BOLLYWOOD, BABY – IT’S FLASHY, FUNNY AND OMG CHEESY! JOIN THE FUN AT MY FUNDRAISER!

I’m back in organiser mode after a brief break (extremely brief, I don’t actually remember having one, but there must have been a few moments between VegPledge wrapping up and this getting under-way).

I’m happy to announce a special fundraiser event I am organising to raise money for my volunteer placement in India next year (you can read about that here). I will be screening my favourite Bollywood film, Om Shanti Om, at Roseville cinemas on Sunday afternoon, November 28. There will also be a live Bollywood dance performance before the screening (featuring yours truly and the brilliant Shameela and Gabriella from Indra Bollywood!) More information about the event can be found in this flyer.

Tickets can be purchased online at this site or at the door!

I could really do with some help to spread the word, so if you are in the area come along and bring your friends and fam. Please pass my flyer or ticket website details to anyone who might be interested, or if you have any other way of helping to spread the word it would be greatly appreciated! I have 205 seats to sell – eeek!

I hope to see you there!

SHOWCASE: THE YOGA SHALA FLYER

Lately I seem to be working exclusively on website projects so it was a nice change of scene creating this printed flyer for a yoga studio based in Port Macquarie, NSW. This was a redesign of a class timetable flyer which had featured the same layout for the last couple of years.  The previous flyer design was illustration based, so for the redesign I was keen to introduce a feature photo to give the piece a fresh, contemporary new feel. There’s no shortage of interesting visuals when it comes to a yoga studio, it was just a  matter of finding the right photo. I chose this photo and gave it a cheeky tilt to convey the strength, flexibility and freedom that yoga gives. Hopefully it inspires some future yogis to give The Yoga Shala a go!

VEGGING OUT ON A SUNNY SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Following an impressive two week campaign focused on sustainable food choices which saw more than 300 pledges made at www.vegpledge.org, we celebrated our VegPledge success at the VegOut picnic in Centennial Park on Sunday 10/10/10.

Joined by 100 bicycle riders from the Sydney Keep It Wheel mission, more than 250 people from the two groups came together to support the need for practical solutions to climate change. We created a huge 350 shaped picnic surrounded by riders to represent the parts per million of CO2 we safely store in the atmosphere and took a photo for the 350.org Global Work Party campaign.

After a fairly gloomy, rainy week in Sydney, Sunday turned out a fabulous day, with a gorgeous blue sky and sunshine, so everyone was blissfully happy to relax in the sun and enjoy a picnic. The VegPack food boxes were absolutely delicious, I enjoyed the Nourishing Pack from Nourishing Quarter and the Sweet Pack from Addiction Food (please check them out if you get the chance, best ever brownies and bliss balls you can imagine – and sustainable and ethical to boot!) But the raving was pretty unanimous across all four VegPack varieties including Lauries Vegetarian Salad Pack and Fatimas’ Lebanese Pack. Check out the photos from the VegOut picnic on the VegPledge site.

We’re pretty proud of our photo, and the fact that it has the honour of being the feature photo for the 350.org Flickr photo stream is pretty special :) We were one of 7000+ events in 188 countries on the 10/10/10, check out the Flickr stream if you want to check them out.

Thanks to everyone who helped the camapign and got on board; together we played our part in what became ‘the single largest day of political action in the planet’s history’ – and all in support of climate change solutions!

VEGPLEDGE/VEGOUT

I’ve been working on a new passion project for the past couple of weeks, an event called VegPledge/VegOut for the 350.org Global Work/Party campaign, which is focused on carbon reduction and climate change solutions. You can find out all about it on the 350.org website.  I’ve been spending a fair bit of time and energy on the concept and website and am pretty excited to see it launched – take a look at www.vegpledge.org.

In my own words, written for the VegPledge website:

VegPledge encourages individuals to consider ways of reducing the environmental impact of their food habits and to commit to one or more of the 15 pledges (or their own) on the VegPledge.org site for the two week period of the VegPledge Challenge commencing 27th September 2010. The challenge finishes on Sunday the 10th October 2010 with a carbon friendly picnic in Centennial Park, coinciding with the 350.org Global Work/Party 10/10/10 campaign. We’ll be setting up in Centennial Park (at Lachlan Reserve, south of Dickens Dr) with picnic blankets laid out in a 350 configuration specifically for our event participation photo.

