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Intro [Andrew]

Well hi guys. This is Atia, Philippa and I'm Andrew and we are Paper Stone Scissors.

Paper Stone Scissors was born out of a university friendship. Philippa & I started PSS almost 10 years ago after graduating together and spending 18 months in the industry.

Like most agencies, the beginnings were incredibly humble, starting in Phil's lounge room, working 7 days a week until all hours of the night. At that stage our knowledge of the 'real' world was very limited and we were incredibly idealistic about design and what mark we were going to leave.

Being naive can be an asset when you start a business, as you have no idea of what isn't possible.

2.5 years later, Atia, who worked for a client of ours, joined PSS as another partner to make it a threesome. This moved us in a new direction creating a major change to the company's future.

Tarot card concept [Atia]

We attribute much of our success to the gut decisions that we have made. Instinct has been a major player. It can be seen everywhere - in the decision for the 3 of us to join up, in the exceptional team we surround ourselves with, and in the design solutions we employ.

The topic tonight, "where is graphic design heading in the future," is a very interesting one because it made us realise how much we rely on our instinct to deal with the whole idea of the future. Many people have a fascination in the 'futures business' - tarot readers, crystal ball readers, spiritual healers, & astrologers - in our business, the trend forecaster.

I suppose that sometimes there is some comfort in being told what to expect. I am not suggesting that analysis and research do not play a big part in the process. However, our gut feeling has served us well over the past decade.

We see the future as both exciting and daunting. Maybe the daunting side keeps us sharp?

Events like tonight possibly fall into the 'daunting' category. We consider you a group of talented & experienced people who we admire! What could we possibly say to you?

We thought the best way was to share with you a little of who we are and what has made the business what it is today.

We all pretty much know that the world of today shapes the future of tomorrow and this extends to our industry. Our job after all is to visually interpret and communicate. I think that we all experience the fact that what is happening in the world influences our design.

We will take some steps into our past to show you how they have shaped our future.

The last 2 years have presented the toughest learning curve so far, and we are in the midst of one of the most change-filled years yet.

So, we are not going to take you through a detailed account of our history or do a simple folio presentation. We would like to share with you some key moments within the last 10 years that have been catalysts for changes in our thinking and which in some cases have resulted in redirection.

1. New Beginnings - The Pratt Book [Andrew]

This is a job we did very early on in the history of PSS. It was very significant in that it helped take us in a new direction, giving us the confidence to step outside of our comfort zone and seek more challenging projects.

After about 1 year of PSS doing small start up jobs - we were asked to produce a book for The Pratt Foundation. At that time we didn't really know much about the client at all, only that it was a serious job for us back then. We were fortunate to be working with some great people on this project and the client was open to something quite fresh and beautiful. They didn't want the book to be something that one would expect and more importantly, the key objective was that the book had to be timeless.

Back then our passion for design and beautiful things was all that really mattered. There was only minimal research done into what other philanthropic organisations were doing, there was no tracking of studio hours spent and we really didn't care if we spent way over what was quoted... it was all about the work. We often look back at this time (that I'm sure every business goes through) and remember that sense of working freedom - which if we followed these days, would probably see an end to PSS.

There are some really great memories from this time. I remember Richard Pratt sitting in Phil's living room with the cat rubbing up against his leg and the phone calling with no-one to answer it, but we didn't care... we were just so excited! Our production knowledge was extremely limited and at that time we didn't have any strong connections with any suppliers, our project management skills were very basic and our quoting and management of costs was a big mess.

The aim of the book was to highlight some of the recipients of the Pratt Foundation from a wide range of areas - education, the arts, health and medical research to name a few. This was only the second book we had produced, and involved co-ordinating 42 photographs, by 15 photographers, shot all around the country, depicting 33 national charity organisations, produced with a relatively open budget, printed on the finest papers and accompanied by a series of promotional brochures, and all had to be done in a 3 month period - a far cry from the wedding invitations we were used to doing at the time.

