After spending two days soaking up what our generation’s foremost creatives had to say, there was a buzz of inspiration and energy as Semi-Permanent Sydney wrapped up for 2010 (it also hits Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland). Michelle Keomany reports.

Organised by design blog Design is Kinky, the two day convention invites speakers from all over and from all creative disciplines to speak to an eager-to-learn crowd of up to 2,000 people.

This year whether the speaker was a magazine editor, illustrator, photographer, filmmaker or something in-between, two messages were echoed between all the 13 speakers; persistence and hard work. Proving that even for the most talented, there is no shortcut to success.

The magazine world was represented by Frankie Magazine co-founder Louise Bannister, opening the convention on day one and T-World founders Eddie Zammit and Luke Fraser in the second session on day two.

Both magazines are a testament to staying true to the target audience.

Bannister demonstrated how Frankie achieves its ‘ordinary people famous, famous people ordinary’ mentality through showing us its original Polaroid-style and now the current detailed pencil illustrations.

While the guys took us on a step-by step journey through the growth of T-World and how they bring even more life to ‘the most accessible form of art in the world’.

Travis Millard and Mel Kadel opened their talk by cracking a six pack of Coopers Pale Ale. The two LA-based artists first met when Millard was working in a pub; he was drawing on the walls in the lady’s toilet when Kadel came in.

It was interesting to hear from Kadel about her ‘dream job’ at Interview Magazine. “It was at the top of my list and I learnt everything I didn’t want to do,” she said.

From similar humble skateboarding beginnings, came John Trippe founder of art website Fecal Face. Celebrating its 10th year online, Trippe recalls the early days before scanners and email, “physically you go round to people’s homes and take photos of their art to put in the magazine”.

James Dive, art director of The Glue Society, on day one and Tin&Ed, creator-extraordinaire, on day two are at the forefront of art and commercial integration.

There’s no such thing as the traditional ad campaign when these guys are involved. Showing a reel of work from Chris Lilley’s ‘Sorry Ranga Day’ to their memorable ‘Because We Can’ ads for 42 Below, The Glue Society showed how not having a core client-base keeps the ideas and possibilities fresh while also working on fine art projects as an agency.

The Melbourne-based Tin&Ed amazed the crowd with their ability to work across mediums and their ever-evolving experimentation processes.

They represent the new direction of advertising of clients collaborating with artists and giving them more creative freedom than ever.

Photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson closed day one in a thought-provoking and sombre tone with his confronting photos and stories from the frontline. There’s a daunting silence each time Gilbertson stops speaking as the audience reels from the deeply emotional reality of war.

His latest works depict the bedrooms of soldiers who haven’t returned home. On day two, photographer Jill Greenberg draws very different reactions from the audience as she flicks through an impressive portfolio of celebrities she’s photographed.

She feeds off the audience’s reaction to her work, and gives very frank detail about the controversy of her John McCain photos and End Times exhibition.

Illustrators Jessica Hische and Jasper Goodall gave two very different talks about their experiences in the design world. The typography-focussed Hische is bubbly, quirky and outgoing.

Crediting her three years of hard work under a typography legend as part of her freelance success now. Meanwhile an originator of the vector-style, a shy Goodall took us through both his commercial and personal portfolios.

Other noteworthy speakers included culture guru broadcaster, writer and curator Craig Schuftan. He gave amazing philosophical context to modern creative inspiration, touching on the subjects of repetition, looking to the past to solve the problems of the future and how groundbreaking the stars of the 80’s were.

“The art of the future will be harder, better, faster, stronger. But mostly harder,” he said.

Semi-Permanent was closed by Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize-winning director David Michod who showed his short film Crossbow
and spoke about how he worked up to his feature film Animal Kingdom.

The broad cross-section of creatives eagerly shared their stories with the audience; there were no direct tips on how to ‘make it’, instead, insights to how they operate and where they came from.

Getting to know the people behind the art on this scale was a very down-to-earth and fun experience, definitely unique to Semi-Permanent.

Year after year it’s what brings the crowds and what will continue to keep it a great flagship for Australia’s creative-world, over time it will only gain more strength and the ability to inspire many more.

Images by Stephen Rodger.

www.semipermanent.com

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