Created and Produced by CSU Graphic Design students
ARTICLES 04 FOREWORD Michael Agzarian
06 THE JUNK HUNT There are a growing number of us who have found comfort within the walls of a stale room full of secondhand clothes.
10 SO YOU WANT TO RULE THE WORLD? The Facts and Figures of being maniacal.
12 PROCRASTINATION AS AN ART FORM A Procrastinator is an artist in his or her own right. They have created something whole-heartedly.
14 POTHOLES “We took something that is looked upon as such a negative and put a positive spin on it”.
18 THE CHALLENGE THAT IS DRAWING Can’t draw? Join the club.
20 DOWN SOUTH Welcome to South Campus!
22 MOOSE AHEAD The Professor of Dirt.
28 KEYS TO IMAGINATION Photographers don’t make creative photographs, they just see the world in a different way and show what they see.
30 YOUR TRASH, MY TREASURE In the deepest, darkest depths hides a very sacred place.
32 LA BLOGO THEQUE Finally we see a video that is focusing on what it should be, THE MUSIC!
34 THE WRITING’S ON THE STALL GRAFFITI originating from the place a genius goes to ponder.
36 CAPTAIN PLANET DAMN Captain Planet. Him and his greeny comrades.
37 THREE DESIGNERS, ONE QUESTION What did you do to get your FIRST job in the industry?
40 PORTFOLIO ETIQUETTE Approaching your portfolio.
HATCHLINGS 42 INTRODUCTION 45 CARPE DIEM 48 THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD 50 HOOKS 52 BARBIE IS A SKANK 54 FEATHERS 56 SKATE PARK 58 SIMPLE WOULD BE NICE 60 STAMPS
Students of the Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design), Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design/Photography) and Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design/Multimedia) Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Lecturers Michael Agzarian Patrick McNamara
Suzanne Addison Philippa Barnes Adrienne Bergsma Ashley Burrell James Cantwell Nicholas Chan Frieder Czeschla Melissa Dempsey Katie Fairservice Adrian Fallace
Lana Whytcross Bonnie Wilkins Zac Williams Meg Willis Annie Wilson
Pinyo Fordham Dylan Fryer Erica Halse Elise Hancock Erin Harman Jade Holland Tracey Hunter Philip Barry Hutchison Amanda Lindsay Hannah Little
Ashly Matheson Alera McDonald Samantha Mullavey Matthew Norris Prudence Officer Rebecca Peel Ruby Scanlon Kimberley Skeers Allicia Vayro Glen Whitelaw
May 2010
Hatched The objective of this project was for the students to have a magazine devised, written, designed, produced and ready for online distribution to a newly designed website in ten weeks. Remarkably, they have achieved that goal. Each student undertook a role within a team to develop, design, publish and promote the new online publication - HATCH. Many of them began by seeing this project in terms of a single design problem. At the end, all of them realized that the project was about the whole publishing process; from devising the name of the magazine, writing and sourcing the articles through to producing a magazine for online publication, as well as promoting it and producing a dedicated website.The measure of success for a project such as this is not the result or even the grade. For the students, the important thing about this project was the process, each of the discrete steps and the learning they made along the way. Congratulations everyone.
