Australian Infront RSS feed

Reyt Up Wip3 Out

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:20:04 +1100

Up Over Down Under™ finally reaches Critical Mass tomorrow night with a Wip3out Competition & TDR™ Panel Auction. 3 hours of Wip3out racing madness… Choose your team, beat the clock & each other to be Wip3out & Up Over Down Under™ gamer champion.

Along with a Silent Auction on all panels in the Exhibition. Your chance to have a 1:1 life size one off TDR™ work for the discerning culture collector, philanthropist and general nosey-parker. Amount of panel sales from auction going towards the "Work, Buy, Consume, Die" Kickstarter Pitch Who where filming Up Over Down Under™ during the opening blitzkrieg.

This Saturday night
QV Building
34–40 Jane Bell Lane
(enter from Russell St)

Full details on the Facebook page here.

Ticket Giveaway!

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:08:00 +1100

So Vivid starts tonight in Sydney and we are pretty pleased to be sponsors of a few excellent events. One of these events is a panel discussion on 'Shaping the future of design education' by the team at Tractor featuring Chris Doyle, Kevin Finn, Chris Laws, Nick Gower and Matt Leach.

It's taking place on the 6th of June and we have FIVE FREE TICKETS TO GIVE AWAY. All you have to do is answer in 25 words or less in the comments of this post: What you would change about YOUR design education?

You have until Friday week to get your answers in. If you can't wait until then, grab a ticket here: http://futureofdesign.eventbrite.com.au

Folio Of The Week #37 - Happy Studio

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:36:53 +1100

Going to work for these guys must be a joy, with a name like Happy Studio, you couldn't but help smile at the prospect of making the commute to the office. That's not why they are our Folio Of The Week however, no sir. These guys have quickly developed their own sense of style in the last year that I have known of them and it's growing stronger by the minute. Clean lines, pastel colour palettes and a keen sense of typography makes Happy Studio stand out from the rest. Take a look at our Folio Of The Week #37.

MCA Zine Fair 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:16:30 +1100

This Sunday head on over to the MCA and stuff your bags full of limited edition zines. It's free to attend with a bunch of drop-workshops taking place too. It kicks off at 11am and runs until 4pm. More details can be found on the Facebook event page.

Masked Intentions

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:46:57 +1100

He Made She Made has invited 21 artists and designers alike to create and display a bespoke mask as part of their Masked Intentions exhibition and publication release.

No conceptual or material boundaries to the masks have been adhered to other than that they must be wearable and fit a human sized head. The finished masks take on various forms, presenting unique stories of their genuine/fictional significance to the world and their creators.

Featuring the works of Benja Harney, Dion Horstmans, Jake Stollery, Eduardo Wolfe-Alegria, Thi Nguyen, Kit Palaskas, Naughtyfish, Luke Chiswell, Hollie Martin, Vert Design, Tamara Maynes, Paula Walden, North Left, Patrick Patrick, Lulu Ruttley + Matt Preisz, Vincent Buret, Lenny Gash Gitonga, Ray Ray, Swayze, Laura Lay and Oscar Casas.

Showing tonight at HeMadeSheMade, 70 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. More details on their website.

Hands On!

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:08:27 +1100

Kit Palaskas, Australia's queen of craft has teamed up with Frankie Ratford, founder of The Design Kids to bring you a new type of workshop - a dynamic day of construction, crafting, and the creation of tactile portfolio pieces, resulting in something super spectacular for your folio.

Limited spots apply. $75 per students, $115 per industry. Details: 595 Little Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Choose either Saturday 1st June 9am-5pm or Sunday 2nd June 9am-5pm Students need to show a student card on the day.