This project really whet our appetite for the calibre of work that we knew was out there, and more importantly, it gave us the confidence to seek projects that made us really stretch to the limits. It also removed any inhibitions that 21 year olds naturally have when dealing with people in prominent positions, since our experience of dealing with corporate men & women at the time was very limited.

Prior to this project, the work had been relatively small scale - most projects being one-off jobs that took about 3-4 weeks to complete. This was our first foray into an integrated project that stretched over a 12 month period with a number of collateral items required to support the book itself.

I guess overcoming the fears associated with taking on projects that are outside of your comfort zone relative to whatever stage the business is in has always resulted in substantial growth, added confidence in us and our designers, and in some cases a new direction to pursue.

2. Initiation - What is White [Philippa]

The next milestone we have called Initiation. To illustrate this we are using a job done a few years ago for Edwards Dunlop Paper called 'What is White.'

We are in the business of idea making and this needn't wait until we have a brief from a client.

It was at a two-day seminar in Sydney, as we were listening to Karen Walker from RMIT speak about trend forecasting, that the idea for What is White started to evolve.

Although the talk itself wasn't directly related to paper manufacturing, she did speak about colour, textures, light, purity - all of which left me inspired.

The initial thought was to approach a paper company about developing a new line of stocks, stocks that included varying surfaces that inturn would inspire designers to a new way of thinking.

After discussing this further we soon realised that this was extremely ambitious so we then thought about developing a quarterly magazine in conjunction with Karen Walker that looked at colour and trend forecasting designed for the Australian market.

Over a drink with Scott Hoffman, the Marketing manager of Edwards Dunlop, the idea for What Is White emerged.

Generally paper companies showcase a family of stocks in one swatch - the idea was that instead of it being from the same family of grades this piece would include all Edwards Dunlop white uncoated stocks.

This would allow designers the opportunity to directly compare the different shades of whites.

The piece also had a secondary objective to illustrate and provide valuable information on how to get the very best printed results. So we included some very basic but necessary principles on opacity, undercover removal, tonal compensation, duos, metallics and so on.

Adding to that, we contacted our original inspirational source, Karen Walker, which led to the inclusion of the views on trend forecasting of France's leading trend forecaster, Lee Edekort. This made the piece an informative read and something we hoped designers would be inspired by.

The response that was received by Edwards Dunlop was overwhelming and eventually lead into a follow up sequel called 'What is Surface' that covered a range of their coated stocks.

This all may not have come about had it not been for a simple thought and a fresh idea and also a client to share such an idea with.

Over the last 10 years, we have worked and developed many projects that have been initiated by us, some of which have been successful and some that haven't.

Regardless of their result, self-initiated projects help feed the passion, encourage the ideas process and stimulate the studio.

3. Benchmarking - Studio Italia High Versatility [Atia]

Studio Italia is one of our manufacturing clients. They are a really interesting company because they have been around for about 80 years, manufacturing 'average mens garments' for the middle market. Around 10 years ago, a new marketing director focused their attention on their brand.

Their charter was to benchmark their brand against international brands. I think that we all do or have done this in the past - look to established studios and businesses for something to compare to and to strive for.

The whole idea of benchmarking internationally made us sigh a little because we had heard it all before. "Benchmark our brand internationally but our thinking is still local, the product can still be joe average and we don't really want you to think outside the square or spend too much of our money."

Achieving exceptional results depends not only on the budget but also on how far a company will support you. Studio Italia was a pleasant surprise. Their product design was based on international patterns and fabric was being sourced from the same mills as the brands they wanted to emulate. And, most importantly for us, they were willing to have some faith in the design solutions we presented them.

We started gently and a little conservatively. This helped us to build the relationship, to get to know the client and understand the brand.

Our design solutions now use in-depth knowledge about their product. We often start with, "How can we make a suit more interesting?" It is a commodity product - at that level, one suit is the same as the next.

One campaign came about by being able to work with the client's R&D developments. They were working on a stretch wool blend. After some thought, the concept of the High Movement suit was initiated and we utilised various dance groups, including the Australian Ballet, to advertise the suit. This had great cut through with their audience.

