Who are the most powerful people in media, marketing & advertising in Australia?

The answer depends on who you ask, but every year AdNews publishes its 'Power 50' list, and this year I helped to write a few of the profiles.

My profiles included Mark Lollback, chief marketing officer at McDonalds Australia; Jerry Harris, News Limited; and Andy Lark, Chief Marketing & Online Officer at Commonwealth Bank, who all made their debut to the 'Power 50' ranking in 2012.

To read my incredibly insightful profiles, I'm afraid you have to be a subscriber, but the list is out in today's issue

Beyond the dots

The latest issue of Incubate is out, and it features an article I wrote about contemporary indigenous artists & the stereotypes that surround them.

I had the pleasure of meeting Brisbane artist Vernon Ah Kee, who believes his graphic artworks and charcoal portraits (left) paint a more realistic picture of Aboriginality than dot paintings of the desert. To Ah Kee, such images portray a utopian, stereotypical view that is increasingly out-of-touch with how the vast majority of Aborigines live.

I also interviewed Jonathan Jones, considered one of the most distinctive Aboriginal artists to emerge in Australia over the past decade.

You can download issue 7 of Incubate magazine here

Taking advantage of the digital economy

I recently interviewed digital entrepreneurs in Australia and the UK about the best ways of taking advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN). I know what you're thinking. NBN = snore. But the technology will open up lots of doors (and competition from overseas), so if you're a digital or creative entrepreneur it's worth reading.

I loved speaking to Art Processors in Melbourne, which developed an impressive mobile platform called 'The O' for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania. Art Processors are now taking the technology global, because it has the potential to transform the experience of visiting art galleries.

I also loved speaking to the co-founder of London-based CultureLabel.com, a website that sells affordable art from galleries around the world. Don't visit the site if you don't want to tempted to spend money. You've been warned.

Read the story here on CreativeInnovation.net.au

UTS: Designing the Future of Business - a copywriting project with Frost Design

I had the pleasure of working with Frost Design and Professor Roy Green recently, helping UTS Business School articulate its vision for the future of business education.


Professor Green is Dean of UTS Business School and is highly respected amongst Australian business executives. Since joining UTS Business School a year or two ago, he has completely reshaped the university's approach to business eduction, and believes 'integrative thinking' should play a major role in shaping business graduates of the future.

I worked closely with Professor Green and Frost Design to write a new brochure for UTS Business School, which launched at the Opera House on 21 March.

The university's approach to business education is embedded it its new campus, designed by Frank Gehry. The idea is that design thinking is now crucial to management, and the campus is symbolic of the fact that leaders of the future will need to be creative, as well as business savvy.

Gehry describes the building as a "tree of knowledge" - an evolving, growing organism that fosters collaboration and the cross-pollination of ideas - and this sketch (above) is his original design sketch for the campus, which should open in 2013.

Buro North interview

Melbourne studio Büro North designs everything from logos to signage and wayfinding systems...



My interview with Finn Butler, co-director of Büro North, is now up on CreativeInnovation

I found Finn to be an unusually thoughtful designer when it comes to articulating the thinking behind the studio's work. I learned that designing signage systems is far more complicated than designing signs -- it's about designing human behaviour. It's also fascinating that he worked on the way finding system at Terminal 5 at Heathrow, which must have been a logistical nightmare, before moving to Melbourne and eventually joining Soren Luckins as a partner at Buro North.

Interviews with 'The Kuchelmeister' & Australian artist Bonita Ely

Issue 6 of Incubate magazine features two of my interviews -- the first with Volker Kuchelmeister, head of the Media Laboratory at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Media Research in Sydney, and the second with the wonderfully kooky Australian artist/sculptor/performance artist Bonita Ely. Kuchelmeister & Ely are both lecturers at COFA.

I particularly enjoyed meeting Bonita Ely, a passionate environmentalist with a wry sense of humour.

When Ely received a half-woman, half-chicken toy as a gift from friends, she was so delighted by the toy's garish appearance she named it 'Chook Woman'. Chook Woman features prominently in a series of photographs exhibited by Ely in August 2010 at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

"She's got tits that stick out and a little bow in her hair and very long legs. She doesn't see the pollution, and she thinks the mining is wonderful," says Ely, eyes twinkling with bemusement.

