DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

(Just a quick sidenote - I'm going to write blog entries slowly even though I've been here for awhile - I haven't had a breather to turn my notes I've been taking and turn them into a blog.  These entries will be written as though they are present tense for the given time).

Regardless of religious beliefes, sometimes I like to think someone up there is messing with me - cause it makes things a lot simpler.  Obviously, basing most of my project in Sydney, I'm not going to have to deal with many of the hardships other Duke Engagers will, but seriously, having half my equipment break on arrival, destroying a suitcase, getting majorly ripped off, and missing dinner in one day has to be premeditated.  That's pretty much my arrival in Australia - a whirling dervish of destruction.  Being up for 36 hours, this was to be expected to some degree.

I can thank Mr. Bush for my second horror upon arrival - EVERYTHING HERE IS REALLY EXPENSIVE.  I may have a lot of modern conveniences, but with the depreciation of the American dollar, it's ridiculous.  Sushi is cheaper here than a Big Mac.  (A sandwich will run you about $4.50 here minimum).

Let's tack on to this a third nice surprise, and then I'll get on with the more Duke Engageish aspects of my time here.  In Australia, every student discount is done through a central agency that issues concession cards.  This is all well and good, except I can't get once since I'm not Australian.  I think some international students are suing over this right now...I mean my weekly railpass just to get to the oxfam office and back costs me $47.  When I go to Western Sydney to meet with other designers it is $60 a week.  And when I will fly down to Melbourne for Oxfam related stuff (as well as up north and all that), it'll be $300 for a plane ticket if I'm lucky.  *sigh*  Looks like I'll be digging a bit into my own money to cover this (I bought camera equipment so I shouldn't complain).

Complaints aside, Sydney is BEAUTIFUL.  We flew in at about 6:00 AM, and the slight fog and sunrise over the opera house and city was just gorgeous.  When I have some more free time, I'm going to go all around early in the morning and shoot photos.  I'm living in a room about the size of a broomcloset (think smaller than Randolph) in the Sydney North Shore.  Everyone here is international (all students/researchers/whatever).  A room here like mine runs about $300 a week.  That's good - I'm in Australia.

I rested up after arriving on the 7th, chilled out over the weekend and established contact with the local Evoke representatives (my design agency), prepping for a meeting with Oxfam on Monday.

Cara couldn't make it Monday, so I come in Tuesday to the sight of broken glass and a smashed door.  Seriously, who robs Oxfam?!  Especially when there is a computer store downstairs...

After the initial two meetings with Oxfam, it became quite obvious that when I said the Duke Engage program wanted me to really work, they took it very literally.  So far, my plate has on it:

• Make 2 promotional videos for YouTube/publication
• Follow Cara and others around to various indigenous health events and take photos
• Develop a weekend long training program for all new volunteers and recruits in media (I will fly down to Melbourne to present this)
• Help plan and promote two events (one in June, one early July) on the issues of Indigenous health and climate change.  Also be on site to take photos and manage all the media and such.
• Design posters/materials as needed (I'm offloading this to my design group - why? I'll blog about it later.  It's a clever idea if I do say so myself).

I'll be quite busy over the coming weeks but hell, I love graphics.  I love photography, and I love video.  Should be fun.

-Ted

Haven't updated this blog in awhile because I've been very very busy with Oxfam.

Despite getting several designers from Evoke (www.evokeone.com) on board with me, it's still a lot.  But I'm saving Oxfam money, as well as showing them new, more effective ways of promoting themselves (their existing design agency has been sending their designs to me before publishing now!).

The event for early June is postponed due to complications in planning it.  It will probably be merged with the event in July.  Both of these are Oxfam events focusing on Climate Change and Aboriginal Health (as well as Oxfam Australia's other campaigns).  This merger may seem good on paper, but for me it means more work.  It also means that if I don't promote this right, I'm going to possibly be screwing a few hundred (or thousand) people, depending on the venue.

That said, we've got an exciting line up.  There will be multiple bands performing, several significant speakers in Australia.  Booths for various non profit organizations will be located around the event.  There will be an art gallery (made by none other than Evoke ^_^)  on display - these will then be allowed for any sort of Oxfam promotional work.

To make people pledge their support, I'll be by the door with Ryan and Mary (two design colleagues) who will assist me in taking photos and video.  We'll then take these nice photos and such of people, and make them really really cool.  At the same time, we'll stamp an event logo on them and ask people to do a small task for us.  It's rather clever.

At this event, there will be many short films being showcased.  Of course, I've been asked to choose which ones to show >< - kinda awkward since I've worked with a lot of the people who made them.  Then, my film will be shown as the finishing piece so I better make it good.

I've converted over 40 hours of Oxfam archive footage, and taken several hours of my own.  I've made posters and brochures, trained about 5 people, and bla bla I think anyone reading this gets the idea.  I've been to many health forums, talks, aboriginal dances, and other Oxfam events (the dancers were pretty cool!)

I'm travelling to Melbourne next weekend (Queen's Birthday Weekend) to present my video training session to Oxfam's office there (headquarters).  I'll also take a bit of a break after that and go to a concert with a few other designer friends (one of them is worldfamous - I'm excited to meet him).

I've had a few moments to take photos out and about.  It's very pretty here.  In July, I'll have more time to go see Sydney.  That should be fun.

For now, work!

-Ted

I get a lot of "what is Oxfam doing in Australia" and "oh that sounds like a vacation" sort of comments about my project.  Well, as for the first, go read up on the Close the Gap campaign and you'll see why it's important that they're here.

Concerning the second, it's only a vacation in the sense that I'm in a civilized location, and that I like what I'm doing.  But I haven't exactly been to the opera house or seen a kangaroo yet (that's for July!)

When I began writing my proposal for this project, I had broader aims than a Duke Engage experience.  The idea for this actually came to me when I started work on another, more personal endeavor.

I run an international group of artists and designers called Evoke (www.evokeone.com).  These artists often charge upwards of $500 an hour for design work, yet they submit to our exhibitions for free.   What if there was some way for an artist to submit a piece to an exhibition, use the design to promote a charity, and build their portfolio in the process?  It's a win win situation.  Charities spend MONUMENTAL amounts of money on promotion - you hire a bad designer, people don't take you seriously.  You hire one that's really good, your money isn't being used right.

I sent out cover letters to a number of organizations about my idea, and got generally very favorable replies.  However, everyone wanted to see a portfolio of some sort, and see what we could do when working pro-bono.

This was a sticking point, as I didn't have a portfolio for the group.

So, why not go to some place for Duke Engage where I can develop said portfolio?  It just so happens that a lot of my fellow designers in Evoke are located in Australia.  This made it a very convenient location to begin work.  Going to Africa and printing nice posters is rather futile when people need food - they don't need a cool image to tell them they're hungry.

I'm a big fan of the "do what you can now" philosophy.  And I think my project here is doing that.

After meeting with the likes of Stefan D'Alessandro and Justin Maller (BIG design names) in Melbourne, I can see that other artists are backing me up on this as well.

I'm working with Oxfam to retrain their inhouse designers so they don't have to subcontract as much.  At the same time, I'm laying the foundation for a group I would like to launch in the fall.

Will it work?  I don't know.  I'll give it a good shot.

Cheers,

Ted