Michael Agzarian Senior Lecturer / Course Coordinator BA Graphic Design School of Communication and Creative Industries Charles Sturt University - Wagga Wagga
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SO YOU WANT TO RULE THE
WORLD? THE FACTS AND FIGURES OF BEING MANIACAL
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15 examples of weather manipulation (Flood, block out the sun)
THE FAILING PLAN FACTOR: 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 Superhero Intervention
Critical Flaw in Plan
Engineering Blunder
Change of Heart
Meddling Kids
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1
Castle
2
Secret Island
TOP5HIDEOUTS
Underground Lair 4
Volcano
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103 attempts of nuclear attack
Magneto The Penguin
GLOBAL DOMINATION
Darth Vadar Dr Evil
25%
SWISS BANK ACCOUNT 20%
Cat Woman Lex Luther
THE HERO’S WIFE 5% 2
The Riddler
Shredder
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE 15%
63 cases of villainous laser misuse
Krang Dr Freeze
MONEY 35%
Queen of Hearts Venom Carnage Gargamel Mr Glass
M O S T CO M M O N D E M A N D S Q U O TA :
Mr Doom Anna Dr Octopus The Goblin
GOONS REQUIRED TO HIT A BARN: 3
Mind control attempted 27 times E.g. Zombie Army, Brainwash the president
Two Face
1025
Skeletor Sauron
12,875
STORMTROOPERS
Pavarty Mask The Brain Mugatu
ORCS
54 1
Poison Ivy Megaton Sandman
JOKER HENCHMEN
Oddball Cobra
ROCKSTEADY
Garfield Orcs Goons Beebop
Mr Burns
Rocksteady
Harvey Dent
The Emperor
Anna
REGULAR NAME
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Space Station
LIKELIHOOD OF BASE INFILTRATION THROUGH BLATANT ENGINEERING FAULT
ALIAS
TENDENCY TOWARDS EVIL RECORD
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I am a self-proclaimed procrastinator. One of the worst kinds. I confess that I have in fact started writing this article at the last minute. Each and every time I have work to do, I continually and knowingly go out of my way to come up with new and interesting ways of preventing myself from carrying out the tasks I actually have to do. From organising to cleaning, arranging, drawing and welcoming any possible distraction presented to me with open arms. I once arranged my DVDs in colour order and rearranged the pantry by height, colour, and category. I have often felt that procrastination is the inner release of an individual’s creativity. We often find ourselves doing absurd, strange, or otherwise tedious and mindnumbing tasks with complete and utter rigorous enthusiasm that we would never find ourselves doing in any other situation. The inventive, and fervent manner of a procrastinator fascinates me… each individual behaves in a different way, uncharacteristic or their usual self. What intrigues me the most about this is the creativity that comes out of these actions. Which led me to see that the outcomes of procrastination often develop into an artistic creation. Which is why I believe the result of procrastination can be considered an art form. A procrastinator is an artist in his or her own right. They have created something, whole-heartedly. Whether this creation is an exceptionally clean house, a well planned and colour coordinated calendar, a drawing, or a colour-coded wardrobe or rearranged bedroom. All of these actions have created something aesthetically beautiful to the procrastinator. Something that would not have been created otherwise. For those Black Books fans reading this, I feel Bernard Black doing his taxes… sitting there appearing frazzled, surrounded by a mountain of paired socks. And later, wearing a ‘fashionable jacket’ made of receipts; embodies all of the procrastination artists out there. Every person avoids their own commitments in different ways, and I think the weird and wonderful things that come out of it are just beautiful.
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Can’t draw? Join the club. No matter how hard I try to draw something fun and exciting it always looks like the work of a 3yr old. Did you ever attempt to draw your friend’s face without looking at the page or lifting the pen? And then laugh about how the eyebrow mysteriously found its way half way down the cheek, or the eye that dismally failed to even make an appearance on the face... A little like the game pin the tail on the donkey, where you laugh and make fun of the kid that didn’t even pin the tail on the poster. I was that kid.
When crap drawings become a printed item or a part of a magazine layout they surprisingly appear a little less crappy…but maybe that’s just me? When drawing these 9 guys to the left I was cringing at the thought that I was going to submit it…but once they’ve all been laid out the perfectionist in me lost the battle in trying to create the perfect drawing. So whether you’re a great drawer, a mediocre drawer or just plain crappy like myself…I encourage you to get out those pencils and give it a go cause sometimes the weirder and wackier, the more interesting the characters you draw become.
Surprisingly I always found myself winning Pictionary. Figure that? At what point does drawing become bad? When it’s beyond the point of understanding what the image is? Should I start writing a description beneath my attempts like pre school children who are encouraged to do so, so their parents can figure it out? “Mum, Dad & our pet rabbit” That’s a rabbit!!?