The campaign that is finishing up at the moment meant trooping a crew to London to shoot a very desirable male supermodel. In the past we have brought international talent into Australia, but this meant that the model also had the chance to work for other local brands - this was not what we wanted.

Despite what some people thought, it wasn't simply about using a great looking guy to grab your attention. The value was in the associations it granted. These suits are not priced like Zegna, Hugh Boss or Armani but they definitely sit side by side at retail. Utilising this calibre of talent gave the Studio Italia brand an association with every other international campaign that this particular model was doing, including Sex in the city, hosting his own youth show, and the latest Gucci campaign.

These associations are fantastic and make the campaign seem much larger than it actually is. We feel we are well on the way to achieve the goal of making this brand a peer of international brands.

The success of these projects has given us the confidence to be true to a design solution even if it means taking the client somewhere he is not so sure about. It has changed our focus to actually achieving the task rather than simply trying to come close.

4. Global - Bloom [Andrew]

Last month (April 2003), Bloom celebrated its 10th year of operations at the NSW art Gallery to a group of about 300. In mid 2002 we were briefed to give the brand a facelift as it had been the same for almost all of the 10 yrs. The facelift had to work across many markets - Australia, Asia, Europe & US.

Initially there was a great deal of research that we went through covering every element of the visual language of the brand and the appeal that these elements had in the various markets. We analysed how these markets promoted Bloom in-store, what elements they used to push the brand and build awareness, how advertising had been altered throughout the world to appeal to consumers and what angle PR took in the different countries.

We discovered that in Asia, it was seen as a playful brand, in the US much of the PR was very product-specific, in the UK & Europe it was about being hip and new and in Australia, it is very much a brand that is benchmarked internationally, promoting the stars that use it and very importantly, focused on Natalie, Blooms founder.

All of this information meant that nothing could be treated in exactly the same way.

In the past when working with international brands, most of the imagery and text have been supplied from overseas and it is our job to appropriate them for the Australia. In this case, we were to create the imagery and text that then needed to be translated and manipulated for the various overseas markets.

We started by modernising Miss Bloom, an extremely important element to the association of the brand particularly here and in Asia. Our initial thought was to phase her out completely, or perhaps personify her as a human figure though photography. We thought that, as she was, she took sophistication away from the brand and made it too young. After looking into things further we realised that she was actually vital to Bloom and was what many of the consumers used to visually identify the brand. So we needed to change her. We made her sexier, savvier, and a bit more sophisticated without altering her stylistically.... she just grew up.

We then developed a series of patterns and backgrounds that represented beauty, growth and femininity. These were mixed in with silhouettes of cosmetic imagery, as it was a primary objective to develop Bloom as a leading cosmetic brand. While the icons used for these backgrounds were all very new to the brand, they were created using the existing Bloom colour palette with some new additions maintaining the softness that the consumers were used to.

The fourth phase of this project was working on the launch and in-store promotions to roll out this new look. Working with a team of event managers, we created a total Bloom experience in the lower level of the NSW art Gallery.

The challenge was in translating the work done across the various markets while maintaining a consistent global message. Depending on the consumer characteristics in each market, aspects of the design solution are enhanced or played down.

For example, in Asia the key element that drives the visual message is the character of Miss Bloom. The Asian fascination with illustrated characters and personalities is a crucial device to work with, with the backgrounds being used in a more subtle way. In the UK and European markets where the predominant use of the Miss Bloom character would give the brand a too 'girly, young' feel, the backgrounds and elemental graphics become the focus of the design as these markets require a more sophisticated approach.

In Australia, the brand is 10 years old while overseas it is relatively new, so the use of support copy and "ten" was eliminated for everywhere other than Australia. The approach we took was to create a range of elements that could be fluidly manipulated and altered to create the message that Bloom was maturing.

This project gave us a great insight in the varying complexities and idiosyncrasies of working with international markets while maintaining overall brand essence, and in this case, a very successful history.

