Ahh adolescence, the budding spring of adulthood! The flowering of love and awareness… of incest, masturbation, child abuse, bondage, unplanned pregnancy, rape, abortion and suicide. Those were the days.

This is the teenage experience in late-nineteenth century small-town Germany, or is it the teenage experience in 2010 emo, punked-out Sydney? Or is it just a good excuse to sing a song… eh hem …

Spring Awakening is the rock musical theatre adaptation of Frühlings Erwachen a play written by Frank Wedekind in 1891. Widely slammed by German public and oft banned, Wedekind’s masterpiece was sub-titled A Children’s Tragedy and points an accusatory finger at the oppressive social climate of the time giving rise to a simmering, sexual and violent confusion in young people. Ultimately this tension yields appalling tragedy and a heartbreaking end for the misguided adolescent characters. Read the rest of the Spring Awakening review →

The newly opened concept store at Sydney’s ArtHouse Hotel, Fatboye, promotes a rather unique philosophy in the bustling metropolis.
Fatboye Group was started as a reaction to the monotony and complacency in retail today. We instead aim to provide a unique shopping experience that radiates through our stores and products. Read all about the Fatboye →

I have just finished an exhausting day in Brisbane at the Adobe Refresh Road show. As a designer and regular user of Adobe products, it was a great opportunity for designers and developers to rub shoulders and try to see things from each other’s point of view. As presenter Mark Schultz pointed out “no one is ever trained to use Facebook. Designers and developers need to work together to make the user experience intuitive”. Read the rest of the Refresh article by Dominique Falla →

In the trendy, vibey streets of Surry Hills amid the urban buzz and grungy bustle, there is a Zen centre where one can take an aromatic deep breath.

“You pour the tea into the male cup, place it inside the female cup, twist to release the tea and inhale the sweet-bitter smell of the tea…”

Raymond Leung is something of an identity in the Sydney Chinese community. He has been participating in business and the arts for almost 30 years here in Australia. Formally trained in interior design, Leung has turned his hand to many pursuits, “Sometimes I feel like a jack of all trades and a master of none.” Standing in his Surry Hills teahouse, Zensation, dressed in traditional mandarin tunic, he commands quite an authoritative respect, “but the problem is I want to be master of all!”

Read all about Raymond Leung from Zensation →

It is insane that in this current climate Australian men still have the problem of trying to buy stylish but relaxed clothing (especially shorts) that actually fit them correctly. Being of the female persuasion, I have often wondered why men frequently go so wrong in shorts. So many of them are ill fitting: baggy, billowy, or so ridiculously tight that they leave nothing to the imagination – front or back. And that, simply, is unpleasant. Read all about Paul Denz →

Wicked pavement artists, Julie Doye, is a woman of many talents most notably her pop-art portraiture style. Inspired by the counter-culture art that emerged in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Julie will be attending the Friends of the Federation event this Friday night at TheClub.

With her work hanging in Paris Hilton’s private collection, she will be our roaming resident artist at the party. Look out for Julie painting 1 minute mini – portraits of our guests in her poppin’ fresh style and be sure you get to sit for the Design Doyenne from 7:30pm onwards. Read all about Julie Doye →

The young Will Deague, son of Demolition Dave Deague an Australian art patron, is CEO of the Art Series Hotel Group, an innovation in the local hospitality and art scene.  The new boutique hotels, six in total, to be opened over the next two years in this country are each named in honour of an Australian artist and will feature major artwork commissioned especially for the hotel foyer by the naming artist.

“Our group is the first to name hotels after individual artists,” boasts Deaugue and added, more importantly that the aim of the project is to “bestow the artist’s style and character so thoroughly throughout each hotel to create a total art experience for guests.”

Design Federation’s Miss Pigelle visited the Art Series Hotel’s $48 million tribute to Australian artist, Adam Cullen. He of the putrefied pig skull chained to his ankle fame, or the collaboration with Chopper Reed in their devilish dabbles in children’s books notoriety or Anita Cobbey portraiture ill-repute.  Streaky, drippy, spray-painted, iridescent and crude, Cullen snatched for the Archibald prize in 2000 with his controversial David Wenham portrait which followed closely on the heels of his “Only Women Bleed” debacle. Read the Whole Cullen Hotel Experience. →

As more and more designers drag their portfolio onto the internerd, many find themselves quickly feeling overwhelmed with the troubles of hand coding creative platforms for their own work. Additionally, of these designers which put the unpaid days and weeks of perseverance into building a .html trophy cabinet, many find themselves cursed with the demanding logistics of updating the site or even a modest re-design. And of course, imagine the anguish this whole process causes when you multiply it by the 6 clients who loved your site. Read the Rest of CMS & You by Joshua Crowley →

On the eve of Apple’s iPad tablet PC announcement, I went to Amazon.com and bought a Kindle. Several of my friends thought I was bonkers. If I wanted to read eBooks, surely one that used colour and had lots of other features would be a better choice? The fact is, I’ve already placed my iPad order, because I want both. Why? Because I’ve started writing eBooks and I need to know how they look on both platforms.

My Kindle arrived three days ago and I love it! I love how it only does one thing. No distractions. I love how it sits in my hand like a skinny, easy-to-hold paperback. I love how easy-to-read the digital paper is. That’s right folks—it doesn’t use an eye-straining, backlit, power zapping, hard-to-read-in-daylight screen like a computer or iPhone. It reminds me of an etch-a-sketch screen, matt grey with strange black digital ink, but it is surprisingly easy to read. I find myself wanting to read it and flipping through pages and pages of text without noticing the object itself. Read the rest of the article by Dominique Falla →

What happens when you get someone who has been a fixture in the comic book world deciding to cross over into the fantasy world that is interactive gaming? You get some amazing design, an involving story and a visual spectacle that is truly consuming.

The game in question is Darksiders. The game developer is Joe Madureira, a renowned comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men and his creator-owned comic books of sword ‘n’ sorcery – Battle Chasers. Read Gaming crosses over to the dark side by Carolyn Miller →