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Down I
magine the housing commission area where you live; weatherboard houses built from rotting timbers; sticky carpets from occupants who barely groom themselves letalone their carpets. Musty aromas, showers covered in fur similar to the stuff you find on your teeth after eating cheese. Broken door handles, faulty cooktops, walls with holes, holes with mice, mice with meece… I think you’re getting the picture. Welcome to South Campus! *Waves at you like a mad person with omnidirectional eye movements*
Each year over 50 terrified parents drop their kids off on the first day of O-Week at the on campus University accommodation wondering if they’ll ever see their child again. Some parents have been known to drive in the gates one side and then straight out the other like a spooked pony in a thunderstorm, without even letting their children’s feet touch the south soil. Five blocks of dormitory style accommodation, approximately 30 rooms in each, with long corridors, kitchens that used to be laundries, worn pathways from the hundreds of people who’ve lived there previously and cross gender amenities.
On the topic of shared facilities; one morning before class I trudged into the shower all possum-eyed from the night’s sleep. Turning on the water I heard someone stomp into the shower beside me, snorting back on nasal mucus the occupant proceeded to spit the contents of his throat into the shower. I looked down at my feet and tried desperately not to imagine the sort of body fluids that had slipped along the floor beneath my feet. As I sponged some shampoo through my hair I smelt something familiar, something acidic, not a pleasant smell.
“waves at you like a mad
person with omni-directional eye movements”
No! It couldn’t be? Surely not!? The cubical walls didn’t quite reach the floor leaving enough room for the yellow pee aroma to pass underneath. Gross, I know but this is just one of the many life experiences South has provided that I wish it didn’t. To put a positive spin on things, South has taught me many practical life skills, like how to use the absolute minimal amount of dishes to avoid washing up. For example the spoon you used to eat your cereal doubles as the knife to spread your toast. The bowl from the cereal then becomes the plate for the toast- practical; and you get to avoid the stinky kitchen for another day!
Now that you’re completely disgusted I’ll tell you why I’ve chosen to live there for the past three years. Apart from the fact that it’s cheap and the rooms are huge its like being on school camp 24/7 with the added bonus of having your own room to retire to if you don’t want to go orienteering for the afternoon. There’s a sense of community at South, a humbling culture that seeps into your blood. At South, it’s not about the
south
destination but the journey.
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MOOSE The Professor of Dirt
If you had asked me last week what I thought when I heard the word “Moose” I would have told you about the animal with antlers that’s a part of the deer family. Now I think of a hilarious British fellow, Paul “Moose” Curtis, the reverse graffiti artist. Moose is Paul Curtis. Paul Curtis is Moose. Instead of the typical methods of graffiti, Moose’s reverse graffiti method involves cleaning dirt and grime of filthy surfaces to create his art. “I’ve never found that easy way of explaining what I do. I tell people I make pictures by cleaning.”
His profession (if you could call it that) began when he was working as a kitchen porter. “I saw a little dirty mark on the wall, and I got my cloth out and I just wiped over this little dirty mark but I left a bigger clean mark where I’d cleaned over this dot… In the end I had to clean the whole wall”. Moose then realised the power of dirt. Moose’s art materials do not consist of your normal artist’s tools like paint and a brush or even that of a graffiti artist, a spray can. Moose’s weapons of choice are water and a cloth or in more recent cases a high pressure water gun and stencils. Moose graced Wagga Wagga and Charles Sturt University with his presence. First off was a lecture giving a quick low down on his life and how he got into his artistic profession. This was very interesting and
included tales of where he was almost arrested for so called “damaging property”. But what is he actually damaging? Dirt? A lucky few were then invited to participate in a workshop with Moose to create some new stencils to be turned into an artwork in town. Hours were spent cutting and drawing, with breaks for the occasional photo shoot allowed. Once the stencils were cut and ready it was time for a bit of tucker and a beer before the morning ahead. The next day involved a bright and early start, which happened to be freezing. With the added water from the pressure gun, faces were red and feet were frozen but eyes were filled with anticipation and excitement for what was to come. After a few test sprays, the fun began. The lucky few were invited to come up and spray their fabulous designs onto the grimy wall. The result was amazing.
