Like many of the best creatives, Ric Cairns’ journey to become a creative director took some unexpected and unorthodox turns.

As a teenager, Ric saw a career as a writer – his true passion – as pie in the sky, so he studied civil engineering at UWA (he followed a high school friend there!). He completed his four-year degree, but his heart wasn’t in engineering, so he took his first sharp turn: via the university radio station into broadcasting.

Radio allowed Ric to combine his love of music with his love of language – he crafted written talk-breaks to make his on-air work as interesting as possible. The approach apparently worked well as he progressed to a regular afternoon session on 96FM (where they obviously rewarded hair growth).

All that creative writing on the run must have whet his appetite, because he started trying his hand at advertising in his spare time. It got serious when he did the industry course for creatives – AWARD School – and took off the WA prize.

This brought a call from the precurser of The Brand Agency, inviting him to give up his radio gig to write for them. In some really awkward timing, the same day he got that offer, the radio ratings were announced, giving his show the biggest audience in Perth. (In true ‘80s style this was referred to as being the ‘King of Radio’…)

Understandably, Ric hung around to enjoy his regal position for a while, but he came to realise there were only so many ways to make the weather sound interesting. So, just the following year, his career went around another hairpin: he left radio to fully immerse himself in advertising as a writer.

In a very memorable first year, Ric won a prize at a Campaign Brief workshop that sent him to Sydney to work and learn at legendary Australian ad agency The Campaign Palace. And in that fateful week, he wrote a risque TV ad for Cleo Magazine’s 50 Most Eligible Bachelors that went on to win Gold at the London International Awards – and be one of the most complained-about commercials in Australian history.

This put Ric quickly on the advertising radar – and on the cover of Campaign Brief magazine…

Three years into his advertising career, Ric became creative director of The Shorter Group, a new agency introducing integrated multidisciplinary creative services. As department head, Ric built a strong team of writers, art directors, graphic designers and 3D designers who all worked together to bring brand strategies to life. It must have been a great pitch, because new business doubled the size of the agency in nine months.

From 2000, Ric also served as president of the Perth Advertising and Design Club, helping promote creativity in advertising and design. He led the creation of two of the club’s most fondly remembered annual award shows.

When the economic party ended, The Shorter Group merged with Perth’s biggest agency Marketforce, where Ric remained creative head on the Shorter’s accounts. He worked on many major projects over almost a decade, including creating a five-year global campaign for Tourism WA.

All those years working with designers eventually saw Ric spending more time on design himself. With a particular passion for identity, he finally stepped out of Marketforce in 2011 to try to broaden the nature of his work. This most recent twist in his story was the beginning of Brandino, his own consultancy that allows him to work directly with clients across all aspects of their brand communications: strategy, identity, design, writing, and increasingly film-making.

Ric is focused on ideas, a passion he has shared through guest lectures at various universities. His design philosophy is about “adding meaning and memorability to what we do”. He looks for visual ideas with potential for diverse applications, to create interesting and engaging brands – his work for Interchange WA is a notable example.

Brandino has consulted across all mediums in most areas of industry. From designing exhibitions, to creating unique business cards or compelling annual reports, to building entirely new brand identities, Ric has done just about everything. His new portfolio site at www.brandino.com.au showcases diverse examples from the last ten years.

Ric concluded his talk by inviting fSpace members to reach out to him, to explore opportunities to collaborate. Working on a wide range of projects, he’s always looking to be inspired by – and learn from – good people.

That way, perhaps he’ll find the next twist or turn on his journey.

Marie Wong was the latest to share what she does at a recent fSpace Talks event. Marie is a lawyer and trade mark attorney who specializes in intellectual property (IP) and works from fSpace one day a week. Marie is a Principal of Wrays, a specialist IP practice that provides advice and assistance in all areas of IP protection and branding strategy, with offices across Australia.

While Marie focuses on brand protection (incorporating trade marks, copyright, domain names, branding & e-commerce), she works closely with her other IP colleagues at Wrays who specialize in the filing and enforcement of registered designs and patents across scientific fields such as engineering, computing, chemistry and life sciences. The focus of Wrays and Marie’s practice as an IP lawyer is supporting creativity and innovation.