Ely believes art is about making things, not starving in garrets and waiting to be accepted into an elitist art establishment -- a sentiment that I love.

I also spoke with Volker Kuchelmeister about the art of 3D storytelling, which students at COFA can now learn thanks to a new course at the COFA School of Media Arts.

Kuchelmeister explained how stereographic technology has advanced since the 1950s..."Until recently, 3D was really just a tool to sell more expensive movie tickets. But today it is used more cleverly as a creative storytelling tool as it offers an added dimension," he says.

Playing in the gaming sector... an interview with Mitch Olson at SmallWorlds

Australia is home to a vibrant gaming sector, yet over the past few years a string of high-profile games developers have closed their doors for business thanks to the high Australian dollar.

With the rise of mobile and social gaming, many overseas publishers have also pulled the plug on video games midway through development, leaving Australian studios scrambling to secure new work or risk lapsing into insolvency.

The secret to survival may depend on introducing more resilient business models, so I recently interviewed the very talkative Mitch Olson, founder of SmallWorlds, about establishing NZ's largest social gaming company in New Zealand. Mitch has a knack for attracting millions of dollars in external investment - both from government grants & private investors - and is using its latest round of funding to fund the company's expansion into Brazil.

Read the interview here...

Icebreaker interview: has Caroline Hamilton devised a new way of funding albums?

In London, an investment fund called Icebreaker has devised a new model for funding the creation of music.

Created by entrepreneur Caroline Hamilton, the model brings investors together with artists and bands in the same way the feature film industry relies on financing from private investors. Will it work?

Caroline politely ignored her jet lag on a recent trip to Brisbane to explain how the Icebreaker model works. Our conversation is published here

Creative3, Brisbane

I travelled to Brisbane last month to interview two of the speakers at the Creative3 forum, which was headlined by Stefan Sagmeister. Hats off to Stefan -- for years now he's given speeches and written books about the value of taking time off to creatively re-charge, and people still love hearing him talk. I've seen him give similar presentations in three different countries, and from a design perspective they're not all that surprising, and a little repetitive, though on a personal level they are endearing because they reveal the things that matter to Stefan -- happiness, friendship, curiosity, freedom, love.

More illuminating was the fact that Brisbane has come such a long way in terms of its support of the creative sector. The conference highlighted the business end of design -- pathways to investment, business culture, idea generation, disruptive entrepreneurs, new models for entertainment and arts financing -- all the aspects of business that creative professionals often need guidance with.

Most illuminating of all: I am forced to admit Brisbane has come a long way since my childhood, when I used to visit my grandma over the Christmas holidays, reluctantly, with my sisters, when we were overwhelmed by the sweltering boringness of the city compared to Sydney. Today, there's the GoMA, the award-winning State Library (designed by Donovan Hill), and tiny enclaves of designer restaurants and wines bars. I'd still never live there though.

Taste promotes its Sydney launch with a new magazine

Taste furniture showrooms recently opened in Sydney, with the goal of bringing affordable European-style designs to Australian renovators.

I've written three articles that feature in the first issue of the Taste magazine...

#1
The first article offers a modernist tour of Europe, from Eileen Gray's E-1027 house in the French Riviera to the Rietveld Schroder House in Utrecht. The house is tiny, but its significance is huge as it typifies the architectural principles of the De Stijl movement. The article also features the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, designed by Arne Jacobsen, and Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, designed by Mies van der Rohe.

#2
The second article is all about Margarete Schutte-Lihotzkey, Austria's first female architect and designer of the pragmatic Frankfurt Kitchen, which has inspired all kitchens since the 1920s. Without Margarete, kitchens might look very different today - and while her original designs were akin to a laboratory, they were unpretentious, hygienic, affordable and remarkably efficient, making Margarete one of the world's most influential - yet lesser known - architects.

#2
The third article is a 'Design Showcase' featuring houses designed by award-winning Australian architects: MCK Architects, CODA (Perth), John Andreas and Greg Natale Design.