I was shocked at, A) how dirty the wall was and B) how easy the dirt came off the wall. The contrast it created was great. Once the wall in town was completed, Moose and crew headed back to the University and prettied up some dirty areas surrounding the Arts division. The result was fantastic. Thanks heaps to Moose for a great couple of days learning about a greener and way more fun way of representing graffiti. Reverse it kids. Can I have your autograph? Hannah Little
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Keys to Imagination
Photographers don’t make creative photographs, they just see the world in a different way and then show the world what they see in photographs. In essence it is a channel of communication and is as much about what the photographer has to say as it is about the subject. When we take a photograph a part of ourselves is being exposed as well. Dragos Dumitrascu is a Romanian landscape photographer who shared his thoughts on the subject of creative photography:
"
In my vision, imagination is a gateway between two different realms of reality to which most of us have unlimited access. The keys to imagination unlock the most sophisticated dreams which, just like nature’s fabulous creations, can sometimes leave us speechless and overwhelmed.
"
Dragos Dumitrascu CHIMERA PHOTOGRAPHY
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EO
TY
PED
A N L E P T N I A T P A C economic nightmare
ST
ER
an
G
RID ICU LOU S
italist
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Anti-Cap
Damn Captain Planet, him and his greeny comrades. Every afternoon, as a wee nipper, I’d rush home from school to see the so called “Planeteers” racing around the planet fixing all its little problems. It’s clear to see now, they were all brainwashed into pedaling their blatantly anti-capitalist agendas. What industrialist wouldn’t be annoyed by some meddling kids, who knew nothing of the greater economic pressures facing big business. On top of all this, the Planeteers didn’t even do a good job; they were just there, it seems, to annoy the (ridiculously) stereotyped businessmen and women. The Planeteers were awfully good at displacing pollutants from one area to another, and hoping that no-one noticed. Occasionally they senT pollutants into space, which seemed to them, and their adored Captain Planet an amicable solution. In reality this only added to the estimated 5,500 tonnes already in orbit. Thanks Captain Planet. Why don’t you do us all a favour and just start polluting the earth, helping the loggers, because, at the end of the day, your script is written on beautifully white, bleached paper. So until you figure out a way to make tofu into 300gsm, maybe you should stop complaining.
Y N E RE
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Flaunt & UnderConstruction compiled two parallel surveys; one targeted at designers showing their portfolio in interviews, and the other at designers who are reviewing the portfolio of prospective employees, so that a comparison could be made between what an interviewee thinks are the best practises against what an interviewer does.....
Preference of medium for 1st point of contact
And how should one follow up? 46%
33%
32%
22%
Both 20%
22%
15%
10%
Wait for Phone
Lesson) Do not show up unannounced.
Lesson) Email first, call second, the unlikely third, wait for someone to call you.
Appropriate amount of samples in a PDF
Point at which an attachment is considered too big
44%
48%
36%
35%
33%
41% 31% 27% 22%
18%
14%
21%
23% 7%
2-3
3-4
5-7
8-10
Lesson) Interviewers want to see more work than you thought. That’s a good thing.
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2MB
Lesson) Just dont exceed 10MB
5MB
10MB
Does size, big or small, matter?
Preference of portfolio structure according to...
Box with loose samples
Book with bound pages
Bag with assorted items
No preference
19%
58%
5%
0%
18%
11%
34%
0%
40%
15%
Other
No
Yes
Lesson) Above all keep things organised. A book seems the most common way to do so.
Amount of information accompanying each project
Basic Information
Are sketches and process images a welcome addition?