Marie described IP as the intangible property of the mind which gives rise to a tangible and valuable product or outcome for society.

Marie provided an overview of the different types of IP that all businesses – large or small – deal with every day. Marie provided an example of today’s smartphones, which are protected by: over 1000 patents, including for their semiconductors, batteries and screens; copyright protecting the artwork and software code; design rights to protect aesthetics; and, of course, trade marks – the brand names, logos and other distinctive signs (including shape marks) by which products such as the “iPhone” are differentiated.

Whilst copyright (protecting the expression of words, software code and artistic form) is an unregistered right, which is automatically granted, and has a ‘long life’ protection (typically 70 years after the death of the author), other rights – such as registered design and patent rights – need to be applied for (usually before any commercial use or disclosure) and last only 10 to 20 years from the date the design/patent was registered.

Trade marks, the area in which Marie works most, can be registered or unregistered and have a potentially unlimited lifespan. Marie works with a variety of clients from a range of different industries to identify and protect their core brands, and regularly assists clients with trade mark audits, searching and clearance (for proposed brand names, logos and taglines), and trade mark filing and enforcement, both locally and overseas. She also helps her clients prevent cybersquatting by watching and protecting new domain names and extensions, and filing complaints when necessary.

One client is another member from fSpace who is a graphic designer. Marie has worked with the designer and her client to ensure that a proposed new brand identity was available for registration as a domain name and trade mark, and to secure registered trade mark protection for the new brand name. Marie regularly works with creative agencies to identify legal issues in the use and roll-out of creative and marketing collateral, including websites and digital marketing.

Marie also noted her own experience with seeking registration of a trade mark for “Roaming Kitchen”, a side-project that Marie and fellow fSpace member, Kim-Vu Salamonsen, have been working on to promote a “unique pop-up kitchen, roaming
through different rooms, flavours and musical delights in sunny Perth,
Western Australia”, based in Fremantle. The trade mark encountered difficulties to registration because the name of the restaurant, Roaming Kitchen, was deemed to be a common term or descriptor and therefore ineligible for trademark protection. Marie described the process of preparing submissions and gathering evidence of use, in the role of the “client”, to try and get this trade mark across the line.

Thanks to Marie for giving us a glimpse into the world of IP and the protections that go with it. Anyone wanting advice on IP is welcome to contact Marie at [email protected].

Troy was the latest to present at our fSpace Talks series, but he took his presentation in a different direction.

Troy is an IT consultant, software developer and web developer. He’s worked in and consulted for a variety of businesses, NGOs, as well as in the health & education sectors. Troy recently started his own company, Structable, but instead chose to focus his talk on some interesting volunteer work he’s involved in.

CoderDojo is a grass-roots charitable organization that was created to provide free mentoring to children aged 7-17 on how to code software. CoderDojo was founded in 2011 by a teenager, James Whelton. In 2010, young James enjoyed 5 minutes of fame for successfully hacking an iPod he’d won.

Just a few years after opening the first CoderDojo, there are now over 1000 locations spread across 63 countries. CoderDojo has a goal of 1500 locations teaching coding to 100,000 children.

Each Dojo club operates independently and while there are some structures, there are no curriculums or strict frameworks. Kids can (and are encouraged to) create whatever they want, including games, apps, music, and websites.

Troy volunteers at the Fremantle Dojo and he shared how he applies the fundamentals to coding (steps, loops & decisions) in helping kids learn how to code. Troy showed that unlike the typical black screen with all the lines that professional coders live in, CoderDojos use Scratch – a visual and intuitive coding program created by some very smart people at MIT.

Some good reasons for kids to learn coding include:

• It helps opens doors
• Much like our smartphones, technology is becoming simpler
• It provides an endlessly creative outlet
• It promotes systematic thinking
• Lots of kids love it

Another good reason is the surprising prediction that by the year 2025, roughly 50% of all jobs are likely to be obsolete. Creative thinking and the ability to break down steps to work out options and processes will be critical skills as new jobs emerge.