I’m organisng the event with a couple of cool people I met through the Sydney V Star group, which is a network for those interested in vegetarian, vegan and raw food lifestyles. The idea for a 350.org event focused on food choices had planted itself in my brain and just kept growing, so I pitched it to them at the Sydney Walk Against Warming event. Nikki Durr, Tim Moore and Bob Ratnarajah all jumped on board and it just took off from there!

Everyone from everywhere is welcome to join the pledge so please check it out and sign up for some pledges! The picnic is on Sunday 10 October in Centennial Park and will be heaps of fun, so if you can make it I’d love to see you there. We will have lunch boxes prepared by some of Sydney’s sustainable food venues available on the website for pre-purchase, I definitely encourage you all to experience this awesome food!

If you could help to spread the word in any way I would really appreciate it@ We’re mainly focusing on driving traffic to the website, but we will also be producing some posters so if you know of a place you could get one up for us, please let me know.

Some of my handiwork from the VegPledge website can be seen above. It was a pleasure to work with Tim Moore on this project; he handled the website development side of things taking my vision and making it all work so well, above and beyond!

JUST FOR KICKS: PAR-TAY INVITATION

My housemates and I were planning a party last month and as I jump at any chance to get a bit creative outside of work related projects I made the email invite below. I’m really loving this peachy-pink colour at the mo, and liked the femininity it brought the otherwise playful tone of the invite.

SHOWCASE: GREEN DAY OUT POSTCARD

Following the launch of the Green Day Out website, a post card promotion was carried out to advertise the event to the community through local businesses. I created the design to closely reflect the website, using the menu navigation icon theme to promote the highlights of the festival. In support of sustainable practices the postcards were printed by an eco-printer on recycled card with soy based ink which turned out a beautiful finished piece. The finished artwork of the postcard front:

GREEN DAY OUT WEBSITE LAUNCHES

I recently wrapped up the design work for another website – www.greendayout.org.au for the Green Day Out Sustainability Fair in Port Macquarie. This project was a collaboration with Sydney based web developer Ben Tran of IT Creatures and has just been launched.

The one day event is on Saturday September 18 and is well worth checking out if you are in the region. They’ll be eco stall exhibitors, inspiring speakers, sustainability films and all the usual festival essentials like yummy food, good music and a funky vibe.

CITY2SURF SURVIVAL

Yes I live to tell the tale – not only did I survive the City2Surf 14kms, I surprised myself by being a bit fitter than I thought and actually ran about half the course, finishing with a time of 2:01:49 and placing 47,283^rd (hey, that’s out of 80,000 – not too shabby!)

It was A LOT of fun, the atmosphere was fantastic and I’m definitely inspired to come back fitter and faster in 2011! Bring it on!

The challenge raised a pledged amount of $430 for my fundraising which I’m so happy about – thank you to everyone who supported my team mates and I. Hope we did you proud :)

FUNDRAISING ADVENTURES – CITY2SURF

Yes I’m embarking on a 14km power-walk and I’m doing it for a good cause. You don’t need to raise a sweat though – sponsor me instead and help my fundraising efforts!

On Sunday August 8th, I, my team mates (Mum, Sister and Housemate Alicia) and 74,996 others will be covering 14km in the world’s largest fun-run event – the Sydney City2Surf. From Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach we’ll be working up a sweat, and as well our registration fees supporting official City2Surf charities, my team is dedicating our run to fundraising for my place on the Youth Challenge Australia program, where I’ll be volunteering for three months at a non-profit organisation in Bangalore, India. Keep reading to find out how to donate…

KOOL KITCHEN – KOOL WEBSITE

The second stage of the Kool Kitchen project was launched out into the world this week as the Kool Kitchen website went live and they opened their virtual doors for business.

Carrying over the colourful and bold design of the logo onto the website was one that needed serious consideration given the shop full of colourful and bold items! However the vibrant site background and splashes of colour were given a happy contrast with the use of black panels in the header and side columns. The store conveniently groups store items into product ranges as well as gift buying categories making it super easy to find what you’re looking for… well until, if you’re like me, you starting wildly clicking off course as you start finding more and more must-haves – in which case luckily there’s also wish list and bridal registry facilities.

Feedback from the client and site visitors has been great – which is all a designer can ask for at the end of a project! Feel free to leave your own comments below!