Semi-Permanent 07- NZ's largest design event back!

SEMI-PERMANENT 07 – 11 AUGUST 2007, AUCKLAND

NZ’s largest design event brings leading international and local creatives together for inspirational forum

New Zealand’s largest design event is back with an outstanding line-up of international and local guest speakers.

Proudly presented by The Church and Design is Kinky, Semi-Permanent returns to Auckland on Saturday 11 August 2007, with a diverse range of speakers covering graphic design, branding, advertising, motion graphics, animation, environmental graphics, fashion, music and graffiti art.

International guests include: from the UK, graphic designers and brand specialists MadeThought and lighting, video and projection artists United Visual Artists; and from Australia, creative collective and advertising gurus Glue Society, motion graphics duo Umeric, and design and image agency 3 Deep Design. The New Zealand contingent includes artist, illustrator and designer Misery and award-winning graphic design company Alt Design.

A one-day, annual design forum involving multiple disciplines, Semi-Permanent is the only event of its type in Australasia, described by organisers The Church as “a gathering of fresh talent, raw ideas, conversation and visual splendour”.

And according to The Church’s Simon Velvin, anyone studying, working in or interested in creativity and design would benefit from attending.

“Semi-Permanent is about creativity, inspiration and passion,” says Simon. “It’s an opportunity to see and hear from leading creatives from around the world as they share their work, knowledge, experience and expertise. A chance to learn, soak up ideas and get inspiration from a variety of creative sources with lots of other like-minded people.

“From diverse disciplines within design and art, these speakers are all at the top of their respective fields. Whether you’re working, studying or just interested in any of these areas, hopefully attending Semi-Permanent provides some invaluable insights, exposes you to new perspectives, and hopefully helps push you and your work in new directions.”

Last year’s Auckland event was attended by more than 1,200 people with speakers including UK-based graphic designers Åbäke and Build and animation legends Tokyoplastic, French illustrator Geneviève Gauckler, and New Zealand’s own Taika Waititi and Huffer.

With tickets selling out several days prior, Simon says organisers were blown away by the event’s popularity but it did present some unforeseen problems. This year organisers are better prepared for larger numbers.

“We’re opening registration earlier in the morning so people can come earlier and avoid the queues. Come relax in the Red Bull-Loop Recordings lounge area, have a look around the stalls, buy a design book or tshirt. We’ve even got coffee onsite and food available both inside the venue and in markets outside in the square.”

An exhibition featuring work from the speakers and other New Zealand contributors will run alongside the event for a week at AUT’s St Paul’s St Gallery. And for anyone wanting to shimmy the night away and maybe rub shoulders with a speaker or two, the wrap party is being held across two venues 4:20 and Rising Sun to help cater for the larger numbers.

All attendees receive the legendary Semi-Permanent goodie bag worth over $100. The pack includes an extra book this year, with the international Semi-Permanent book and a New Zealand magazine featuring work from the speakers and local contributions, plus all the usual goodies.

Semi-Permanent Auckland 07 is on Saturday 11 August 2007 from 9am to 5.45pm at the Aotea Centre, 50 Mayoral Drive, Auckland. Doors and registration open at 8am. Tickets cost $140 (waged) and $90 (student) and include entry to the event, exhibition and wrap party, plus the goodie-bag. Available through Ticketek, www.ticketek.co.nz

The event is proudly sponsored in New Zealand by British Council, Motorola and Spicers Paper, in partnership with The Edge®. For more information, visit www.semipermanent.com

SEMIPERMANENT AUCKLAND 07 GUEST SPEAKERS

Misery (NZ)

Auckland-based artist, painter and designer of characters Misery started out as a graffiti artist, but her many visions of where she’d like to see her art and characters applied have seen her expand into everything from fashion to toys.

Misery is currently working on painting for her next solo art show, a character animation with Sticky Pictures, a Misery handbag range, jewellery, posters, a soft toy range, building a fancy new website and doing some street art when she can fit it in.

She has a clothing label and two stores – the Misery Boutique on K Rd in Auckland and a joint Illicit/Misery store in Christchurch. After co-designing a makeup range, she also recently put out a bath product range ‘Cute as Hell’ with US-based company Blue Q. And she has worked with various ad agencies on campaigns for South Gin, Primo milk, Coke, Waikato Uni.

With a recently completed documentary and a character animation due for release soon, the ever-expanding world of Misery shows no sign of slowing down.

www.miseryboutique.com

Alt (NZ)

A multi-disciplinary design company based in Auckland, Alt is formed around a creative core with diverse design backgrounds, skills and experiences. With no house style, Alt focuses on design strategy, creative development, and implementation across the graphic, interactive and environmental disciplines.

Alt has been recognised in numerous national and international awards including the Black Book Annual Report Awards (New York), ARC Awards (New York), Australian Graphic Design Awards (Sydney), SEGD Awards (California) and Best Design Awards (New Zealand). They are currently working with Emirates Team New Zealand on a book for the America’s Cup and Karen Walker, have just re-branded dance troupe Black Grace and are the creative agency for the Better By Design initiative and NZ Trade & Enterprise

www.altgroup.net

Umeric (Australia)

Umeric is the studio of Director Ash Bolland and Designer/Art Director Von Dekker. Their work is primarily based in the fields of commercials, filmmaking, design and music videos.

