Over the past couple of weeks More than 10 (if you include the marae) Design and Art Professional have taken time to see us and tell us about how they have succeeded.
Laura Lochhead was a stand out speaker for me as she had only recently Graduated from Unitec and she has had major success with creating two companies(CLKSpace.com and pocketspaceinteriors.co.nz) in such a short time. Laura’s biggest point that I took away from her talk was CONNECTIONS are everything. she said that if people know who you are before hiring you, you have a higher chance of getting the job. Laura recommended to us that going to design and art events is critical so you can meet industry professional like her, learn from them, engage with them and see them at every event to ensure that you are memorable. So when it comes to getting the job, the person hiring you already knows you, likes you (hopefully) and that your interested and committed to that field.
Laura, as well as many others, made another point that Just because you don’t know how to do something don’t say no. She then told us a story about how she accepted a job where she needed to know indesign but didn’t so she spent the whole weekend learning and practising it. Basically tell us that we can do anything if we put our minds to it. Laura also said common sense and initiative is key for life. If you have it, you’ll go far.
Max and Bella is a collaborative team that has created works such as Feed the Kids, Feed the Kids Too, Coffee and a Blanket. These two artist are creating art to raise awareness of social issues in New Zealand. Feed the Kids was a project in 2014 were 83,000 plastic white spoons where placed in the ground (spoon side up) in a 120m x 7m area to raise awareness of poverty and children going to school without lunch. They did this project again except hung 6000 lunch boxes on 5 pohutukawa trees and named it Feed the Kids Too. The Project I was most impressed by was Coffee and a Blanket, This project was created for PARK(ing) Day which is where artist take over certain parking spots in popular locations. Bella and Max used this opportunity to help the Wellington soup kitchen by providing dry coffee as they were nearly completely out and on there last can as well as blankets for the homeless. The project involved members of the public coming up to the area and writing on card board with a vivid to create what seemed like a homeless persons sign and to sit there for 10 minutes. Only a couple of people participated and where shocked at the masses that merely passed them bye, completely ignoring them. A women was so effected by this so much that she started to cry and later purchased a large can of coffee for the cause.
Max and Bella had shown me that art can be extremely affective at illustrating a message. Many of Bella and Max’s projects were helped via volunteers through facebook (Max and Bella and friends)where most of there content is available. They were very impressed at how facebook was able to bring all these people together for a good cause.
Liam Tanner 