59%
As much information as possible
58%
42%
28%
13%
Yes
No
No preference
... and credits
... and credits
Preferred dynamic of portfolio presentation
Expected length of interview
50% 34%
61%
5%
44%
15 minutes
44%
30 minutes
28%
34%
28%
22%
9%
60 minutes
Lesson) Prepare for a 30 minute interview, but keep in mind it might end in 15.
44%
Interviewee leads
Interviewer leads
No preference
“Outside highly technical matters, perception is the most important part of thinking. Perception is how we look at the world. What things we take into account. How we structure everything around us.� -Edward de Bono
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The next section of this magazine is dedicated to the perception of images. That is; how we draw conclusions about things due to our own personal experience, beliefs, attitudes and context. No two people looking at one image will ever feel exactly the same about it or draw precise conclusions. In the art world we are attuned to looking for clues as to how the artist came up with the final piece. We pick the image apart like a feral cat, scrounging through the rubbish looking for scraps of information... colour, lighting, positioning, style, etc. to arrive at our own conclusions. Students involved in the magazine brought in a picture, drawing, object or artwork that meant something to them and placed them in a hat. We then took turns drawing one out and coming up with a response to the piece, whether it be visual or textural. The idea is to compare the original artist’s thoughts with what the person who drew the image out got from it as an experiment into human perception. To differentiate the artist’s thoughts from the perceiver’s thoughts two symbols will be used.
This symbol indicates the original thought behind the image
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This symbol represents the response to the original image.
Bad memory strengthens instinct; because you can’t remember why, you just FEEL. This piece was a flow of consciousness, created one day as I sat with a pencil and doodled. Anything that came into my head was sketched as one thought and pattern flowed into the next. Perceptions, thoughts, judgments, feelings, associations, and memories were drawn as they entered my mind, one thought evolving into the next and recorded as they occurred without being restructured logically. I do this idly sometimes and then later sort through my notebooks to find them; using them as a sort of introspection technique to understand my (sub)conscious
stream. Normally, the attempt at analysis is like seizing a spinning top to catch its motion. In the time it takes me to understand why I came to a conclusion about a subject, I have forgotten what the conclusion was. Bad memory strengthens instinct; because you can’t remember why, you just FEEL. At the time I could clearly see the progression of my train of thought, but after the fact the images have lost their meaning and inter-connectedness and have become incomprehensible.
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Through
The Eyes of
a Child
Susie Maroni was a gifted child. Her mother Maude had inklings of Susie’s special abilities three months before she was even born. A firm in-utero kick one afternoon had once stopped Maude dead in her tracks moments before an out of control motorcycle mounted the footpath, swerved frantically through a group of oblivious pedestrians, and slammed dramatically into the very taxi Maude was intending to enter just seconds earlier. After being brought into the world (quite quietly I am told), Susie was known to kick her mother in the shin whenever impeding danger loomed. Maude embraced her permanently bruised shins as baby Susie had warned her of countless impending doom scenarios including one ravenous looking canine, and a particularly large cement truck hell bent on removing Maude from this earth. Tragically, the photo seen here is the last moments of the family’s time on earth. However, due to the insistence of a recent fine arts graduate, she was placed far from shins reach of her mother for “compositional integrity”. And so this tale ends, just as abruptly as the Maroni’s final photograph.
When I looked at this family photograph, I was immediately drawn to the expression on the little girl’s face; I couldn’t help but wonder what she was looking at? This look of wonder or surprise is what became the basis of my design idea. And eventually I came to the idea of the alive photograph; in a kind of a Harry Potter fashion. This way I could use rather ordinary, plain, everyday objects; things like, stairs, walls, and pictures in frames and with the focus of this child bringing them alive in a surreal manner. The article title ‘through the eyes of a child’ really encapsulates these design possibilities, based on the notion that the world seen from the perspective of a child, is a world of wonder and amazement. Where photographs really do have ‘real’ people inside the walls of their frames.