For more information, visit: http://shop.thedesignkids.com.au/collections/hands-on-workshop

Threesome - deadline approaching

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:03:49 +1100

Call for submissions! The Design Kids are looking for 20 Melbourne design students (currently studying) and 20 Melbourne design graduates (graduated five years ago or less) to work with Melbourne’s top creatives/studios. Each piece is a typographic collaboration between studio + graduate + student, and takes the form of a Typographic Treasure Hunt. The twist this year is you will be paired up at random with our fav studios. Submit a four page landscape PDF; the first page needs to include where you are studying, your cv and contact details, and then 3 pages of your work, with a focus on typography. Email to lachie@thedesignkids.com.au by 5pm 31/05/13, subject ‘Threesome Melbourne’ Grad OR Student.

Marty Routledge - Sign of the Times

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:58:33 +1100

Marty Routledge has to be one of the hardest working creatives I know in Australia. Catch him in action in the video above busting out clean lines for The Hours. He also speaks on camera (which is a rarity) about his passion for sign painting and his background in the arts.

Shillington Graduate Exhibitions

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:44:14 +1100

Shillington Graduate Exhibitions are on like donkey kong tomorrow night in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. For more details, visit: http://www.shillingtoncollege.com.au/graduate-exhibitions

Cluster

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:59:07 +1100

Cluster is a project curated by the team at Letterbox that focusses on areas of the city and suburbs where the streets are all named under a theme or concept. Research has uncovered that it is actually one of the earliest forms of urban branding which remains unseen and undocumented. Most people are familiar with those named after politicians and even poets, but there are entire areas named after The Beatles, Sports Stadiums, 1980s Footy players, Greek Gods, Camelot and more.

There are even mini-Melbournes spread throughout suburbia, areas where the streets seek to emulate the CBD. There is even a mini-Sydney!

It's taking place at City Gallery, Melbourne Town Hall on Swanston Street until the 30th of July. More details can be found at melbourne.vic.gov.au/citygallery

The Code Movement

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:36:30 +1100

There is a groundswell movement spreading around Australia and globally right now. A growing desire learn to code.

Computer programming jobs are growing faster than skilled programmers are entering the workforce, so practically, it makes sense to have the skills to equip yourself with the skills for the future job market. But for most people the desire to learn how to code extends to a far more personal level. To have the ability to realise your creations from start to finish, the ability to shape the architecture of the web and create tools that people around the globe use and love.

General Assembly, in Sydney offer a new model for learning these skills, one that features emerging content taught by top practitioners with real-world experience. Their 12 week Web Development Immersive program will take students with no previous programming experience to the level of junior developer, followed by an opt-in 3-month paid Apprenticeship Program with GA Hiring Partners designed to give students real-world experience after the immersive program ends.

A graduate of the course, Chris Goodmacher summed it up, "It's incredibly empowering to be able to build pretty much anything web based... I know how to do that now".

Hofstede

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:41:57 +1100

We are pretty late with this update but I've had it in the back of my mind to post as soon as I had a moment to spare, it is just that good. The team at Hofstede do incredible, considered work - spanning print, brand and digital. Not many places can do it all in my opinion, but the team at Hofstede show the same level of detail and restraint across printed matter as they do the screen. Their website is a beautiful showcase of such attention to detail, go take a look.

Run That Town

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:44:19 +1100

Ever heard of Census? Yes, essentially all the data about us Australians. Now you can use it in a game to run that town, your town.

Forget SIM City, this is the real thing. So on, Run That Town.

Agencies: Leo Burnett Sydney and Millipede

Riddles, Sorcery and Deceit

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:01:14 +1100

Two of my best mates, Sonny and Biddy from WBYK, are having a book / skateboard launch titled 'Riddles, Sorcery and Deceit' for Passport. It's taking place next Wednesday the 22nd at The Newtown School Of Arts (5 Eliza St Newtown) from 6pm. You should go. You can also pre-order the skateboards and book here. T-shirts too!

Folio Of The Week #36 - Small Studio

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:29:41 +1100

So, this weeks 'Folio Of Every Other Week We're Not Super Busy' goes to Small Studio. We love these guys and you might know them from some of our previous VR art. We also love it when some of the bigger (no pun intended) studios add their work to Folio. Go take a look at #37 and get your dance on.

