Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Apartment store’s VIP Christmas event. The night featured new shirts from their own in-house label known as APTMNT, the stocking of Inventory magazine (formally known as h(y)r collective), free beer and great company. This year has really marked an evolutionary period for the store as they have graciously evolved into more of a classic, clean cut men’s street wear outlet stocking internationally renowned labels such as A.P.C., Comme des Garçons, Head Porter and the much sought after Monocle magazine.

It’s taken me a while to write this as I’ve been in hiding out in Melbourne for some much needed time off, soaking up fresh inspiration from Australia’s most forward thinking cultural & design metropolis. Back on topic though. I couldn’t help but notice how Apartment stood tall amongst some of the best retail experiences I witnessed from down South. Whether it’s the service, the amazing fit out of the store or simply the clothes that are carefully chosen to grace the racks of this Brisbane retail gem – it truly is worth a visit.

They’ve just launched their brand new online store which is well worth checking out but if you’re in Brisbane yourself then a personal visit to the store should surely be in order.

(Check out more photos at my Flickr)

Heard of it? Probably not, and I don’t blame you despite the fact it’s been presented at Queensland’s very own Gold Coast continuously for the past three years.

This year Underbrand (where I work) were lucky enough to have APSA as a client and through their own good will sent us three invites to attend the ceremony itself. Granted we finished up all of their work first, of course…

Despite weeks of staring at APSA content and imagery it wasn’t until attending the ceremony itself that I realised the understated importance this event has to world cinema and the many cultures that are personified through it. I could babble on about this all night but I’m going to make you read up on it yourself at their website. All I’m trying to do here is plant a little seed of guilt and intrigue (mostly guilt) in your mind.

In short, the movies featured from this event are from 70 countries around the world – that’s half the world’s film. Although you may be well versed in the latest Sarah Jessica Parker film, it may very well be worth checking out some of this year’s APSA nominated movies even just for a bit of a refreshing change from Hollywood. (Yes, I do love how that website turns up on the first Google search page of her name.)

But wait, there’s more.

Brisbane is lucky enough to be currently hosting the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Gallery of Modern Art. Well worth checking out, and just to entice the indy kids it features one of the coolest/biggest painting of three skulls I ever dun seen (see below).

For more details check out the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art website. The photo top-left is of Zhu Weibing & Ji Wenyu’s People Holding Flowers, the ‘Cool Skulls’ I didn’t manage to jot down the artist or title of. If you know this one please contact me, although I’m sure I’ll be going back at least once before it all ends in April. ‘Cool Skulls’ is actually titled Flowers, Fruits & Portraits by Shirana Shahbazi in collaberation with Sirous Shaghaghi (thanks for the info Ellie).

I just read a great article over at The Blackmail about Matthew Hurst and his innovative little startup, The Humble Vintage. Based off of an inspiring trip to Buenos Aires with a ‘rad rickety old bike’, Matthew then returned home with the ambition of bringing that same experience back to the city of Melbourne.

The Humble Vintage now operates with ever growing success, giving you the opportunity to experience the city of Melbourne on a bike with a humble sense of character and individuality that will hopefully shroud your true tourist status amongst the locals. To add to this he now offers a map and guide with each bike to fill you in on the niche parts of the city you’d probably miss on first glance.

Despite the shear joy that I have over this being available to me next time I visit Melbourne I also can’t help but admire Matthew’s ambition towards cycling in general. He clearly states that he is not about bike culture itself, whether it be the logo-whoring lycra scene or the ever growing fixie hipster cult – he’s only into promoting cycling as a true benefit to oneself and the way you get around your, or any other city in general.

If you left cycling back in your knee-scraping, Super Nintendo playing days of childhood, this may be something you should seriously think about picking up again. Ever since my roommate (pictured) pushed me into getting a bike my entire day-to-day lifestyle has evolved for the better. I’m healthier, generally more active, I’ve seen more of Brisbane than I ever have and I’m a little less broke now that I only have to refill my car once every few weeks or so.

Personally, I see The Humble Vintage as an excellent step forward in pushing two-wheeled culture back into mainstream urban living. I could also ramble off about the benefits of cycling being environmentally superior to driving your CO2 whore of a vehicle but instead I simply ask that you consider hiring one of Matt’s bikes on your next trip to Melbourne and seeing if it gives you a little more back than the ol’ car and tram.

I am somehow lucky enough to live with two very passionate and motivated people. One of whom happens to run a personal blog that goes by the name of Wide Awake Thoughts. Starting out as a personal project the blog is self-described as:

“WIDE AWAKE thoughts considers commentary on fashion marketing and luxury branding merged with subtle style anecdotes from the back of my mind.”

The author is none other than my roommate Ms Jessica Cameron, who I mentioned in my last post. Since then, Jess has surpassed expectations in providing unique and interesting news, commentary and imagery to the subjects that she lives, loves and follows.

Besides sourced images the original photography is a collaborated effort between Jess and other roommate Kevin Colombu; who’s photography skills are ever growing. However last night I helped out with taking a few photos for Jess of herself and her amazing new jewellery. The shoot only lasted around forty minutes but it all turned out to be whole lot of fun.

With the commitments of my new job (which I’m loving and hope to post about again soon) I have lost a lot of the spare time I once had for personal projects. Fortunately I came by that time again last night and it has motivated me to find more of it from here on in.

In the mean time please check out both Jess’s WIDE AWAKE thoughts blog for yourself, as well as Kev’s ever growing Flickr collection.

