Five months forward…

…since my last blog post. Wow, how time flies! And how busy life can get!!

I have awoken from my blog hibernation, ready to upload more inspiring and creative spotting and my occasional rants. Hope you guys didn’t miss me too much (how very self-centred that comment was).

For now, I will leave you with a few Hipstamatic / Instagram (yes I’ve succumbed) shots of some events and things I have done in the past week.

Here’s a list or “map key” of the photos below…  SPOTTED!
(A) Stopped by the Conventual Franciscan Friary at Kellyville in Sydney – a chapel/shrine to Our Lady and the Holy Innocents is in the process of being built.
(B) Attended a Catholic conversation and young Catholics get together event called Theology on Tap – with guest speaker Monsignor Paul Tighe and guest Catholic priest musician Fr Robert Galea.
(C) Bought not one but TWO copies of the self-titled album from UK musician/artist Birdy (aka Jasmine van den Bogaerde) – sublime “out-of-this-world” musical voice!
(D) Took a photo of a sans-serif or could be serif font type “N” at The Coffee Club.
(E) Ate a delish grilled fish burger at Ocean Foods in Drummoyne, Sydney – if you’re around that neck of the woods, do drop by – great tasting seafood!

(A)

(B)

(C)

Happy NYE – My 15 Spotted Albums of 2011

Happy New Years Eve morning spotters! 2012 is just around the corner.

After many a given thoughts I found it very difficult to compile a top 10 of my music album picks of 2011, so I had to do a top 15. In the list I’ve finalised, there are some mainstream releases as well as a few hidden gems. It’s never easy to compile a list like this as there were so many great tunes released and plenty of musical discoveries made. I have also included some honourable mentions that didn’t make the list…

My TOP 15 Spotted Albums of 2011 (in no particular order):
Gotye – Making Mirrors
Foster the People – Torches
Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials
Seeker Lover Keeper – Seeker Lover Keeper
Bon Iver- Bon Iver
The Jezabels – Prisoner
Kimbra – Vows
Cold War Kids – Mine is Yours
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – Rome
Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
Big Talk – Big Talk
Sparkadia – The Greatest Impression
Melodie Nelson – Meditations on the Sun
James Blake – James Blake
Oh Mercy – Great Barrier Grief

Honourable Album Mentions
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
Audrey Assad – The House You’re Building
TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama – There Will Be a Light
Givers – In Light
Feist – Metals
Liam Finn – Fomo
Grace Woodroofe – Always Want
Architecture in Helsinki – Moment Bends

Honourable EP Mentions
Owl Eyes – Raiders
Guineafowl – Hello Anxiety
The Killers – (RED) Christmas EP
Ben Christophers – Ben Christophers
Geese – Geese
Split Seconds – Split Seconds
Marques Toliver – Butterflies Are Not Free

Artwork: Michael Darmadi.

Four x Four to Laneway Art

Sorry guys I haven’t posted in over a month – been super busy! Over the past month, I was lucky to have been able to attend some really cool arty exhibitions and events around the Sydney area, of which I will post a few of the photos in later blog posts.

Two that I went to in particular were the Four x Four artist residency and workshop exhibition at the Paper Mill Gallery (whom were unfortunately closing the gallery at the conclusion of this – pretty sad news) and the Laneway Art outdoor exhibition as part of Sydney Art & About.

More details on the participating artists and designers and their work can be found via these two links:
FOUR x FOUR EXHIBITION – http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/events/archive/449
LANEWAY ART – http://www.artandabout.com.au/projects/laneways

Below are some photos on some of the things I SPOTTED…

One type of a show!

A few months ago, on a chilly night in August, I checked out the opening of an exhibition cleverly titled “A Type of Show” at the Kind of Gallery on Oxford Street, Sydney. The small-sized space of the gallery meant that walking through the exhibition would be a touchy-feely experience but it was well worth it. There were some fantastic works on show, a lot of them going on sale and for auction and the exhibition was a typographer lover’s dream. Below I have posted some photos taken from the exhibition and also listed some of the names of the contributing artists, illustrators and designers that were on show.

VINCE FROST / GEMMA O’BRIEN / ALEX TROCHUT / TONY DISPIGNA / ANDREW VAN DER WESTHUYZEN / JONATHAN ZAWADA / BIANCA CHANG / JUSTIN FOX / LUKE LUCAS / TOBY & PETE / WING LAU / MOFFITT.MOFFITT / KEITH MORRIS / ANDY UPROCK / BENJAMIN HENNESEY / & MANY MORE

SPOT THAT!

