It’s been a while since my last article and busy times lay behind me. I am now in Indonesia and there will be a few stories following up in quick succession over the next 2 weeks. Travelling and working on different projects made it hard to keep the journal updated and here goes another promise to do so more regularly.
After publishing my thoughts about Aborigines in Australia I’ve had some very constructive feedback and discussions on different channels. I’m glad I managed to write about such a complex topic successfully, hope to have pointed some heads towards the issue and instigated a little discussion.
My last stop before leaving Australia for good was Sydney. I had been in touch with my former colleague and Sydney-based artist Georgia Hill. Georgia is a incredibly skilled typographer and illustrator, focussing on hand generated artworks. Rich, conceptual and “high impact” visuals, as she like to call them, her work and portfolio is stunning. We happily agreed on a exchange for my project during my last 10 days in Sydney and she provided a place for me to stay. I kept thinking that I needed a key visual for my project and I knew she needed a website to present her portfolio. It made sense to trade an illustration and her hospitality for a website. So during my last days in Sydney, we worked together closely and exchanged a drawing for a website.
For the website we focussed on a very clean look, highlighting her work by keeping the overall design free of any visual distractions. We used Futura (one of her favourite fonts) to have a strong typeface for the main navigation and lined Georgia’s work up in a responsive grid, adapting to different screen sizes in either a 1, 2 or 4 column layout.
The project wasn’t quite the classical approach since we just had a few days and there was no time for a proper design phase. It’s always challenging to meet deadlines for bigger projects on the road and for this website I had to work remotely after I left, until everything looked the way we wanted and all the content was ready. After some last corrections over the last days her site is now finally live and kicking on georgiahill.com.au and I’m very happy with the result.
The key visual Georgia produced for “Good Things Everywhere”, focussed on the core idea of my project. It’s about “good“. I trade for good things, I work for good businesses, I meet good people and get good things in return… so what else could it be then to emphasise that? Clean typography merged with a complex background of natural elements like leaves, waves and abstract patterns. Love on first sight and a massive facelift for the “Good Things” visual world, soon to be updated with Georgia’s great work. Good!
Be sure to send Georgia an email if you need some unique visuals for whatever you’re up to. By my personal experience and many years working for the Michelberger Hotel in Berlin, it just makes a huge difference if your presentation features something hand-made or hand-drawn, like a visual or an illustration.
My next stop was Aotearoa and I had a exchange project for the Community Recycling Network New Zealand coming up. I flew to Queenstown and was headed to beautiful Waiheke Island, where I spent a few weeks working for CRN. New Zealand’s scenic landscapes are breath-taking and I managed to get some pretty good shots, so expect a photo story and a feature about my work stop on Waiheke over the next few days.
See you soon!