Inspiration: Fuzzco

Absolutely loving the logo work of Fuzzco! The illustrative style mixed with iconic images is so fun, and clear. It just works.

agIdeas No. 04 | Made Thought

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 04  | Made Thought [website]

What really impressed me about MadeThought was their use of simple elements carried through a brand to create interesting and exciting design solutions.

We got to see MadeThought's work on Design Miami as well as Established & Sons. Both very inspirational and interesting! We also got a sneak peak at amazing work for paper company GF Smith that hadn't been shared yet.

The work has now been shared on September Industry and you can take a look at more work there.

MadeThought also shared 4 steps to being a better designer:

1. Learn how to balance concept/style/function
2. Be brave & take risks
3. We are not artists - we have to justify our work
4. Have fun

I think one of the most common points that all these speakers made was to be brave, and just go with an idea even if you don't know how it will turn out, or if it will work.  Many of the work that turned out the best and won awards started from a place of uncertainty and sheer bravery to follow through on an idea that was unclear and 'dangerous' (by dangerous I mean that it might have failed).

agIdeas No. 03 | Truly Deeply

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 3  | Truly Deeply [website]

If you are a recent graduate or student you got to visit a design studio to ask questions and get a feel for the 'real' world of design.  My studio was Truly Deeply.

Their work is amazing and I am super glad I got to visit these guys.  Truly Deeply focuses on branding and strategy, something I haven't really considered before.

They have four key considerations when they get a new project (as paraphrased by me):

1. Insight - Get to know the business: spend time with the client/business and work out exactly who they are and what their brand is. A brand is the essence, what someone remembers about you.
2. Define - A lot of the time a business doesn't know exactly who they are, especially when they are coming to you for a re-brand. Use what you learnt about them and define it for the business in a succinct document that states their brand essence and business purpose - this will be the brand strategy.  
3. Design - Use all this information and design something based on it. When you use the  strategy based on the insight and definition of a business for decision making and inspiration, you can then come up with a really strong solution.
4. Activate - This is about rolling out the design - think about all the different ways you can enhance the brand and portray their essence.

Something I particularly found interesting was this:  The strategy is not the excuse to a design, it's the driving force - the reason you make the decisions you do.  

Having a strategy behind a brand is so important and unfortunately it's not something I was taught to think about at uni.  You can't just come up with a super amazing design and then argue that because it looks amazing, it will work.  You have to design from a logical and informed place. Only then will a design work properly.

agIdeas No. 02 | Bates Smart

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 2  | Jeff Copolov - Bates Smart [website]

Ok, it wasn't so much what this guy said as the project he was sharing.  Copolov talked about the design for The New Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. The whole thing was inspired by nature and to get inspired, they went and sat in the park near by and took it all in - the colours, the forms, and the light.

The exterior of the building is covered in leaves.  They gradate from green to red - the red being the emergency and intensive care units. Each level has it's own mural and animal mascot making navigation intuitive and fun.  The building is designed so that the maximum amount of rooms can face north and let natural light flood in and 85% of these rooms are for single occupancy.


There's a 2 level high aquarium in the emergency department offering a place of tranquillity and calm in a naturally stressful environment, a meerkat enclosure, soft organically shaped furniture that acts as both a comfortable waiting space and children's play equipment, and amazing sculptures.

I love how this hospital will now be not only a place of healing, but also a place of comfort.  And how nature, the greatest source of healing, is allowed to seep in and embrace the sick. These are the type of buildings that are the future.

agIdeas No. 01 | Shaun Tan

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

This year was the first year that either of us attended and we enjoyed the experience very much and came away feeling very inspired and excited. So, we're going to turn what we learnt and got excited about into a bit of a feature.  For the next couple of days, we will share highlights from the 2012 agIdeas.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 1  |  Shaun Tan [website]

If you don't know who this guy is, you need to get on it right now! 

I'll let you find out more about him on his website, because I want to talk more about what he said in his presentation.

• He works from his home. Alone. This is reflected in much of his work
• Tan is guided by a sense of 'rightness'. He doesn't question it - if it feels right, it is. 
• He is inspired by small and seemingly insignificant things and it's the encounter with something unknown and how me make sense of new things that he finds interesting.
• There is strangeness in everyday life that we often fail to see because our life becomes routine and 'normal' - if you actually stop and look at things, it doesn't take long to realise how strange the things we do are! 

I actually felt a deep connection to the things Tan was saying.  Too often we [or should I say 'I'] reject everyday life as being boring and uninspiring, but if we stop and open our eyes (really open them), we would see how much we miss.

This theme is explored in Tan's book 'The Red Tree' and also 'The Lost Thing' (which was also made into an animation that is definitely worth watching!!)

I think the thing that I took away from Tan's talk is that we should try to look at things as if we had never seen them before and with some imagination. Not only as a way of boosting creativity and getting inspired, but as a way of living life, really living it.

And... It's up!

Welllll... half of it anyway!

And by it, we mean Flashbox Creative's new website.

You can take a look if you want!

There has been a lot of this going on over the last few weeks... 

Here's one of our most recently launched web designs for Busy Baking, a local catering and cake making business. 

We've also been working on some other exciting projects, including this album design for Malvinas (an amazing singer!) The album is coming out soon, can't wait for it!!

Shoot Us...

Hi!

Today we had a super fun shoot of .... us!
We are still working on the new website... it's coming together bit by bit.

Here's a little look of some of the fun you can expect to see on our about us page!

And a peak into the essence of our new website