AGDA talk: Kevin Finn

Tonight was an AGDA talk presented by Kevin Finn from Finn Creative who quit his job as Creative Director at Saatchi Design in Sydney to set up a studio in Kununurra WA (where?) testing his theory that with the advances in technology you could set up a design studio anywhere.

Well, apart from being a stand-in on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia (due to the dual coincidences of (a) his resemblance to David Wenham, (b) Australia being shot in Kununurra at the time), he also scored the gig of the SBS rebrand. Yes, SBS! He said that he went in thinking he had nothing to lose, and with no chance, but ended up getting the job because (1) they wanted to work with a single person studio, (2) they wanted someone from a remote area, (3) he had experience working with Indiginous communities. So whilst it seemed like being CD at Saatchi would have been a better position to get the client, it was his mixture of right experience, in the right place, at the right time that landed him the job.

Kevin also is the founder of Open Manifesto a journal which publishes critical writing on the topics of graphic design and visual communication. Contributors include Noam Chomsky, Milton Glaser, Steven Heller, Peter Saville, and loads of noteworthy people. The cover of the journal lists the contributors for that issue, and reads like a who’s who of graphic design – not bad for an Australian journal, eh?

Filed under: Uncategorized, AGDA, Finn Creative, graphic design, Kevin Finn, Open Manifesto