May 2008

Simon Pemberton, past National President of AGDA, has embarked on a documentary of 13 of Australia’s design icons. On 9-10 May 2008, Ken Cato, Mimmo Cozzolino, Garry Emery, Trevor Flett, Myriam Kin-Yee, David Lancashire, John Nowland, Brian Sadgrove, John Spatchurst, Neil Turner and Harry Williamson spent two days in Melbourne discussing the stories behind their work and the ideas and inspirations that frame the way they think (Ian Kidd and Barrie Tucker will be filmed in Adelaide to complete the group of 13). The documentary will bring to life an extraordinary body of work much of which helps define us as a nation and influence how we live our lives.

The filming has been supported by Swinburne University Film and Television School and the still photography by David Pidgeon and Andrew Ashton.

The project still needs financial support to enable the production of the final documentary and book. If you would like to support the documentation of Australia’s design history, please email Simon Pemberton at simon@graffiti.net.au

A newspaper publication produced with Andrew Ashton of Studio Pip & Co on behalf of AGDA to help students navigate through the process of getting a job. The project included an except from Adrian Shaughnessy’s book How to be a graphic designer without losing your sole and a survey of 45 studios from around the world to give an insight into what their studios look like, what they drink, they wear, favourite colours, typefaces, publications and so on.

Over 500 copies of the publication were sold in 15 minutes of chaos at the AGIdeas Conference in May.