I Scored the Job of a Lifetime!
Today marks the second day of employment at my new job with Underbrand – a branding and marketing agency based in New Farm. Yes, New Farm meaning I only have to walk past a few woolsheds to get to the office – no more traffic! My official role is ‘Creative Executive’ which means I will be working on a bit of everything – print, web, photography etc. Already I have been able to work on some really exciting projects as well as learning a lot from the very talented Craig and Christine Bridge who are responsible for giving me this amazing opportunity. My biggest challenge right now is waking my brain up - as my previous job really was more mechanical/repetitive than anything else. I’m starting to ramble now so I will continue with a few more points of interest.

Neat Espresso
It had only recently occured to me earlier on into the year that ‘oldmate’ Wil had opened up his very own cafe in Brisbane. Upon hearing this I met up with him explaining my services that could help him out and he has just recently got back to me about taking action on this. We recently did a very spontaneous photo-shoot of his shop and a few concept shots that could be used in ads,print or even to be framed and hung in the shop. Our next step is developing a simple and clean website for the shop – so far I have registered the domain and setup a simple auto-size page for now with just the logo. I’ll be meeting up with Wil this weekend to discuss the website further and possibly score more free coffee off of him as a result. Check it out so far: http://www.neatespresso.com/

Ran/Run Live at the Troubadour – This Thursday
As previously stated in my last post, the very talented duo that make up Ran/Run will be playing there first real live show at the Troubadour this Thursday. So if you’re keen on checking it out: get in contact / check out the details / I will see you there.

Wide Awake Thoughts – Blog Launch
My amazingly talented and always fashionable roommate Jess has silently launched her blog over the weekend.  It features fashion/marketing/branding and all that jazz in relation to her own style, interests and Brisbane itself. It’s a little bare on content so far but she’s very quickly warming up to the concept of writing to strangers on the World Wide Web: wideawakethoughts.wordpress.com

- S L E E P – (Another exciting day at Underbrand awaits!)

Ran / Run is the collaborative project between two talented Brisbane producers; Ryan Walsh and Pete Jones. Their music can’t really be typecast under any one genre, so I’ll just quote their MySpace as saying it’s a mix of  ’Electro, Soundtrack, Film Music and Dub’. All I can say is these guys produce some amazing music between each other and I’m not only lucky to know of them at all but also live right next door to their recording studio. As a result I’ve been hearing previews of their new EP and it’s looking sounding good. Check out a preview of it at their website. You can also download their previous EP in its entirety for free which comes highly recommended from this end of the internet.

The launch of their new EP will be celebrated with a live show at the Troubadour in the Valley on the 20th of August, so don’t be shy and come along.

On the weekend I had a fun shoot with Alex Zamfir and Stephen Lusher who were after some portrait photos for their acting/modelling portfolios. I’m still without almost all the equipment that would be helpful in a portrait photoshoot but I think we went alright with natural light and the 50mm. To the left here, we have a silly magazine-cover mock up I did of Alex, just for a bit fun.

Check Out the Photos Here

I’m hoping to get an off-camera speedlight kit for my 580ex II so I can properly use it to its full potential. By the way, if anyone wants to donate some Pocket Wizards that would just be swell. In the mean time I’ll probably just have to invest in a very long sync cord.

While I’m here I thought I’d share a new Sebastien Tellier video for his song L’Amour et La Violence. Anyone who knows me knows I am a rather big Tellier fan and this happens to be one of my favourite songs from his latest album. Check it out:

Last night I attended the Grand Scheme Launch Party at The Fort in Fortitude Valley. A very positive turn out , and who could blame them? Great music lineup, live graffiti shows, fixed-gear demonstrations, free beer and pizza – oh and some killer discounts on their own stuff for sale. It was also great to mingle with so many creative and motivated residents of Brisbane. Two particular guys worth mentioning off the top of my head are Jonathan Baginski and Erik Van Genderen.

Jonathan and I actually used to do work for the same DJ collective out in Ipswich without ever knowing each other at the time – he would do photography for them and I’d design the monthly gig posters. Small world city. He always has some great photography popping up on his flickr which I highly suggest you check out,  including some great shots of last night .

Erik runs the Gear Brisbane store in West End and it’s a definitely a store worth checking out, even if you aren’t into the fixed-bike thing. He recently presented at Brisbane’s latest Pecha Kucha at the Powerhouse and it’s only increased my desire to getting a fixed bike of my own – any excuse to get outside once in a while. Check out the Gear Brisbane site here.

I took a few photos myself last night, but the funny thing was as I drank on into the night my shots got blurrier and blurrier. So enjoy a whole six photos.

Okay, I am aware this place is starting to form cobwebs already but I’m really trying to keep it pure and only post original content that hasn’t already been regurgitated by a million other blogs. If you’re looking for some cool links and possibly to stalk my daily life you can always follow me on Twitter. Rest assured though I am working on a few showcase projects  to post here – both projects that I’m involved with and local happenings worth mentioning/supporting.

In the mean time please feel free to check out my travel photos from earlier in the year when I visited some friends in Paris and London:

P A R I S | L O N D O N

I got my first SLR only a couple of months before leaving and I’d have to say; exploring two of the world’s greatest cities really helped me develop a love for photography. I’m currently looking for experience and/or an internship with a professional photographer in Brisbane so please contact me if you’d like me to fetch you coffee.

This blog is a personal project undertaken by myself – an aspiring Brisbane based digital designer & photographer. Rest assured this blog won’t be an online journal of my (much sought after) thoughts and emotions. It will be a personal showcase of my own work, personal projects I am involved with, and work of others I think are worth mentioning and discussing. Whether it be art, design, music, fashion or plumbing – nothing is safe from my b-grade, high school English grammar.