FLUX WEBZINE ISSUE 1, 20 JULY 2012
Editors Ben Smith Michelle Stark Jeremy Swanborough
Production Coordinator Ben Smith
Magazine Design Ben Smith
Submissions We encourage Brisbane-based readers to submit suitable artwork for consideration by Flux Collective. If you wish to submit artwork, please contact Flux Collective at mail@fluxcollective.com
Creative Director Michelle Stark
Digital Manager Jeremy Swanborough
Contributors Ben Smith Michelle Stark Jeremy Swanborough Pip McConnel-Oats Brendan Surtees
Special Thanks To Pip McConnel-Oats
Cover Design Brendan Surtees
Typefaces PT Sans Pro Regular Catorze 27 Style 1 Book
Facebook www.facebook.com/fluxcollective
Twitter www.twitter.com/flux_collective
GUEST DESIGNER
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DIGITAL ART
TYPOGRAPHY
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DESIGNER PROFILE
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ILLUSTRATION
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EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
WELCOME.
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Hi Readers, Welcome to the very first edition of Flux Magazine! We are so glad you have taken some time out from your busy lives to have a look and see what we’re all about. The members of Flux Collective have been working behind the scenes for several weeks now getting ready for the official launch of both Flux Magazine and the Flux Website, and are finally able to present these free resources to all of you. A spanking new edition of Flux Magazine will be released fortnightly (yes, fortnightly!) as we have so much to share with you all. Each issue will be available on the Flux Collective website. If this is your first experience of Flux Collective, let me recap what we’re all about. We are a Brisbane-based Design Collective built on the principles of Admiration, Creation, Contribution, and Inspiration. We believe the Brisbane design industry is a little hive of quality work and quality people who we admire. It is this work, and these people, who motivate us to contribute to the industry ourselves, and we have chosen to do this by creating our own work which we hope will flow on to inspire you.
The pages of Flux Magazine showcase both local industry work and some original Flux Collective designs, in the areas of Typography, Illustration, Digital Art, Identity Design and more. Each issue will also contain a Designer Profile containing a short write-up of a prominent industry professional, with images of their work or studio. Flux Collective encourages our readers to get involved in the Magazine, and so we welcome artwork submissions. If you’d like your work to be considered for inclusion in our Guest Designer section please contact us via the Contact page on our website. Flux Magazine is all about you guys, so we’d love to hear from you. But for now, find some quiet time, grab your beverage of choice, and read on. We hope you enjoy the first issue as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together for you. - Mish, Ben and Jeremy.
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DESIGNER PROFILE
PIP McCONNEL-OATS executive group manager, creative. rowland.
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Pip has more than 18 years’ design experience specialising in brand identity and brand management, corporate and financial reporting and publication design for national and multi-national organisations including Mincom, Suncorp Metway, Energex, Stanwell, Cement Australia, Xstrata Copper and Alcan Engineering. In 2002, Pip established Lumino, one of Brisbane’s best known brand consultancies. In May 2012, Pip merged her studio with Rowland, bringing with her a team of highly qualified and experienced designers specialising in brand identity and implementation. Pip has overseen many brand strategy and implementation projects including the name and Brand for Queensland Motorways free flow tolling project – Go Via and more recently the rebrand of Stanwell Corporation. Pip is a respected speaker on branding and regularly conducts brand seminars for start-up enterprises. Among Pip’s favourite possessions are her Apple products, including her iPhone, iPod and iPad. Pip also loves eating pasta, even with nothing on it, but particularly with her favourite sauce Amatriciana, which she loves because it’s spicy! Lastly, Pip’s favourite gelati flavour is Coconut, simply because it’s “yum! ”
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DESIGNER PROFILE What was your first design job? My first design job was working at Artbusters Creative. It was an amazing introduction to the world of art and design with a mix of talented creatives working collaboratively on weird and wonderful projects. Artbusters created themed environments and large scale 3D artwork for World Expos, Large Retail Shopping Centres and Theme Parks. What is your career highlight so far?
Building Lumino over 15 years to become one of Brisbane’s best known brand consultancies. Who or what inspires you? I am inspired by other design disciplines such as fine art, fashion, architecture and interior design. I am addicted to design and architecture magazines and am fascinated by the way other disciplines use colour, form and space. What is your dream job? To run a studio for a global company that specialises in creating and managing international brands. Do you have any advice for juniors? Never stop learning. Understand your clients business and brand from the inside out to ensure that your designs are relevant and on brand. Think beyond the brief – make sure that your work has depth of thought and meaning to elevate your work from good to exceptional.
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a selection of pip’s designs
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DESIGNER PROFILE
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we asked pip... SCREEN or PRINT (both!) PEN or MOUSE TEA or COFFEE SUMMER or WINTER EARLY BIRD or NIGHT OWL SERIF or SANS-SERIF THE MEDIUM or THE MESSAGE GRID or NO GRID NEVILLE BRODY or MILTON GLASER UNI or INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE WORK TO LIVE or LIVE TO WORK TUMBLR or PINTEREST
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TYPOGRAPHY
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(Fuh-leen); Bambi’s friend and mate.
Faline tips its hat to Neoclassic masters of type such as Caslon and Bodoni and embodies traditional elegance and femininity balanced with a modern-day personality. Characteristics of Faline include thin hairlines and ball serifs, inspired by bubbles, teardrops and children’s stories. It communicates a nostalgic charm while maintaining a contemporary style. A type created for display purposes, Faline is comfortable in larger sizes where thin hairlines can still be seen, and is perfect for Magazines, Advertising, Posters and many other designed materials. Faline was created in Adobe Illustrator before being brought into Fontlab Studio for final tweaking and export, and is now available as a free download via the Flux Collective website.
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ILLUSTRATION
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As a big fan of comics, making this digitally painted tribute to the newly released ‘Dark Knight Rises’ film was a no-brainer. Drawing inspiration from the original DC series in combination with the film, the layout is set to depict the epic battle between good and evil which is the biggest focus for comic cover illustrations. Comic book covers are always highly detailed and often feature fine art paintings by a completely different artist to the one that wrote and directed the comic. The image must be captivating and filled with emotion, tension, narrative and action in order to draw the attention of the common nerd. Such a task is a daunting one, but oh so much fun! The illustration was painted in Photoshop using very basic hard and soft brushes. A lot of the details in a digital illustration can be achieved using the techniques learnt with a pen and pencil rather than the popular use of custom brushes. The challenge is to emulate the surface texture as much as possible while maintaining tone and lighting.
- J*
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DIGITAL ART
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This particular design represents freedom within a controlled environment. Created during a time of utter chaos, it depicts the presence and prospect of freedom and joy, regardless of the tight confines of life, such as those ever-impending deadlines. The process for this design was fairly simple. A stock photograph was sourced, cut into multiple shapes and compiled together in various arrangements before arriving at the final composition. The final design contains two duplications of the original shapes; the first of which was converted to black and white, whilst the second was converted to gold. To complete the design, various blending modes and opacity settings were selected for each of the layers.
- B.
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GUEST DESIGNER
BRENDAN SURTEES One of Brisbane’s emerging designers, Brendan Surtees, has a particular penchant for photography and photo-manipulation, as well as having some pretty great graphic design skills. He is currently in his final year of a Bachelor of Creative Media (Graphic Design). Brendan is a shy kind of guy. He is rarely seen anywhere but behind his beloved Canon EOS 1000D or head down at his MacBook Pro. And this isn’t such a bad thing, because he creates some beautiful images.
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next issue... 3 AUGUST 2012
featuring ... designer profile :::: branding design :::: illustration :::: digital art :::: guest designer