Troy showed us that coding with Scratch is much like playing with Lego – you can select options, move things around and create a lot of different things.

With our input, Troy created a basic spaceship game from a blank screen in about 10 minutes. As he would with a kid at the Fremantle Dojo, he described each step in creating the game as he used the intuitive drag-and-drop blocks the Scratch programming tool provides.

Visit coderdojo.com for more information or visit the Fremantle Dojo, which meets every Wednesday from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm at the Fremantle City Library. Anyone interested in becoming a mentor or enrolling a child can stop by during these hours.

Thanks Troy for the presentation!

fSpace is pleased to announce that Jason Normandale has joined fSpace as Sales & Marketing Manager.

In addition to helping promote fSpace and attract new members, Jason will also be directly involved in our continuing efforts to enhance the fSpace atmosphere and experience as we strive to provide the best and most inspiring environment for our members to produce their best work.

Jason can be reached at [email protected] or 0427 929 186 – welcome Jason!

fSpace is pleased to announce a partnership with Loop!

Loop is a cool group of people who are linking coworking spaces around the world. Loop offers monthly plans that lets its members work at over 90 (and counting) coworking spaces for free or discounted rates.

fSpace members receive a free membership to Loop.

For more info, check out Loop at https://loop.space/

Check out https://fspace.me/special/ for more details.

fSpace is pleased to announce an upgrade in our internet connection – and it’s more than just a change in the monthly plan! We’ve upgraded from the ubiquitous WA copper connection to a fibre optic cable connection.

fSpace now has a 100 x 100 mbps connection – download and upload, 100 mbps each.

Our members are  : )

If you need some serious internet speed and a cool place to work amongst some cool people, come check us out!

Thanks to Matty McMullen for sharing what he (Creative Director) and Jake Brown (Managing Director) are up to with the small but brilliant branding and advertising agency, Thunderclap Creative.

Matty has been working in creative design for almost 10 years. His journey began with the intention of becoming a graphic designer but quickly found his passion for creativity was better satisfied with concept design and illustration as these offered more opportunity explore shape, colour and story design.

Even with his first job as an illustrator, Matty was focused on telling the story with his designs and illustrations. He experimented with a blend of narrative and different styles of illustration, something creative directors struggled to accept as they could not slot him into one category. Instead of producing the same predictable work, Matty would craft unique creations for each project.

The global financial crisis was a turning point in Matty’s career, his position as an illustrator was made redundant. Some visa technicalities forced him to postpone further education in the USA and instead led him on an inspirational journey through Europe. Matty spent months as an autodidactic as he explored colours, shapes, light and composition in museums and galleries throughout Europe. It was during this exploration that two Monet and Rembrandt pieces made him realize the importance of the emotional impact of art rather than the academic theory – a lesson he continues to incorporate in his work with Thunderclap clients.

Jake Brown, Managing Director is based in London, UK where he oversees marketing, sales and strategy for Thunderclap. Jake also offers his expertise in these areas to Thunderclap clients, helping frame and execute project deliverables.

Thunderclap self-describes itself as a “duo of experienced brand agitators and advertising misfits who keep it small but dream big.” With years of experience in some of the biggest brand agencies, Jake and Matty decided to strip away all the layers that typically come with large agencies and start a small one. They like to foster unique relationships with their clients. Keeping their team small so the people who get briefed on the project are the same people who work on it. This results in a cleaner process, faster delivery, more creative and – most importantly – more exceptional results.

Matty shared a few slides that listed some incredible clients and remarkable projects, events and campaigns he worked on prior to forming Thunderclap, including: top international brands across several industries, world famous international chefs and even a former US President. But as rewarding as those experiences are, Thunderclap must create its very own. So all these amazing clients, campaigns, stories, and creative they have created throughout their careers are not referenced on their website.

However, even in its first year, Thunderclap is making a name for itself. Matty shared their philosophy and strategic approach to branding through a campaign they delivered earlier this year.

