Freelance designer Di Thornly is a self described ‘DoAholic’. Not content with running her own studio, this up-and-at-’em creative force is the joint founder of Creative Bent – a bimonthly get-together for inventive souls from just about any creative field. Set around activities such as creating album cover art or building cardboard robots while sharing a beer or three, Creative Bent (CB) events are designed to encourage the creative community to interact, share ideas and perhaps form new collaborations.
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Can you tell us about where you are currently working and what you get up to 9-5 wise?
What! There are people out there working cruisey executive hours! I’m a bit of a DoAholic… I run my own design studio and work as a freelance creative. I often work for the big advertising agencies and love the freedom that the big budgets give you. When working outside of the regular salary job you take the work when it’s there and that can vary enormously. Even now it’s 8pm and after this interview I’m off to direct a shoot…. But if you love what you do it it’s a pretty good deal.
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What drew you to design and being creative?
Creative is less about choice and more about the need to do something. There’s a lot of bland in the world. Imagine if everyone engaged their right brain and made some small public art. Melbourne’s a lucky city to have such a creative collective. Come spring and summer you can get your brain cogs into motion by visiting one of the plethora of exhibition openings that pop up to remind us to get out and stay inspired.
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Can you tell us about how Creative Bent (CB) began?
I saw a real void for people who wanted to make connections and meet other creatives without the rigid structure of some social designer networks. I was working alongside Felipe ‘You-need-the-flyer-when?’ Ubilla and we kinda fell headfirst into setting up a monthly social drinks where people could talk shop and swap ideas. Pretty rapidly we discovered if you gave people something to distract their hands then the conversation flowed faster than the beer. The team action that Creative Bent encourages has united illustrators with musicians, and ordinary folk with architects. Its been mad seeing people who met at one event arrive as a team for the next one.
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Is it hard to think up new activities for Creative Bent and how far ahead do you plan?
The new activities are probably the easiest part of the whole event to come up with. Like a good design process, it’s the ones you throw away that make the remaining ones stand out. It would be fantastic to be able to plan several events ahead but honestly with work commitments there isn’t enough time to do more. There’s always the website or facebook if anyone has a cool idea – or suggest it at an event – we’re very friendly and approachable.
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How can people get involved with Creative Bent?
Depending how involved you want to get it can be as simple as coming along, dropping us a line or hunting down sponsors and prizes. We have Fuzzy-i-web-Docker rocking online and often get a few writers and designers lending a hand. If anyone would like to get involved we HEART you – it could be anything from flyer designs to an offer of their own creations as prizes. We’ve been pretty lucky in the past with peeps like Wooden Toy and Modular (I hope your feeling the love) and we all promised to get Artisan tattoos on our butts to show our top sponsor appreciation. Artisan’s assistance has enabled us take it up a notch so keep an eye out for bigger and better things!
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Do you have any other little bits on the side going besides CB?
Like wilted lettuce and chips? It doesn’t stop! There’s nothing so public as CB, but it’s hard to shut the brain down when your playing rancho relaxo at home and the next thing you know you’ve created a bunch of installations. I have a white tree in my lounge room at the moment, it’s full sized from my front yard.. It has corrugated leaves now. I’m not so good with plant life. Then there was the time the lounge room was wrapped in several km of white paper…
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What can we expect from Creative Bent next?
All the cool kids are getting into cooking in a big way so maybe we will get all Pro Hart on you. And a spot of DIY genetic engineering could be entertaining – imagine all the ponies you could clone! Seriously though – if I answered this there would be no surprise for the thrill of the next event!
