I plan to do this more often, you should try it sometime too – it’s amazing what a change of surroundings can do to your creativity.

All in all a great night was had by all and if you didn’t get a chance to make it down, the exhibition and pop-up shop continues until the 14th of February at Off the Kerb Gallery – 66b Johnson St Collingwood 12-7pm, and 12-9pm Fridays, with cheap drinks for sale while you browse the space. Take a look at some snaps, some by Mathew Lynn and some by myself taken in the lead up to the big night. 

Exhibition details… 

Opening night: Thurs 20th Dec 2012, 6pm till late (exhibition continues until 14th Jan 2013) 
Venue: Off the Kerb Gallery on Johnston Street, Collingwood 
Art Exhibition: Hope inspired interactive installations and original artwork by Band4Hope & Melbourne creatives 
Live Music: Luke Legs who you may have heard on Triple J will be performing. His latest album has been a huge success and earned him a strong following. Listen to his music here. 
Wine Sponsor: Fox Creek Winery from McLaren Vale 
Beer Sponsor: Mountain Goat Beer 

Here is the invite I designed for the exhibition - 

HOPE to see you there! RSVP via Facebook event page here. 

Choix – Shop G22 Liberty Lane, 620 Collins St, Melbourne, 3000 

To follow are some photos of the Tree4Hope seen around all the cool music festivals in the UK – spreading Hope around the place, asking people the simple question… “I hope in my lifetime…” What do you hope for in your lifetime?

The 184 page manual was targeting Indian and Cambodian university students to use as a practical field guide when undertaking a community development placement and for community development practitioners from Asia, the Pacific, and Australia to use. 

The manual aims to explain working concepts of Holistic Community Development. This theory of development acknowledges the interrelated nature of the social, cultural, political, environmental and economic elements of life. Holistic community development is about facilitating communities to regain their power and resources to be able to make decisions and take action to change their lives in the way they choose, rather than development models where outsiders tell a community what they need.

The client wanted the manual to be inviting and easy to follow as it is not compulsory for students to use. The brief stated the design should be ‘fun, interesting, professional, clear, easy to follow and not too academic…. and as the manual is primarily for an Indian and Cambodian audience, we would like to use elements from these cultures, to embellish the pages.”

I had a great time researching into these two cultures and bought a huge amount of textured and patterned paper from my local asian supermarket scanning them in and using them in the topic illustrations and other diagrams throughout to reflect the colour, vibrancy and life these cultures represent. To me the colour scheme had to be bright as India and Asia and the pacific often is extremely colourful – so the colour palette was inspired by an Indian Summer theme of safron, orange, red and purple, contrasting with deep turquoise and green found in the oceans and rain forests found in these countries.

I also used elements of pattern that I hand drew to represent the combining elements that is found in any community, also to bring life to the B&W internal text pages.

Take a look at the finished product…