Shaping The Future

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:13:23 +1100

As part of VIVID Ideas Tractor Design School will be hosting an event on ‘The Future of Design Education’ with a panel of industry experts and they’d like you to join in on the conversation.

Hosted at the MCA the event will take place on Thursday June 6 at 3:30pm. This panel session will not only be an ideal opportunity to hear from some of Australia’s leaders in the design industry about their ideas for the future of design education, it will also be a unique opportunity to lay some foundations for the future of design education in Australia.

Panelists include; Chris Doyle of Christopher Doyle and Co., Kevin Finn of TheSumOf, DESIGNerd and Open Manifesto, Chris Laws of Moon Communications, Nick Gower of Mentally Friendly and Tractor and Matt Leach of CATC Design School as MC.

If you’re working in the industry you can get involved by contributing to the online survey. The survey will lay the foundation for the conversation at VIVID Ideas and will be turned into an infographic. Have your say in the future of design education at https://tractor.typeform.com/to/MHdgmN

Limited tickets for the event are now available at discounted prices for those in the industry, educators and students. Head to http://futureofdesign.eventbrite.com.au

Dave Foster speaks typography live at The Distillery

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:30:12 +1100

Sydney-born designer Dave Foster speaks about his time in The Netherlands further his craft of typography design. Winner of the Design NSW Travelling Scholarship, Dave studied Typography at the Royal Academy of Art. This session of Live at The Distillery was held on 14 March 2013, to an audience of around 100 guests.

New Monster Children Tees

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:13:59 +1100

Celebrating 10 years of Monster Children: New range of MC tees available online now. T-Shirt designs by Esra Rosie, Mark Penxa, Bobby Haiqalsyah and Gemma O’Brien.

Semi-Permanent 2013

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:05:52 +1100

Eleven years ago the first Semi-Permanent was held in Sydney. Today it has grown into the beacon for creatives across the globe which is punching figures that simply astound me.

300+ Speakers, 250,000+ Attendees, 40 Exhibitions and 36 After Parties. Numbers such as this show the dedication that the Semi-Permanent team have to the creative industry and their passion to produce the best experience humanly possible.

Tickets for the upcoming Sydney event are open we are lucky enough to have 2 tickets to give away.

All you have to do go into the draw is comment below, tell us what makes you creative.

We will announce the winners on Monday 13th of May.

Upcoming Events:

Sydney
May 24 & 25
Buy Tickets

Auckland
May 31 & June 1
Buy Tickets

Dave Foster

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:28:59 +1100

Spotted: Really nice cycling inspired work by Sydney based freelance type designer Dave Foster. More on his blog.

Miniature Melbourne

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:28:39 +1100

Ah Melbourne, we love you. A short tilt-shift time-lapse film by Nathan Kaso.

Design Thinking Winners

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:24:33 +1100

After a tremendous response to the Design Thinking Competition Ian Anderson has selected the 4 best answers.

The winners are as follow:

HEYBYRT
When change becomes the norm we don't need to think outside the box, we simply make the box bigger.

SUMI
When change becomes the norm staying the same becomes provocative.

PAULZA
change the norm.

CZ
Change has always been the norm. However once the rate of change evolves into something that will challenge our ability of keep up, the choice that must then be made is to either lead or follow.

For those unlucky ones, tickets for the Design Thinking Workshops in Melbourne & Sydney are still available via: upoverdownunder.eventbrite.com.au

Dabs Myla Double Feature

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:39:07 +1100

Dynamic duo (and couple) Dabs Myla, two artists originating from Melbourne, and for the past few years developing their craft worldwide.

Design Thinking Workshops & Competition

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:57:15 +1100

Australian Infront, 313RGB, Wacom and AIAIAI have teamed up to give you the opportunity to win a place at the Design Thinking Workshops™ held in Melbourne and Sydney.