WILD MINDED was a 5-week, 360-degree digital branding and awareness campaign for the Billy Blue College of Design, an institute that offers design degrees. While it’s impossible to summarize the core elements of a world-class creative project in just a few paragraphs, a few highlights that are also staples of their approach include:

• Extensive research (understanding the audience)
• Leading design and creative (original concepts, core messaging)
• Strategic layout with tactical delivery
• Testing and refining in real time (e.g. gathering insights through eye tracking and adjusting the copy to increase reading of the messaging)

The campaign was a huge success, smashing all benchmarks and resulting in 24 enrolments (5-year program, $60,000) in just 4 weeks. The campaign was continued by the client and will be running again in 2017 as WILD MINDED 2.0. It was also nominated for a Brand Impact Award, an international design competition held in London, UK.

Visit thunderclapcreative.com for more information about Thunderclap, including a presentation and case study of the WILD MINDED campaign.

Thanks again Matty for sharing Thuderclap’s cool and inspiring approach to creative.

It’s fair to say that Sam Wilson is part of one of the bigger organizations in fSpace. Sam works for the Wikimedia Foundation, a company whose mission is to bring free educational content to the world. If this nonprofit business sounds familiar, it might be because Wikipedia, the 6th most visited website in the world right now, is part of it.

In addition to Wikipedia, Wikimedia has 11 other active projects, from Wiktionary (free dictionary), to Wikibooks (free textbooks and manuals), to Wikisource (free source documents). They even have MediaWiki (free software), a name that Sam even admitted was a bit confusing at times.

Sam’s analogy was Wikipedia could be thought of as the encyclopedias of a library, however a library has many other sections such as archives of photos, newspapers and transcripts. All these other Wikimedia projects share the same vision to freely share information with every person on earth.

Wikimedia projects cover 250 languages and have 75,000 active editors who contribute and edit the content of almost 40 billion entries each year. In case you’re wondering how your website traffic compares, English Wikipedia (which is just one of the 294 language editions) has nearly 5 billion page views each month.

Sam is one of just seven Wikimedia software engineers worldwide, though he prefers the title ‘computer programmer’ since they are allowed to make more mistakes. This team’s work largely consists of creating tools and programs for editors that help manage harassment & plagiarism, research tools, and integrations with partnering galleries, libraries, archives and museums around the world.

Wikimedia operates in a transparent and public forum as nearly everything the organisation does (including the work Sam does) is in the public domain. Wikimedia uses a lot of tools and programs it has developed internally, but also open tools that are available to all. An example of this is Turnitin, a program that automatically checks content for plagiarism against its own database and other records around the world.

Sam’s team works towards completing a list of 100 projects each year, a list that is created through votes by all the editors. One example was Google Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software for Indic languages that has enabled books to be scanned rather than manually transcribed. Another was a program that automatically scans dead links in Internet archives and updates/restores those links.

Wikimedia has about 300 fulltime employees worldwide and operates on a budget of approximately $85M per year, all of which is publically funded through an average donation of just $15 each. Unlike most other nonprofits, Wikimedia does not rely on grants or large corporations for funding.

Sam also explained that Wiki is Hawaiian for ‘quickly’ and, since it is just a word, any business can use it. This explains the popular confusion over WikiLeaks, another nonprofit organisation that has no association with Wikimedia whatsoever.

Sam concluded his presentation by confirming that, despite what some children of some fSpace members might think, Wikipedia is not evil. While it is true than anyone can post anything and those things could be lies, all content should have at least one reference that represents the academic consensus. He also explained that most of the obvious lies or misstatements for personal gains are spotted by bots and removed within 10 seconds. Wikimedia editors are automatically notified of edits to articles and they obviously have the opportunity to review these. This underlying flaw of access is part of the beauty of the Wikimedia vision: to have an inclusive international community working together to share accurate information to everyone on the planet.

Thanks to Sam for sharing some insight into his work and how he contributes to one of the most incredible organisations in the world.

Visit www.wikimedia.org for more information. Then, for fun, visit their page on Wikipedia to see which one is better https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation