited as well as a one off vertical Gunn & Taylor brand. The Japanese custom of new years postcard giving – nengajo, is called upon and range of Gunn & Taylor new year postcards are developed as a gift for the night. All we need is generous slabs of white paper, black and red ink.

Thank you Mr Gunn and happy new year!

Final poster – 4 x A0 plan prints, double sides tape and silver streamers

Established in 2006 Eye Saw invites designers to respond to a theme in the poster format. Eye Saw is overseen by Mark Gowing Design – it is an invitational poster exhibition held in Omnibus Lane, Ultimo, Sydney.

This year the studio was honored to be invited to produce a poster for Eye Saw. The brief invited participants to consider the theme humanity/equity.

Posters design is an individual process and it is difficult to develop a poster image that speaks of the idea, means something to its designer and connects with an audience. We thought of humanity/equity in terms of grooming compassion, nurturing our hearts. Everyone knows that to care for a plant you have to think to water it regularly for it to grow, so we twisted this metaphor and invited viewers to nurture their hearts.

The poster was cost effectively produced as four A0 black and white plan prints with fine streams of fine silver light plastic streamers flowing from the watering can’s spout.

Thanks to Simeon from Anagram in Sydney for installing our poster. A big thank you goes out to our friends at Melbourne studio Hofstede Design for pitching in on the day, while installing their work in Sydney, and helping Simeon with our installation. We are very fortunate and privileged to have peers like Simeon King, Wendy Ellerton, Dom Hofstede, Paul Garbett and Mark Gowing who share their ideas and pitch in from time-to-time – even from great distances.

Jasper claims our site

Wendy and Dom in action, Simeon on oranges

Wendy and Dom continue...

Dom shows us how to exploit chalk...

Hofstede’s completed “Equality” chalk piece

Wendy installing Hofstede’s – Flag piece

NaughtyFish explore equality

Toko smash out pixel doilles

Walter Wakefield’s interactive response

Omnibus Lane, work by Eskimo right.

Eye Saw 2009
Humanity / Equity
Omnibus Lane, Ultimo, Sydney
9 to 16 August 2009
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Visit Eye Saw here, Hofstede here

Located 140kms south east of Melbourne, Phillip Island is an out-of-the-way sea side spot in Westernport Bay. Discovered by George Bass in 1798, Phillip Island was once roamed by Bunurong people for 39,000 years.

The current population stands at 7,000 people whom often witness some of Australia’s most restless weather systems generated from the unpredictable Bass Strait.

Autumn in Melbourne is one of city’s finest seasons. The rains return, there is still a little late light in the evening and the colours turn in a spectacular fashion.

It is with this spirit Andrew made this image for Pearl Café’s latest menu. Communication design at its most simple expression often gives the client and designer the most effective and inspired outcomes. Thanks again to Andrew and Geoff for the great brief.

The studio has either dabbled with retail, or worked with a range of retail customers of late…

The cut and thrust of developing retail products and offers is that one has to risk the time, resource and money in realising, developing, production, marketing and distributing the product. However, the risk can be reduced, the ultimate success of a product can be fast tracked by working with rigorous market research and developing a comprehensive product strategy and marketing. Yet the true test of any product, is putting the product in front of the customer to discover if they find the product desirable enough to purchase it.

The market offers one the truth of the retail process — an opportunity to witness products succeed whilst others go unnoticed. This assists one to develop patterns or formulas for product designers to work by. Studying people‘s purchasing habits reveals that many successful products are attractive, obvious ideas, and well worn clichés. With a world burgeoning with obvious, attractive and clichéd product choices, a new opportunity emerges for product development —  for offers that tap into shifts in desire, as people seek new offers that rekindle their desires. It is a balance of finding and timing new ideas that a product designer negotiates. Knowing when to let one cliché go and bring to the customer‘s attention a more obscure idea, or cliché to desire.

The biggest trap a product designer can fall into is solely believing that their taste, style or insights of product will guarantee success. The other trap is shaping ideas that are too abstract from the common ideas that all people associate with — to name a few — love, hate, family, friends, beauty, ugly, happy, sad, dogs, ducks, war and peace. Many new ideas are simply old ideas recast, rehashed, redreamed.

In a restless world in restless times, one of the biggest wishes we have for the world is peace. Peace in war time, peace with the environment, peace in our homes and work places, peace with our selves.

It took little convincing to present this idea as big and as beautifully as possible with Melbourne based South American inspired fashion retailer Origén. The holiday campaign for Origén is a bold yet simple campaign that only finds its way on select, prominent and existing applications. Rather than creating a raft new applications specifically for the season campaign — instore posters, ticketing, wraps, shopping bags, wobblers…  This approach aligns with the studio‘s sustainable design process — saying more and using less.

Our peace dove was created by Sarah Furzer in pen and ink and brought into the digital relm for execution on the store‘s external windows, and on Origén‘s 2007 greeting card.