These workshop are designed to challenge the Student and Professional alike, providing an opportunity to engage with Ian Anderson, founder of the Iconic Studio The Designers Republic™.

Each workshop will reveal the inner working of Ian’s methodologies and philosophies on design and allows for participants to explore and learn in an informal and collaborative environment.

For your chance to win 1 of these 4 amazing prize packs, which include:

- 1 Ticket to Design Thinking Workshops™ (Melbourne or Sydney)
- Wacom Intuos 5 Touch Medium Tablet
- AIAIAI Pipe Headphones

The question Ian is asking you is: What happens when change becomes the norm?

Post your reply in the comment section below and share the event website on Twitter with the Hashtag. #TDR_UODU_CHANGE. Ian will judge the best 4 responses on Wednesday, May 1st. (See Terms & Conditions here)

The 4 lucky winner’s will be contacted via email on Thursday, May 2nd, coinciding with the Grand Opening of Ian Anderson / The Designers Republic™ — UpOverDownUnder™

For full information about Up Over Down Under™ visit: http://www.tdr-upoverdownunder.com

Thanks to our Sponsor: Wacom & AIAIAI

The Paper Fox

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:48:57 +1100

I got some exciting news into my inbox today, a project which I have been following since 2011 has just hit the App Store.

The Paper Fox is an amazing looking 3d story project by Jeremy Kool. We first posted The Paper Fox in 2011 when Jeremy launched the project on the Pozible platform and it is great to finally see it made available for purchase.

Race to Webbys

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:49:24 +1100

Australian creatives are in the running for the coveted Webby awards. Give our locals a push by voting - only 2 days left!

Reactive Plate of our Nation

The Monkeys Reverse Robberies

Mercer Bell Fists of Fusian

Tank NT Mojos

McCann Dumb Ways To Die

Mark Build with Chrome

GPY&R Mobile Medic

HERO by Stephen Ives

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:54:00 +1100

Working mostly in illustration and a form of sculpture that Stephen refers to as 'bricolage' Stephen Ives explores the relate-ability of his introspection and the idea that we are all heroes in our own comics.

HERO by Stephen Ives opens on Friday the 24th of May at Backwoods Gallery and will be on display until Sunday the 9th of June.

MASH Site updates

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:30:54 +1100

Prepare for some major website envy, MASH have just updated with a hot new take on their online presence.

Beyond The Pixels Site Update

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:20:08 +1100

Beyond The Pixels have relaunched their website with a fresh new feel and some absolutely stunning work shots.

The subtle wipe transitions frame the site movement perfectly.

Semi-Permanent Sydney

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:04:39 +1100

You snooze you lose. Deadline for Semi-Permanent Sydney Early Tickets is this Friday 26 April! Visit: http://www.semipermanent.com/event_sydney_2013

Digital Change Maker Apprenticeships

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:51:25 +1100

Collaboratory Melbourne are looking for 4 passionate change makers to undergo an eight week intensive training program provided by some of Australia's leading digital change makers.

Gain skills and experience in order to co-create strategy, build websites, communicate online and use social media to build movements of positive change. There are no financial fees for the participants who will earn their stripes by producing various online projects and websites for real positive change projects.

Apprenticeships start on May 13th. Applications close: May 3rd.

For more info visit: http://collaboratory.org.au/apprentice

The Design Kids - Threesome

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:42:17 +1100

The Design Kids call for submissions are now open until the end of Aril, 30/04/13 at 5pm!

They're looking for 20 Sydney design students (currently studying) and 20 Sydney design graduates (graduated five years ago or less) to work with Sydney’s top creatives/studios.  Each piece is a typographic collaboration between studio + graduate + student, and takes the form of a Typographic Treasure Hunt.

They're rounding up the last few big names now. Already confirmed: Eskimo Houston RE Gemma O'Brien The Elk Group MCA Glen Barry (AGDA) Studio Alte Wayne Thompson (Australian Type Foundry) End of Work Toby and Pete The Creative Method Kit Palaskas.