Established in 2001, they consider themselves lucky to be able to collaborate with clients who have allowed them to put the creative process first; understanding that this allows the development of inventive, fresh and beautiful work that hopefully contains meaning beyond its intended use.

Umeric was involved in packaging the 2006 ‘MTV Australia Video Music Awards’. Using the concept of 'Audio Creatures', Umeric directed and created the event opener, category sequences, identity and typeface. The project combined live-action shot in and around Sydney, with 3D animated creatures pulsating in time to surreal percussion and electronic audio.

Umeric’s most recent project was for MTV London. Ash was asked to write and direct two commercials for the HP sponsored show ‘Meet or Delete’ which airs in Europe. An innovative mix of live-action, 3D and prosthetics were used to create dark, surreal and surprising commercials to promote the show.

Their work has been featured/recognised internationally in magazines, websites and books published in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Umeric [meaning made for you] puts the creative first and foremost, with the primary goal of creating inventive, beautiful work.

www.umeric.com

Glue Society (Australia)

A creative collective based in Sydney and New York, The Glue Society is made up of 10 writers, designers, art directors and film directors. Established in 1998 by Jonathan Kneebone and Gary Freedman, their work has encompassed everything from television commercials, print ads, graphic design and books, to art exhibitions, illustrations, sculpture and broadcast TV entertainment.

The Glue Society’s creative work has received numerous advertising industry awards including D&AD in the UK, the One Show and Clio awards in the US, Meribel Festival in France and AWARD in Australia. In 2004 they received a record number of awards (27) at the Australian Writers & Art Directors Awards for both concept and craft. Their work also won the Grand Prix Direct at the Cannes Advertising Festival in 2005, one of just four prestigious Titanium Awards in Cannes in 2005, two Gold Lions and two silver D&AD pencils in 2006 – all for various Virgin Mobile Australia Projects.

The Glue Society’s projects include work for Nike, Virgin Mobile Australia and US, ABC, Elle McPherson, Grainwaves, Mercedes, Levis, Marcs, BT Financial and General Pants - a number of which have made it to New Zealand shores. Recent high profile projects include being green-lit by a cable network in America to write and direct and entire new comedy show, and winning the People’s Choice award at this year’s Sculpture by the Sea.

www.gluesociety.com.au

3 Deep Design (Australia)

3 Deep Design is a design and image agency based in Australia with representation in New York, Tokyo and Europe. Established in 1996 by Brett Phillips and David Roennfeldt, 3 Deep Design has established a reputation for uncompromised design excellence, commitment, passion and design innovation.

The 3 Deep group of companies include 3 Deep Design, 3 Deep Publishing and Everything in Between. 3 Deep assembles teams of the best photographers, illustrators, fashion designers, writers, artists, type foundries, architects and technical developers to realise complex and benchmark projects. 3 Deep’s products and services are called upon by the finest bookstores, galleries, private clients and institutions around the world.

www.3deep.com.au

MadeThought (UK)

MadeThought is a London-based multi-disciplinary design consultancy working in brand identity and development, art-direction, packaging, printed matter and interactive design.

MadeThought is known for a deliberate and crafted aesthetic and as a consultancy believes in the strength and purity of rigorous graphic application. Increasingly their work deals with long-term brand strategies and they pride themselves on being able to apply their graphic skills to a client, not simply in terms of an aesthetic vocabulary but also in a manner that allows them to become immerse in a company, providing relevant and successful solutions to the way they work, think and present themselves.

Their diverse and comprehensive range of clients range from esoteric luxury and lifestyle brands to art institutions. Recent work includes the Design Miami international design conference, Stella McCartney fragrance packaging, Nike Air Force One 25th anniversary, Venetian art gallery Palazzo Grassi, UK furniture designer and manufacturer Established & Sons, international fashion retailer Reiss, and packaging for Nokia’s most premium handset to date, the 8800.

www.madethought.com

United Visual Artists (UK)

London-based United Visual Artists work with LED, traditional lighting and projection technologies as sculptural elements, with their bespoke software approach allowing them to use existing technologies in new and unusual ways.

UVA's approach combines three disciplines, art direction, production design and software engineering. Their philosophy is to tightly integrate these elements to deliver real-time, immersive and responsive experiences. A team of eight, they aim to work on a diverse and expanding range of projects, drawn from the commercial and non-commercial arenas, and to collaborate with a wide range of artists and companies.

A lot of their work is in the music arena, providing environmental graphics, lighting and video backdrops and live content for U2’s Vertigo, Basement Jaxx and Massive Attack World Tours, the MTV European Music Awards, videos for the Artic Monkeys and Kylie Minogue. Other recent projects include collaboration on a live performance piece ‘Echo’ at the Tate Modern, an interactive audio-visual installation ‘Volume’ presented by the Victoria & Albert Museum and Playstation, a graphic rhythmic video backdrop for Prada/The Kills event Fashion Rocks! and the BMW 1 Series Launch.

UVA have also been performing their own show ‘UVA Live’ since 2005, performing in Buenos Aires, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, Moscow, The Hague, Barcelona and at the ICA in London.

www.uva.co.uk

ENDS

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