5. Diversification - Cosmic Friends [Atia]

Diversification is a challenging theme for any business that prides itself on a core skill. The old adage of, "jack of all trades, master of none," always echoes in your mind when considering the options.

Cosmic Friends is a venture into product design and is a co-owned brand of ours. It is basically the conceptualisation & design of 4 children's characters. It was born from an interest in eastern views such as feng shui & the fact that some us were pregnant and had a new fascination with anything to do with children.

We spent a good 8 months developing the characters, illustrating them and providing them all with names, meanings, stories and developed character lines.

We had total faith in the popularity of the characters, the graphics and the whole idea behind the group of fantasy friends. Our aim was to create an ever-widening range of product for kids.

We jumped right into the production of storage boxes, art folios and a limited range of other goodies. Design went well, production was fine and then we hit a wall. How did you actually go out there and get this product into shops?! We had underestimated the minute levels of detail that our wholesale clients must know. It was a tough period - we eventually moved the product but we were unsure of wanting to go down that path again.
Our luck was in and we were taken into the stables of an international licencing company whose expertise complemented ours. Their goal was to seek out potential licensees around the world. This also was tough at the beginning. The product was great to look at but was an untried brand and not many people were willing to visualise the product and take a punt.

To help the process along we spent a further three months delving further into product design. We designed and mocked up approximately one hundred products from manchester, to clothes, to books. I'm happy to say that a licence has been struck in the US, a market where even modest sales will make a difference.

Irrespective of the success of the brand, the project provided us with important insight. We see the challenges of our wholesale clients in a new light and attempt to tackle our solutions with more knowledge.

It also made us see that diversification can be a positive and successful path to take but that a new area of business needs to have an essential link to your core interest. And finally, that you need to research in-depth before delving into a new areas.

6. Growth - Peter Alexander [Andrew]

The client we wish to exemplify Growth by is Peter Alexander. Working with a client that has grown and diversified at such a fast rate has been a great experience for PSS.

Seven years ago, a medium sized sleepwear company started working with us to develop a range of yearly catalogues. Very quickly, this medium sized company grew to be one of the country's leading apparel businesses.

Having worked with Peter Alexander for so many years through so many changes in both companies, it has given us all at PSS an innate knowledge of the brand and of Peter, a very strong force behind its success. This knowledge and understanding has only come with time. Due to the scope of works we do for the brand, everyone - from us, to the creative staff, to the production and financial staff - has an in-depth knowledge of PA's market, his image, where the brand is going, its history, and so on, which all adds to the success of what we produce.

Being a direct mail company there are many restrictions that need to be taken into consideration. The catalogues that we do for Peter are his stores and there is always a battle between the commercial reality of needing to sell a certain amount or product per season while building a strong brand image.

In his case, there has never really been a strong competitor that has taken away any of his markets. Throughout the years, companies have tried to take on Peter Alexander but have failed. It is a rare situation to be working for a company that, in most of its product lines, has a monopoly on the industry. This gives us the freedom to be a bit lenient with some details, enabling us to concentrate on, and build, the brand's image and personality.

At the end of the day Peter Alexander is a pyjama company. It's a challenge to make pyjamas look desirable or sexy. Sexy is easy but has never been the essence of where we want it to go. Trust me, it's hard to make a flannelette pyjama look amazing on someone season after season. The range is constantly evolving and growing to include other products such as lingerie, bed linen, track-suits, etc. Each product category needs to fit in with the Peter Alexander image and come together to create a total story.

Over seven years we have worked on about 50 catalogues, 4 corporate identity programs, elite customer promotions, various advertising campaigns here and internationally, a range of press kits, company profiles and placement print designs, to name a few.

The relationship we have with Peter is unlike any we have with our other clients. Given the volume of work we do and considering a very successful seven year relationship, Peter and his dog are, more often than not, in the studio. The brand's success is largely due to the incredible PR it gets which is usually focussed on Peter and Penny (his dog) - creating celebrities from the basic pyjama.