More info: http://www.thedesignkids.com.au/tagged/sydney

Tom Uglow of Google Labs @ CreativeMornings Sydney

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:43:32 +1100

CreativeMornings/Sydney is excited to announce Tom Uglow, Creative Director for Google’s Creative Labs in Sydney, as the speaker for April.

On Friday April 26th Tom will give us his take on the global theme ‘THE FUTURE’. This talk is brought to us by sponsors Campaign monitor and Tractor Design School and will be hosted at Heffron Hall, 34 Burton St Darlinghurst.

CreativeMornings is a free monthly morning gathering for creative types. Each event includes a talk, followed by Q&A plus free coffee and a bite to eat!

Tickets go live on Friday 19th April at 11am at http://tomuglow.eventbrite.com

Face Stamp!

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:28:57 +1100

Craig & Karl are part of this awesome 'Face Stamp - Ink-teractive exhibition' (what a word) opening today in London. It's being presented by Human After All and part of the original graphics festival 'Pick Me Up' Anyone going, please let us know how it went.

Matthew Woodward

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:27:13 +1100

I've known Matthew for some time now and it's been a real pleasure watching his career develop. From the grotty kid I knew 7 years ago that pinched my code whist working at Monster Children, to a rather talented designer working for Deus, now a savvy young business man running his own skin care range (not so grotty no more). Determination and hard work gets you anywhere you want to go and Matt is a classic example of that. Go enjoy his work on his personal website.

Blurb Road Trip

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:09:36 +1100

Photographers Garry Trinh and Dan Milnor (San Francisco) are going on a Blurb road trip across three states. They will be hosting parties, photo walks as well as free workshops at the Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney) ,Michaels Cameras (Melbourne) and The Edge (Brisbane).

Come for the free drinks and food. Meet these guys and get inspired. Dan will be literally shooting his next photo book with an air rifle. Full details can be found here.

The Outdoor Social

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:31:19 +1100

The Outdoor Social started in a shed in Bulli by Nick Roseby and Josh Capelin. Inspired by a love for waves and general adventures they hand make beautiful products. Make sure you get some outdoors. Visit: http://theoutdoorsocial.com

Eamo Updates

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:13:39 +1100

Pretty close to 10 years ago to this day, I first wrote about the man that is Eamo Donnelly. I'm pretty sure I made a crap joke (no surprises there) about his name Eamo being much better than being Emo. Little did I know that you pronounce it with an A sound, hell, I still get it wrong from time to time (sorry Eamo).

Anyway, long story short, Eamo has closed the Milk Bar and opened EamonDonnelly.com. It's packed full of goodness and after 10 years of knowing him, I can still say Eamo is not only one of the hardest working illustrators I know, he is also one of the most talented. He can also make $20 boots from Target look pretty damn fine.

What are you waiting for? Go take a look at his new digs.

Field Trip Melbourne 2013

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:44:47 +1100

We don't gush over our events too much, but I must say, Field Trip is certainly one of the better feathers in our collective caps over the last two years. If you didn't attend on Friday, I feel sorry for you... just kidding, all cool, but you missed out on one hell of a show. Fun, informative and photos, lots of photos can be found on our Facebook page right here. Go like and tag yoself. See you in Sydney on the 27th of August!

Massive thanks to Mark Lobo, our photographer on the day also. He's good.

Folio Of The Week #35 - Hello Tomato

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:25:36 +1100

I nearly picked this Folio Of The Week for the name alone. I'm not entirely sure when I would say hello to a tomato... but why not. The work from Melbourne based illustration duo Chris and Sasha, also known as Hello Tomato, shines with the same cuteness as their name sake. I fell in love with the innocence in their line work and the Australiana / homage to many children books dear to my heart. This makes them Folio Of The Week #35.

The Loop Redesign

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:01:21 +1100

The Loop has just rolled out a whole new look and feel to its website.

