FLUX WEBZINE ISSUE 9, 9 NOVEMBER 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
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Creative Director Michelle Stark
Digital Manager Jeremy Swanborough
Contributors Ben Smith Michelle Stark Jeremy Swanborough Rob Hamilton Twofold Sean Bunton IncStamp
Special Thanks To Rob Hamilton & Twofold
Cover Design Michelle Stark
Typefaces PT Sans Pro Regular Catorze 27 Style 1 Book
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POSTER
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DESIGNER PROFILE
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EDITORIAL
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DIGITAL ART
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ILLUSTRATION
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EDITORIAL 1.
The Brief: Communicate the ‘truth’ about a large company of your choice. A3, black and white. Participants: Mish Stark and Ash Tulk In recent years Nestle has been accused of utilising child slaves in Cocoa farms.
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The Brief: Re-design globally-recognised toilet door pictograms. Black and white. Participants: Mish Stark Stripped back to its barest form, the segregation of toilets results from a difference in gender specifically the difference in genetalia. These pictograms communicate this difference by use of simple triangles - the inverted triangle is symbolic of women’s pubic area. Standard triangle is symbolic of the male pubic area.
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The Brief: Communicate your personal design manifesto in one sentence. Participants: Mish Stark
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Hi Readers, Last week I was lucky enough to go along to a workshop with Jonathan Barnbrook, thanks to Brisbanebased Responsive Projects (look them up, these guys are a story in themselves!). Barnbrook has been referred to as one of the pioneers of design with a social conscience, making strong statements in his work about issues such as consumerism, corporate culture and international politics. He has been one of my design heroes for some years, and so the prospect of a workshop with him was very exciting! In the workshop, three briefs were set by Barnbrook (the results are shown opposite). Participants presented their solution to each brief, and were encouraged to explore their own personal ethics and beliefs throughout the process.
An effective mix of graphic design education, candid advice for juniors, and challenging critiques from Barnbrook, resulted in a very enlightened workshop. I personally took home some key pieces of advice: A dull definition of a problem leads to a dull solution, so it is important to define the problem in an interesting way. If you choose, each project can be seen as an opportunity to express your personal ethics. Continue to evolve as a designer and as a person. Work from your soul. If you have a desire to change the world, get on with it!
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M
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DESIGNER PROFILE
Rob Hamilton Rob Hamilton is the co-founder of Twofold, a company born by two brothers in 2008 with the idea of a niche agency that was able to cover all facets of design and technical development. After gaining broad experience in the graphic design, web development, advertising and film industries, their aim was to apply this knowledge to provide a consistent and complete design approach for businesses across a broad range of media. Amidst the global economic crisis, Twofold forged a name for themselves and three years later is still dedicated to producing high-quality design work to both small and large businesses across Australia and throughout the world. We pride ourselves on bold designs, exciting concepts, simple and intuitive interfaces, attention to detail and an inherent simplicity throughout all that we do.
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What was your first design job? I worked in a digital agency called Newlight full-time in my final year of uni. I couldn’t even build a website properly when I started but I learnt a huge amount very quickly. What is your career highlight so far?
It was really satisfying to launch our website and receive international recognition including “site of the day” by awwwards.com. We also finished building our own free classifieds site called Paiir which was a huge milestone for us. Who or what inspires you? I find that travelling really helps me to look at things from a new perspective. I draw inspiration from different cultures, art history, early graphic design and numerous resources such as Dribbble and Behance. There are so many young and talented designers out there these days it’s truly amazing. What is your dream job? I love what I’m doing right now but ideally I’d love to slow the pace or work down with more travel and hands-on projects. Do you have any advice for juniors? It might sound clichéd but you can achieve anything you want if you set realistic goals and work hard.
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DESIGNER PROFILE
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a selection of twofold’s designs
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DESIGNER PROFILE
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we asked rob... SCREEN or PRINT PEN or MOUSE TEA or COFFEE SUMMER or WINTER EARLY BIRD or NIGHT OWL SERIF or SANS-SERIF THE MEDIUM or THE MESSAGE WORK TO LIVE or LIVE TO WORK
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POSTER
It’s almost that time of year when Universities and Colleges set their current group of design graduates free. A scary time, but also a great opportunity to develop a poster and theme concept for this years Qantm College Graduate Exhibition, of which I will be a part. This concept won an internal poster design competition held earlier in the year. The brief was to design the entire Exhibition concept via a poster, utilizing a one-word title (as per previous years’ exhibitions). I chose ‘Evolution’ as it conveys the process of growing and improving. I wanted to create a design that was representative of all of the creative disciplines that Qantm College covers in their curriculum. A set of customized Wing-Dings (which I named ‘Grad-Dings’) were created that could be used as a decorative element throughout the event. The Grad-Dings consist of icons representative of Qantm’s main ‘types’ – Gamers, Programmers, Animators and Designers – as well as key moments in the collective group’s journey through their degree. This is not the design that Qantm went with in the end, but it was the one I thought had the strongest design.
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graphic design WEB design games design animation games programming 13
ILLUSTRATION
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Romeo & Juliet SCENE I. Verona. A public place. SAMPSON Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir. I was driving along one day pulling out of a slip lane on to the road, checking that there was no one coming I merged in. Only a moment later I was met with a violent horn, roaring from a Jaguar at my rear. He quickly pulled around me, but slowed down as he passed to affectionately signal his approval... I in return waved apologetically. The signifier of “flipping the bird� has always existed to antagonize its recipient and in doing so rendered it ineffective to me. Not because I take some higher road of self indulged edict, but I because I am convinced that a polite wave poisoned with sarcasms sends a better message.
- J*
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DIGITAL ART
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What does a radio, a fly, a chandelier, some seeds, stairs, a road sign, a statue and a set of traffic lights all have in common? Well nothing really, but they’re all included in this issue’s digital artpiece. In this digital art design, the background is just that, a background. It gives way to the foreground structure and all of its elements. This foreground structure is what makes the piece interesting. The structure exists in a realm where both 2D and 3D design can not only coexist in the same composition, but also assist eachother. There could be many perceived meanings; does it represent the connections between everything in life? Does it perhaps represent the structure of the universe? The foundation of our very existence? Is it a technological representation of life’s double helix? It could be so many things!
- B.
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GUEST DESIGNER
sean bunton Sean Bunton is a Brisbane-based digital designer, developer and entrepreneur. He’s a talented and knowledgable all rounder when it comes to anything web and digital. Sean graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) from Queensland College of Art (QCA). He has since worked as a freelancer, run his own business, lectured at QCA and Billy Blue College of Design, launched his own startup and been a part of many more. Sean currently enjoys the process of building digital products with startups and working on web and mobile UI (user interface) design. His portfolio speaks for itself, for more be sure to stalk him online: Website | bunton.com.au
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Dribbble | dribbble.com/seanbunton
Twitter | @seanbunton
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GUEST DESIGNER
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we asked sean SCREEN or PRINT
...a screen that
PEN or MOUSE
...a trackpad!
TEA or COFFEE
...good coffee
EARLY BIRD or NIGHT OWL SERIF or SANS-SERIF
. you can touch
all day.
ed on ave been craft h s n ig es d t es b night. ...some of my oms after mid ro k ar d in s en bright scre ...I love all typ
e equally
TUMBLR or PINTEREST
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