We've seen the brand go from direct mail, to retail, back to direct mail, and then be bought out by a Just Jeans who have implemented a number of marketing and costing objectives. We've seen it go international via direct mail, then via retail, we've seen the brand build one of the most successful apparel ecommerce websites in the country, and so on...

We've been there whenever Peter has dipped his toe in various ventures to see what works, and in some cases, doesn't work and have been involved with all of these aspects of the brand. Seeing such dramatic growth in a client over a relatively short period of time is a great thing from which Paper Stone Scissors has learnt an enormous amount.

Keeping up with the challenges and workload that this brings is often hard but it's a real testament to the relationship when, throughout all of these changes, the commitment to the work and the interest in the continued success of the brand is there.

Growth is vital to the future of any company and it is incredibly inspiring to be involved with a company that experiences new opportunities for growth and success all the time.

7. Money -The Lighthouse [Philippa]

We have called this milestone Money but in actual fact it means exactly the opposite. This is about raising money and then giving it away.

This project is worth noting because it was the first full-scale project that we had completed for no financial gain. It was purely for charity.

Two years previous to this we had been designing and producing various corporate pieces for the Lighthouse Foundation, which is a not-for-profit-organisation, providing care and housing for young people that for one reason or another, are unable to live at home.

In 1999, two others and myself formed a committee to produce a book to celebrate and commemorate the foundation's 10th year anniversary. After gathering a team of professionals willing to donate their time, the committee grew to eight women.

The objective was firstly to raise awareness and secondly to raise much needed funds. It was an ambitious idea given that we knew that we wanted to do a publication that wasn't the norm and that we needed to raise $100,000 dollars.

We proceeded through the usual channel of production through a publisher and were met with many hurdles. Mainly, that a publisher wasn't prepared to take on such an expensive publication, in limited numbers, to a very small and defined market.

Also, we would have to change nearly everything that made the book unique enable to get it produced and on the shelves.

Our involvement and time was completely donated - the head hours involved equated to one designer working five days a week for 6 months. This doesn't include my time on the committee which included meeting for two hours every fortnight for two years, give or take!

The three of us at PSS had decided early on in business that we would aim at building the company to a certain level so that we could facilitate projects such as this.

It was meaningful to us on a couple of levels, that we could give back to the community and support what we felt was a truly charitable cause, and that we had achieved this business goal, had built up a support team around us and weren't concerned about it being a money making venture.

It gave us a particular sense of freedom but also was quite daunting once we realised the commitment, responsibility and dedication required to complete the task ahead. There were stages where we had no brief, little content, no timing and no budget.

Although to many designers, this would seem ideal, it started to worked against us, so we decided to work backwards and book a gallery for the launch. Now we had a deadline!!

After creating a business plan we also needed to develop a brief. This would eventually help the handful of designers working on the project stay focused.

So what about the book? The book was designed to have a scrapbook feel. We wanted each page to be a surprise and an unexpected adventure.

The main area was a series of 30 face painted portraits where we invited artists such as David Band and Mirka Mora, fashion designers (Akira and Collette Dinnigan), actors (Hugh Jackman and Toni Collette), sports people (such as Shane Crawford and Peter Brock), politicians, musicians and humanitarians to paint the actual faces of the young people, carers and volunteers. These were then photographed by John Gollings, whereby the faces became the canvases and the portrait photography became the record kept.

Other sections included spot fluro, gatefold timeline, french fold with die cuts, a variety of stocks with plenty of tactility, pearl foiling, UV-ing. 1500 copies were hand numbered, bound in vinyl, and packaged in a plastic zip lock bag complete with an illustrated children's book.

We estimated that commercially the book had a value of $250 a copy, so we decided to sell it for $95. The reason was to make it more accessible so that we could sell more copies and in turn raise more money for the Foundation.

The biggest reward came for us the night of the launch. Not only was the night itself a huge success but it was the sense of achievement and the enormity of it being completed that gave us the satisfaction.