This redesign was a mammoth nine-month project - a multi-discipline and multi-location collaboration between leading figures across UX, design and development. The result is a beautifully crafted platform that will hopefully cement The Loop as a tour de force on the global media stage as they expand operations to London this year.

The Loop began just over three years ago when Pip Jamieson & Matt Fayle quit their dream jobs at MTV to launch their start-up. The vision was to create a platform that seamlessly connected talented creatives with career opportunities. “We didn’t want to simply be a portfolio site; we wanted to give our community real, tangible, professional and commercial benefits from having their portfolios on The Loop” says Pip. “Either by landing them a perfect collaboration, job, client, development opportunity, creative workspace, or perhaps all of the above.”

So in early 2009 the entrepreneurial duo started working from their respective homes and sunk their entire life savings into making The Loop a reality. Having been used to big-budget projects at MTV, the scariest thing, according to Matt, was having to build, design and develop the website on a shoestring. They wireframed the site functionality on Matt’s bedroom wall and after a few false starts outsourced development to Vision Tech Digital and enlisted Robbie Powell (formally of Moon Communication, now at Moffitt.Moffitt) to create a visual brand for The Loop.

Three years on Pip & Matt give us some insight into the reasons, processes and benefits of The Loop’s newest and biggest changes.

The Objective

Since launch, The Loop has been an evolving beast, with way more bells and whistles than its original incarnation. As a result, the original style guide got rather lost in the mix and our beloved site was looking and feeling a little tatty around the edges. In fact, an audit of the old design found it used over 83 shades of grey, which definitely wasn’t the original intention. However, the final straw came in August 2012 when we conducted a survey amongst our community. In response to the question, ‘What can we do better?” an overwhelming 89% asked us to improve the design and usability. So their wish was our command!

The overall goal of The Loop’s resulting redesign was to create a wonderful user experience that fuelled platform re-engagement and in turn, increased traffic and new sign-ups.

Our intention was to create a look and feel that every creative professional and business would be proud to be a part of. It was fundamental that The Loop should have a fresh, clean, uncluttered look without being clinical. We wanted to encourage more inspiration and interaction between community members and strike a balance between being friendly and approachable, yet still sleek, professional and highly appealing to senior creatives.

The Team

What followed was an ambitious nine-month project to improve The Loop’s design and usability. It was a one of a kind collaboration between leading UX Consultant, Matt Morphett (based in an Airstream in Byron Bay); Design Agency, Carter Digital (based in Melbourne)l Senior Freelance Designer, Nick Hallam (usually based in Melbourne, but coerced into bunking down in Pip’s spare room in Bondi for the duration of the project); our in-house design extraordinaires, Theo Lampert & Josh Davey (based at The Loop HQ Surry Hills) and our super-talented in-house developers, led by Asanka Dewage (working just outside Colombo, Sri Lanka) & Melbourne based Agency Motherbird who where responsible for applying the new design to all offline collateral. Thank god for Skype!

The Process

In order to really address the functionality, as well as the aesthetics, our aim was to go right back to the basics and take the time to find out what The Loop’s users actually wanted out of the platform and work from there by improving what they already loved and stripping back what they weren’t so keen on. This functionality facelift took the form of three phases: Research, Design and Development – with constant testing throughout.

The first stages involved the aforementioned survey, crowd sourced design feedback from our community and individual in-the-field interviews with 80 community members and clients to get their feedback on what did and didn’t work for their needs.

We synthesized the findings from this research and created a number of archetypal user personas and scenarios. This fascinating information was at the forefront of designing the new wireframes and workflows. After testing the prototypes, we sent them onto Carter Design to apply a new style, fonts and colour palette to key modules of the site. The idea was for The Loop to naturally evolve and mature rather than go through a complete and utter brand overhaul.