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I received this image and I instantly wanted to
Sometimes my mind becomes draped with
draw a body and play dress-ups. It reminded
beautiful images but often with nonsense. The
me of my favourite childhood Barbie doll. Both
thought crosses my mind that I should note it
Barbie and the woman in this image are both conventionally beautiful. Although I really loved my Barbie, the clothes
down, or sketch it, but I never have a book or am about to get into bed or I’m too tired or I can’t find a pen.
that she wore were rather scantily clad. My favourite was my shopping Barbie that wore
I stare blankly for a moment. I close my eyes
a small top with the midriff showing, wearing
tightly and try to envision the image. Beautiful.
a vest and a small red mini skirt. Don’t we
Then after a fleeting second, the moment
all wear that ensemble to the supermarket?
passes and the image is gone.
Who is she trying to impress, she has already won over Ken! Therefore I have come to the conclusion that Barbie = Skank.
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If you take the petals from the image on the left and put them into the bag, give it a bit of a shake, the result could be something like this.
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I was looking after this house for couple of weeks, some close family friends had asked me to house sit. It was just across the road from the skatepark. About four days in I was in the middle of cooking dinner one night, when the phone rang, “Im sorry the house holders are away at the moment, can I take a message?” “Yeah I know, just thought I’d call to let you know that I was driving into town this afternoon when I saw a car awfully similar to Darren’s about 15km outside town. Is his bronze car there in the driveway where it normally is?” I froze. “No, just his blue one.” “That’ll be his then, you better give him and the police a call.” Turns out it was some shady bastards from the skatepark who decided to take this old car for a bit of a joy ride, and when the engine seized because of a leak, they slashed the tyres and left it on the side of the road. Now every time I drive by the skate park or see a skater kid I wonder whether it was them who stole the car. Bastards!
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I interpreted the skatepark as an experimental environment in which no which way is the right way. The landscape becomes an I interpreted the skatepark as anand experimental environment arena of multiple textures, shapes angles , opening a world ofin new possibilities. which no which way is the right way. The landscape becomes an
arena of multiple textures, shapes and angles , opening a world of new possibilities.
E E
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Stamps have an ambiguous nature. They represent the journey of communication between two people, but play no part in the message itself. They can accompany a message between two countries on opposite sides of the globe, or between two small communities within minutes of each other, without affecting the content in any way. There is a part of life that makes them necessary, but they aren’t particularly special to anyone, unless they come in packs of plastic held clinically with tweezers. The pack of stamps this one came from was a souvenir from six months of a life in upstate New York. For me it holds the warmth of sending letters and packages home to family and friends – sending them a part of my life. One stamp holds memories, but for a stranger it holds no value ñ it’s cold.
Early in the morning, just as day is dawning, he picks up all his postbags in his van. I never really liked Postman Pat, with his impossibly oblong face and inability to ever be upset. But as a little kid I could never deny the joys of being given the keys to collect the mail from our PO Box every Thursday. As a small child, I revelled in the responsibility of collecting every letter and every parcel from our black, gold-numbered letter box that was content with conforming to all the other black, gold-numbered letter boxes. Perhaps itís because it was the only responsibility I ever had, aside from general cleanliness and good behaviour. It seems like such a good life in hindsight. I look back now, as a sit in my rented unit with numerous bills scattered on my bench, and I feel so jealous of my such a meaningless task. A task I now donít care for, and I do it with such numbness. Remember as a child wishing your parents would let you do more? Remember wanting to have more responsibility because it meant you were more grown up? Being excited by
home alone. As a child, everything and anything that brought you closer to being considered an adult brought delight and I remember always feeling proud whenever even the most menial accomplishment was achieved. Now that I am grown up with reminisce about the small, simple actions I took as a child. I think Iíd give up a life ruled by currency and expectation just to run through the brown grass of my old paddock the way I did when I was young, where my greatest concern of the day was whether I could be bothered running inside to sit down and watch a cartoon just for the protagonistís black and white companion. Because I could never deny a stop-motion cat.
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Hatch.net.au www.csu.edu.au/cci CSUŠ2010