8. Desire - Netafim [Atia]

Desire would seem an obvious catalyst for all projects within a studio. In this example, it was lack of desire that challenged us and made us review our abilities.

We had, up to this stage, been dealing with categories that we understood or actually immersed ourselves - fashion, lifestyle, food, books, charities.

Netafim is an international agricultural irrigation specialist. The product line consisted of plastic pipes, and little dripper bits, boxes with controllers, valvy things and lots of autocad drawings. It wasn't particularly inspiring. In fact, none of us even had a garden, so the interest level was pretty low.

The market we had to communicate to was just as foreign. What did we know about potato farmers or far north sugarcane growers? We became a little more enthused when they mentioned vineyards - the produce was something we were intimately familiar with.

However, for some reason we got a good gut feeling from the marketing director. Not only was he a nice guy, but also he gravitated towards the more 'interesting' design pieces within our folio. We saw an opportunity. We did some background research into this market and looked at the scope of the work, the competition and the opportunities. We decided to give it a go.

We employed design solutions that were usually associated with fashion and lifestyle. We showed big, ripe juicy strawberries as hero pics and then supported it with product detail. We wanted to use the appeal of ripe produce as the pull and the reason for utilising this brand.

It was the chance to use our skills in a challenging environment. We felt that the client's scepticism move aside and their general level of appreciation and understanding grow.

In a lot of ways, it totally blew the theory of designing for a particular market. It showed us that if you have enough conviction you start setting the trends rather than following them.

We have had this client for about six years now, and it is great to see that no overseas collateral is used. In fact, our designs may soon be exported to other markets around the world.

This experience showed us that we were possibly maturing in our design sense and that we did not particularly have to use or live the product. The desire came from knowing the impact our design would have in a category and the support and understanding of a client.

9. Breath - Papier [Andrew]

This project gave us the ability to take a professional breath.

As you would all know, whenever you are designing for clients there are so many aspects that have to be taken into consideration to make it a success - research, target markets, colours, budgets, stocks used, head hours in the studio, the list goes on... all being fundamental to the success of a business and to achieve the client's objectives.

Every now and then there is a project that comes along which is like a breath of fresh air, a sigh of relief. Where there are no restrictions, the design solution is totally open, there is nothing to sell other than a beautiful message that supports the project and there is no measurable result necessary to the project's success - it is just purely design.

Papier was a small exhibition for the 2003 Melb Fashion Festival curated by a stylist, a photographer and Paper Stone Scissors. It consisted of 8 photographs of paper objects made specifically by a selected group of Melbourne fashion and furniture designers. It was a tiny exhibition held on a mezzanine level of an inner city store but it was really, really precious. The idea for the show came from an exhibition on paper garments that the stylist saw a few years ago in Paris, giving reason to her calling it 'Papier.'

It's not about these sort of projects being more beautiful or inspiring than others, it is about the sense of freedom that these jobs bring.

When briefing this into the studio it kind of went like this...

It's for an exhibition on paper garments called Papier but if we hate the name we can change it, printed on whatever paper we want, with whatever binding and embellishing we think is necessary (within reason). Spend as long as we think is necessary considering that the launch is in three and a half weeks and, it's got to be beautiful. Needless to say the designers were rapt. Being given no funds for this at all didn't seem to matter to us at the time until we realised at some point in the process that we had to produce these somehow and needed to seek out very generous sponsors to help out.

The 8 photographs were enlarged polaroids so the polaroid shape was the consistent image used throughout. We really wanted people to interact with the book - tearing, folding, scrunching, etc. Throughout the book, the images are perforated on the 3 sides to reveal artist information underneath. Each spread was given a French word relating to the artist's supplied text. The design of each page was derived from the composition and subject of the photographs.

It's these projects that we need to help stimulate all other projects - we see them as being vital. Projects like Papier that give us the freedom to express our unconfined design passions and allow this freedom to drive the process. These breaths don't come along all the time but every few months or so, it really does lift the studio and help us all grow.