For us, look, usability, functionality and quality are all equally important. The Loop is a site for creatives, so the redesign had to look fantastic, serve top notch content and be useful and intuitive to use. This is why we enlisted the best in the business to take the lead on their respective areas of expertise. The Loop in-house design team and Nick Hallam were responsible for pulling through the design to all the pages on the platform and our development team worked tirelessly to bring all of this to life.

The Outcome

The final product is something we’re all incredibly excited about.

The Loop is all about connecting creatives to professional opportunities and it’s now easier than ever to find work, attract clients, follow people and companies who interest you, build a network of industry contacts and use your profile as a powerful self-promotional tool, which allows you to connect with leading figures without knocking on doors and making cold calls.

What’s New

Beyond simply improving the process of connecting talent to jobs and clients, there are now some new great tools geared to help you move forward in your creative career.

Freelance Pro: In the aforementioned survey we found that a whopping 96% of our users where interested in freelancing if the right opportunity came up. The new freelance pro service will make it even easier for companies to hire freelance talent through the site based on their availability, location and skill set.

Work In Progress Feedback Tool: One of the other brand new features on The Loop is a ‘Work in Progress’ capability where you can get feedback from your inner loop on work as you’re creating it.

Inspiration: There are so many amazing creatives on The Loop, but a big piece of feedback from our clients during research was a request to improve how we surface the top talent. Therefore the main challenge was actually less about the acquisition of amazing creatives but rather how to show people’s work off to their best advantage and make content easily searchable. To achieve this, massive improvements have been made to the site’s taxonomy, tagging and algorithms.

Curation: In addition, we spent a lot of time developing a curation strategy to ensure the best work was being seen and the up and coming creatives were being discovered. The solution was to engage a hand-selected group of industry leaders to help us curate the site.

Newsfeeds: There are so many incredible opportunities on The Loop, but with such a diverse set of creatives, the test has always been how to put the best opportunities in front of the right people. Consequently, our user’s logged-in home page has been given a lot of attention and enhancement. Now when you login to The Loop you’ll instantly see all the relevant jobs, content, people and opportunities that you should be tapping into.

To Conclude

Make no bones about it - this redesign was a beast of a project! The Loop is insanely complex. We have a huge community of over 50,000 creatives and more than 100 unique pages to design, not to mention the thousands of user interactions and pathways. Just thinking about the whole scope makes us dizzy. But we managed to pull it off all thanks to the remarkable collaboration of all the parties above. Dream Team, I SALUTE YOU!

Our absolute favourite part of our website is the community and their work, without which we wouldn’t exist. So we’re over the moon that we finally have a look and feel that does them justice. Over the next year we’ll be launching The Loop into the UK and starting a heap of other projects. So this crazy nine months of living and breathing the redesign has been worth every second as it gives us the confidence and credibility to take The Loop to London and beyond…

Top Website Design Tools

About to embark on a web design project? Here are the top tools The Loop recommends using to smooth the process.

Usabilla – www.usabilla.com - Crowdsourcing Feedback from your users Usabilia is an amazing tool that you can plug into your existing website and allows your visitors to select parts of your website they want to give feedback on.

Prevue - http://prevue.it/ - Internal Feedback Tool Australian born Prevue is a nifty tool that allows designers to upload and share design interations and get feeback from key stakeholder. No more hovering art directors, you simply feedback and annotate in the cloud.

Plan.io — www.plan.io - Simple Web-Based Project Management Planio offers a simple integrated web-based project management solution that allows you to feedback, manage, track & priorities functionality & design changes direct to your developers.

Swear Words

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:29:48 +1100

Curse with delight at the newly launched site of Melbourne-based studio Swear Words.

Fionn Breen

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:46:43 +1100

Fionn Breen is a recent graduate from Perth with a great eye for type.

Bitcoin Explained

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:07:54 +1100

An amazing short video looking at 'Bitcoin', a decentralised digital currency. Directed, Designed and Animated by Duncan Elms.

