Last week I got back from the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Here are some of my traveling companions.

Video by the very talented and conscientious Swiss animator Mato Atom.

After 16 years Melbourne band The Lucksmiths have parted company. Their last few shows were at the corner hotel where they went back over 11 albums and picked out the crowd favourites. The Lucksmiths never get a lot of airplay but they had a great great number of nostalgic little songs about Melbourne celebrating domesticity and relationships.

More shots from the VCA rally through Melbourne yesterday. I don't think the stills really do justice the theatrics of the students so I'll upload some video over the next couple of days as well. Geoffrey Rush gave a wonderfully impassioned speech about the importance of arts education and practical acting training before the rally started and you can see the first half of it here.

Students from Victorian College of the Arts staged a rally in Melbourne yesterday to protest the proposed changes to curriculum and cutbacks on teaching staff and courses.

I thought I'd post something up about my favourite photographic ad campaign this year. US photographer Dustin Humphrey has shot a series of surreal composites of surf action shots and underwater still-lifes for surf brand Insight. the campaign involved building elaborate beatnik set pieces off the coast of Bali above and below sea level. The campaign took out the Sony World Photography Award for commercial advertising.

Impasse from Reel 13 on Vimeo. An excellent short by dutch director Bram Schouw.

The City of Melbourne has unveiled its new corporate identity this week. Designed by Landor, one of the largest marketing and design agencies in the world, the new identity is designed to be "synonymous with the modern, vibrant, cool city Melbourne is today and will continue to be in the future" according to our current Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle. The new logo definitely ticks the 'cool' and 'modern' boxes but it doesn't reflect the history of the city and says very little about the lifestyle of its residents.

I'm all for removing dickheads from companies but the re-brand for Dick Smith Electronics seems a bit light on personality.

In the evening I'm starting to feel like I have a monumental hangover. Which is a marked improvement over what I was feeling at the start of the day.

When the locals see us they generally stop and stare. The children wave or squeal or shout 'malae!' or 'malae mutin!'

In 2008 I went to East Timor with some volunteers from my high school to install an electrical system for a school in a village called Zumalai on the south coast. We brought over some tools and electrical equipment and I brought back a few words in Tetum and a cute little tropical parasite.

When I started it this site was dedicated to inspiring work in any medium. It was a chance for me to share news and resources with other creative types and let people know what I'm working towards and where I'm coming from. Since that time it's turned into a bit more of a diary/travelogue with the occasional essay thrown in for good measure. As it turned out the world of commercial design doesn't lend itself to nice debriefs on the creative process. That being the case, I tended to steer the blog towards showcasing artwork and design projects by people that I found inspiring. I also posted my own photos occasionally- but usually months or years after the fact. In 2015 when it came time to re-design and overhaul the site I went back and re-visited those old posts hoping to update the images or find higher-res versions and was thrilled to re-discover those artists and see how their work had evolved in the intervening years. I still work as a designer. I still shoot when I get the chance. It still takes me ages to get around to processing my photos.