10. Journey - Hunter [Philippa]

The last milestone is very personal to me, one that has taken us on the newest and most challenging journey yet.

It was in planning and development for two weeks short of nine months, and now has matured and grown into an additional one and a half year project. At the time that this was undertaken, never did I foresee the energy and commitment that would be involved. It was something that, up until then, only Atia could relate to.

Rather than me explain the project I would like to show you, so you can get an idea what I am talking about . Obviously the project is still a work in progress.

Previous to this, our combined baby was solely and purely PSS. We worked 24x7 and were dedicated without question. Together, our ambition combined with youth, driving us as we carved out our future together.

The three of us worked hand in hand for years building and growing our baby. We nurtured it, cared for it, watched it grow from a baby to a toddler, to a teenager and now into adulthood. But as the business evolved and grew, so did we personally. We knew this to be inevitable and would need to face the challenge when the time arose.

In 1999 Atia was to take the first step from pure business woman into a business mother. And again in 2001 with her second child. This was an adjustment to the business, as now we needed to share Atia with her family and look at how we structured this change within our business model. For the past four years, Atia has maintained an equal balance between her private life and working career, managing her workload and juggling what else she can after hours.

I think any woman would face this type of a decision - a decision between their career and private life - as one of the toughest choices to make in one's lifetime.

I too had to enter this decision making process and struggled to overcome the balance that I could see Atia had adjusted to. Topped with the knowledge only weeks ago that I will be expecting another "project" later this year.

It was a very personal choice but the decision soon became clear and I have made the choice to leave Paper Stone Scissors.

Rather than balancing motherhood and my career I have decided to dedicate to motherhood. I am very excited about my new challenge and for me it feels like a very natural progression. I guess I want to be there full-time for my family, for me this is something that can't be replaced.

Hence why this is the last milestone and is of such importance to us all because the company will be entering a new phase.

What it took three people to create will now be two people's energy and commitment to continue, allowing Andrew and Atia to concentrate and focus on the new future of PSS.

Intuition has everything to do with it, it has to be what feels right and feels right for you as an individual. We talked at the beginning about intuition and milestones or stepping stones on our journey and sometimes this needs to include personal journeys.

We were asked by AGDA to predict design in the future. Design is a reaction to society, the times you are living, your own journey and how this is interpreted.

I would not like to answer where design is going however I would like to elaborate on my feeling on where I see designers heading.

For me, I was lucky enough to start a business. In my youthful naivety with endless enthusiasm I was fortunate to dedicate 10 years building on a dream. We were able to take risks and falls, as it was very much a learning curve and we weren't overly concerned about things like profit, expenses, billings, you know things like that. This was possible because there were only a few of us, rent was low and we were just getting started.

Interestingly, I am hearing that there are a few designers who fit this category and that are experiencing major personal life changes such as having a family.

In any case, whatever the personal circumstance, time is being pulled and stretched so the luxury of sitting answering a brief to all hours in the morning is rare.

In summary I am taking about a lifestyle switch. After talking with some of these people, I see and predict a shift possibly back to a much more balanced and simpler way of doing work. Less hours and more flexible hours and less pressure. Studios of a select few, working in speciality areas. From this will come even greater design, as these studios will be highly selective of what work they will and won't do.

It is because time will be a valuable commodity to them. In summary, Craftsmanship and Relationships, I think will be the key.

Andrew Mazjner, Atia Cader, Philippa Pendlebury - June 2003

Paper Stone Scissors
Ground Floor, 31 Izett Street
Prahran VIC 3181
T: 03 9510 3216
F: 03 9529 3595

"I've just finished uni and am keen to start my own business. you've inspired me to take the challenge, whether it works out or not. thank you and congratulations."

"Andrew, Atia, and Phillippa you are all inspirational!!! Phillippa I wish you the best of luck in your future journeys. Andrew and Atia I look forward to hearing about the success stories of the next 10years. Regards Justin moran"

"Good luck Philippa, I admire your ability to see things so clearly."