Coming soon

Based on this month’s topic of “Now”, Andy Balloch will be discussing how others can benefit from examining the fundamental principles of improvisation, and apply those principles to their lives & work.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

When shit hits the fan – like, REALLY hits the fan – what do you do? Are you prone to crumbling or dipping into ‘victim mode’? Or can you find the silver lining, bypassing self-destruction and putting yourself on track to not just survive, but THRIVE?

It’s this space, this scenario, that has always captivated Marion – both in her creative practice and in her life more broadly. How we cope with trauma – both daily disruptions and life altering events – is an essential skill we must learn, but it’s often one that’s burnt into us when we’re dragged through the fire.

Are we destined to repeat the patterns of our family or can we break the cycle and choose a different path? Marion believes the latter and has spent her whole life excavating this question through the lens of creativity. She champions the idea that there’s always another way – but we must make it for ourselves.

In this Creative Mornings talk, Marion will introduce you to the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and how to ‘spiral up’ using creativity. Kismet might feel unavoidable but it’s the creative mind that can take anything and turn it into gold. 

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video, Mark Lobo Photography, Allpress Espresso and of course The Commons for continuing to support our events every month.

FOLKLORE is powerful. We create lore. Lore creates us. It is spoken, it is lived, it is our material and imagined worlds.

Our speaker this month is originally from Michigan, now living and creating in Melbourne, Megan Davis considers herself a citizen of the world. She has been discovering stories since 2012, specialising in narrative strategy and storytelling for businesses that are daring to create new realities and futures. She is now working at a management consulting firm crafting narratives and communications for businesses in the corporate and public sectors.

But before all of this, she studied how folklore designed our present and future belief systems.

This interactive talk explored how the stories we believe today are putting us on a path to a future of possibility. Can we design our own piece of folklore in 20 minutes?Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video, Mark Lobo Photography, Allpress Espresso and of course The Commons for continuing to support our events every month.

What do you feel when you look at the Melbourne CBD skyline? Is it a sense of pride? A recognisable place marker from a distance?

What about when you are in the city directly looking up at great skyscrapers? It’s probably a different feeling… a feeling of awe? An overbearing feeling?

When an idea, an object, or a building exceed an exceptional scale, it becomes monumental.

If we begin to feel that we can’t gauge its scale or place it can create confusion and feel overbearing - it makes us feel small and disconnected. It’s our responsibility as designers to have empathy and consider the effect environments will have on people.

On this month’s theme of MONUMENTAL, Jack Ryan from John Wardle Architects discusses how big buildings can still make us feel good.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video, Mark Lobo Photography and Allpress Espresso for continuing to support our events every month.

Claerwen Leahy is someone who strives to stay visible and relevant, despite turning 50 this year.

Her personal style is expressed through clothing and attitude. It’s enhanced through investing time in dance classes, living creatively and having friends that span a range of ages and backgrounds.

… But she hasn’t always felt like she’s thriving. Claerwen spent the first half of her life feeling invisible and unheard. It’s only recently that she feels like her life is coming together, that her struggles and hard work are coming to fruition.

On December’s theme of INVISIBLE, Claerwen shared her personal story of feeling invisible from a young age, and the event that triggered a change in outlook and a determination to seize the day. Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Think On The PageHow do you handle the uncertainty and flux that come with being a creative professional? When you’re faced with a blank page, where do you start?These liminal spaces can be scary. But they can also be the launching point for fresh thinking and creativity.Sarah Firth (she/her) is an award-winning cartoonist, artist and writer, speaker and graphic recorder. She’s well known for wrestling with relatable and challenging topics in her work, getting into the frustrations, humour, tragedies, and unexpected magic of the everyday, as she attempts to live the questions.On November’s theme of LIMINAL, Sarah gave us a sneak peek into her unique creative process, including her “think on the page” approach, and shared some tips and tools for self-care and motivation in uncertain times.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Making the case for inclusive design.

Most, if not all of us, want a world where everyone has equal access to digital information and the experiences to be equitable. Design has an important role in making that future possible, but in a world where the numbers and profit often matter more than people, how do we get leadership or stakeholders to understand the importance of and commit to inclusive design? 

On October’s theme of DEISGN, Bronwen & Benaz talked about the importance of inclusive design and how to influence organisations on why they should invest in it.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Alice Edy is an artist and graphic scribe based in Naarm / Melbourne. Her background in calligraphy and typography, combined with a fascination with storytelling, is at the heart of all Alice’s work.On the surface it seems that Alice has two very different creative careers; working in a fine arts space one day, and then helping businesses to visualise their strategies the next…This is not uncommon; more and more people are finding themselves juggling different creative disciplines simultaneously. But, even though this kind of diversification can be expansive and exciting, it can also sometimes feel like being an imposter in both worlds. Not “fully” anything.In September, Alice explored the theme of “DARE” as a possible antidote to chronic Imposter Syndrome. Having freelanced her entire career, Alice shared some ideas on how we can approach our creative practice more playfully, how to ask for what we need, and how to keep showing up – even though we might not feel ready.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Studio Ting is a new creative studio in Melbourne run by Mikey Ting and Carissa Karamarko. Based in Preston, the studio is the couples’ raw artistic energy distilled into furniture, design and art; purposefully led by things and ideas that feel good. They are striving for expansive, big, fun outcomes and for boundless creativity, qualities that guide their approach to life and artmaking.Amidst the shitstorm of groupthink, personal trauma and paying bills how can we hunt down our dreams, inflame our passions and - above all - make beautiful work? It’s no wonder creatives feel so much anguish.But is there a better way? Launching a new creative studio is a daunting task at the best of times and right now, is not the best of times. But the setbacks and shutdowns came with an unexpected stillness and an opportunity to reexamine everything.Mikey and Carissa discuss how RELEASING themselves from how a creative studio should look, feel and act shifts the focus back to the original ideas themselves and how giving those ideas time and space to grow leads to more authentic outcomes, connections and experiences.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Aseel Tayah is a Melbourne-based Palestinian artist, creative director and cultural leader who uses her practice to advocate for artists of colour, mothers, children and young people, “changing the world, one project at a time.” She has recently been described as “an unstoppable force in the Australian cultural landscape.”Through the power of storytelling, Aseel’s artistic practice creates awareness and facilitates connection by humanising the experiences of people who have been displaced. As such, her work is embedded in the community and is often highly responsive to current issues. On this month’s theme HOME Aseel shares stories of home and having to leave it, the home that we live in, and the home that lives within.Thanks to our generous local sponsors Think in Colour for making this month’s event more accessible with live captioning via Red Bee Media, to BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.