Miso - Evereywhere I Have Been

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:51:04 +1100

Melbourne based artist Miso is exhibiting new works from her travels around the globe tomorrow night at Mick Gallery in Paddington. The works are pin pricks on paper (amazing right?) influenced by her last few years of travel, along with her personal fascination of the way we internalise and remember cities. For more info and images, vist Miso's website.

Ian Anderson / The Designers Republic™ –-Up Over Down Under™

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:02:54 +1100

Ian Anderson founder of iconic design studio The Designers RepublicTM is in Melbourne during May 2013 to open Ian Anderson / The Designers Republic™ — Up Over Down Under™ and launch a series of exclusive satellite events including Design ThinkingTM Workshops and Atoms Vectors Pixels GhostsTM Event.

Ian Anderson / The Designers RepublicTM — Up Over Down UnderTM held at the No Vacancy Gallery (QV Building) in the Melbourne CBD, is a major showcase of the iconic design work of The Designers Republic™ (TDR™). Launched on the 2nd of May and continuing between the 2nd–26th of May, expect an array of large-scale work and installation which blitzes you with provocative imagery punctuated by manipulated, abstracted and questioning texts.

Over the past 27 years TDR™ has had a significant global impact on visual culture. They have extended beyond the realms of graphic design to define the visual language of dance music, electronica and the Sony PlayStation gaming generation, attracting legions of fans and influencing an entire generation of creatives worldwide.

In addition to the Up Over Down Under™ Exhibition a series of Design Thinking™ workshops will be held in Melbourne and Sydney. The workshops have been specifically designed to challenge the Student and Professional alike to explore creative briefs including Impossible Branding and Narrative in Design.

Ian Anderson will be sharing his insights and experiences to delegates from all over the globe at agIdeas 2013, one of the largest and most prestigious design festivals in the world. Over 3 days, 40 internationally acclaimed designers converge on the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to present an extraordinary program of events that promote the value of design driven innovation.

To wrap up the Melbourne leg of Up Over Down Under™, audiences will have the unique opportunity to witness Harmonic 313 (Warp Records) & the Pho-Ku Polluted RockersTM on the decks at Atoms Vectors Pixels Ghosts™ – an audio-visual event which takes TDR™ out of the design realm and celebrates TDR™ related electronica which touched countless creatives and music lovers.

Plakat Polski

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:33:52 +1100

The Potter in partnership with agIdeas is presenting Forum: Plakat Polski, a panel of designers and experts at the Ian Potter Museum of Art on Tuesday 30 April at 6.00pm.

Join eminent award-winning designers Alain Le Quernec (France) and Mark Gowing (Aust), and curator Geoff Wallis (Aust), for a discussion about the printed poster, its unique status as both art and design, and the special characteristics of the influential mid-century Polish Poster School. The exhibition Polish poster art 1952–84 features sixty-five posters from the Polish Poster School, widely recognized as one of the most experimental modern graphic design genres. Beyond compare in Australia, the collection is one of the few major public collections of Polish posters outside of Poland.

This is a free event and online bookings are essentual.

SHIDA

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:08:30 +1100

I walk my dog past a piece SHIDA did in Newtown every day. I can pretty much say I walk my dog that way on purpose just to see his art. The sense of chaos and control in his line work blows me away. You to can go see his new collection of work 'Ecstasy in the Abyss' Friday week at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood, VIC. More details at the Backwoods website.

Folio Of The Week #34 - James Newman

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:04:02 +1100

For Folio Of The Week #34 I have selected photographer James Newman. What I like about James' photographic work is how many of the works look as if they were treated out of camera, pulled apart and laid out in Photoshop to achieve the result. Take a look.

Peter Stutchbury Architecture

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:17:45 +1100

One of the leaders of a new generation of Australian architects. Peter Stutchbury is recognised for his innovative approach to sustainability and design. He is currently a Professor at The University of Newcastle, Australia and one of the distinguished ‘masters’ with the Architecture Foundation Australia. Be sure to check out the 'invisible house' in his folio. Amazing.