Yesterday I attended Semi-Permanent 2009 in Brisbane at the Convention Centre. I left feeling overwhelmed, inspired, intimidated and SORE… my head was so full of ideas that I was a little scared, truth be told. I guess if you are scared of ideas, you shouldn’t go to these things 
The highlights of the day for me:
Timba Smits is a co-founder of Wooden Toy magazine, a marvelous publication that I’ve only just heard about this year in the backwaters of Brisbane! So much of what he talked about I could relate to: working obsessively, being anally retentive about certain projects, hand lettering, going the long way around instead of using shortcuts… seriously, the guy is doing exactly what I want to be doing!
Ron English was inspiring because he has balls. I would be too nervous to go paste up my own versions of billboards but the guy has nerves of steel! I have a terrible memory for names, so I didn’t realise exactly how much of his work I was familiar with either. Most of the anti-theistic/ atheistic billboards I had seen before, not to mention the fat Ronald McDonald and Obama Lincoln!
I was looking forward to the session from XYZ Studios because I’d seen several of their advertisements before and was way into it because of all the hand drawn animation. I loved seeing just how much effort the guys put into their projects, and I was surprised to hear that Tim Kently, the founder of the studio, taught himself animation! Self taught people always seem more approachable and down to earth, and they give me hope
It was also awesome to listen to Scott Dadich from Wired talk about their typographic systems at the magazine, mostly everyone was scribbling furiously when he reeled off the font families the publication uses! Also filed under “What an Awesome Freaking Job” was The Glue Society – a collective of creatives that do cool shizz. They’ve done said cool shizz for “The Chaser’s War on Everything”, ESPN, 42 Below vodka, Virgin Mobile etc etc etc. When I grow up I want to make money from ideas!
Unfortunately, I can’t speak rapturously of the venue. The seats at the Brisbane Convention Centre are not for people with hips! I’m keenly anticipating a bruise on my right hip… I know I’m fat, but I have never encountered stingier seating! I was seriously uncomfortable about 70% of the time, and I couldn’t get up and move around because people were stealing seats and there was never enough time! Debbie Downer also reports that the breaks were too short, there weren’t any activities that fostered participation or networking, food and drink stuff was too far away, our lunch break was too short, etc etc etc. I think Semi-Permanent events can be more than just talking heads, and I’m hopeful that the organisers will see just how awesome the scope is for the conference!
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