Me Spotting #1 – Logo Doodling

Hey peeps, welcome to the first blog segment of “Me Spotting!” – where I spot myself (okay, sounds lame I know), but this is where I can show you all some of the random work I have been doing in my spare time. The first ME SPOT is some logo doodles I was doing last week on the Spot That! logo via Illustrator, just a few variations on the orange spot icon that I thought looked kinda cool (transforming the one large spot into many different sized spots, almost like molecules or particles when viewed under a microscope).


Artwork: Michael Darmadi.

The Colours of Spring

There is just something about sunshine and Spring: the marriage between the two makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Okay, perhaps not the best explanation; however, there is no doubting Spring is the best season of them all: the idea of being born again, new birth and new life. Colours are as vibrant as they’ve ever been as they paint themselves onto almost every living thing and man-made object imaginable… just like a paintbrush from a palette onto a blank canvas.

The Festival of Flowers at the Hunter Valley Gardens was the perfect place to venture. There were also some creatively made art installations by some of the contributing artists and designers on show. I will let the photos do the rest of the talking. SPOT THAT!

Is Old New Again? – Sydney Design 2011

The theme for this year’s annual Sydney Design festival was “Is Old New Again?” and there were a multitude of events, exhibitions and talks across the city and on the outskirts.

I was very fortunate to attend some of them and there was some really amazing work on show by some of our most talented artists, designers, illustrators and architects, some of which I had not known of prior – the talented group of architects and designers from studios in Chippendale that created an installation based on the historical transition of a beer to coffee society, the super talented Benja Harney and his Paper Attic exhibition at the Object Gallery, the very interesting data visualisation work of the Incidental Data exhibition at UTS Gallery and the creative transformations of the traditional doily into works of art as part of the “A Touch of Class” exhibition at Somedays Gallery.

I have posted a couple of photos below because like I said, the work on show was amazing and provided a smorgasboard of creative food for the brain. SPOT THAT!

The week that is World Youth Day…

This week marks the official beginning of the World Youth Day (WYD) ceremonies and festivities as thousands upon thousands of young people from all over the globe convene in Madrid, Spain to celebrate and reflect on their faith and share the spiritual journey.

It is one of the major events of the Catholic / Christian community, but also one of the major events of recent history as WYD goes back to the early 1980s with Pope John Paul II and is now a regular feature on the calendar, every three years. I myself am a Catholic but I believe World Youth Day is a week that should bring together young people from all walks of life. Likewise, the older generation are also invited to participate and follow on the journey with their younger counterparts.

So get involved this week wherever you are – it can be as simple as praying for every one of these young pilgrims or if you’re not the religious type, simply remembering them and following their travels on a lot of the many blogs that can be found throughout the Web. Thus, in keeping with the theme of WYD (particularly from a graphic designer’s point of view) I have dug up and uploaded all the past and current World Youth Day logos from 1984 to 2011 as A SPECIAL SPOT.

Semi-Permanent 2011 Sydney

In May this year, the Semi-Permanent design conference was held in Sydney for the ninth time and always produces a great two days of informative and creative food for the brain in disciplines of design, art, photography, illustration, the web, just to name a few. The conference is held in over 5 countries and brings together speakers from around the globe. I’ve only ever been to one other back in 2004 so it was timely that I went to this year’s one.

The 2011 speakers included We Buy Your Kids, Kayt Jones, Michael Leon, Reg Mombassa, Gemma O’Brien, Kelly Thompson, Alt Group, Supervixen, Annie Sperling, Moffitt Moffitt and Fuel VFX. I was only able to attend the Saturday session but had an absolutely fantastic time and it’s always beneficial to hear from like-minded creatives and their work. Inspiring too.

The branding of Semi-Permanent is always something that probably goes unnoticed and I’ve always loved the graphics used and collateral (booklets, tote bags etc) that are distributed on the day. I’ve taken a few photos below as usual. SPOTTED.

Past Spot – Freestyle (New Australian Design for Living) Exhibition 2007

A few years ago, a touring exhibition known as Freestyle made its way across Australia going from gallery to gallery, museum to museum showcasing over 40 contemporary Australian designers and their work in the disciplines of furniture, lighting, textiles, jewellery, homewares and fashion among others. It was also detailing each designer or designer group’s stories and the amazing breadth of contemporary design in Australia at the time.

I was privileged enough to be doing an internship placement back in 2006 with an amazing design studio in Frost Design – www.frostdesign.com.au – of whom worked on the exhibition design and overall brand of Freestyle. In 2007, the exhibition was hosted at the Object Gallery and National Art School in Sydney and I did take some photos on the day. It was a very inspiring walk-through and I learnt a great deal from the exhibition, particularly on designers I had never been introduced to before. SPOTTED.

For more information on this exhibition, please visit: www.freestyledesign.info