We welcome a special blog entry by Brett Hamm from Qualia Creative to take us behind the scenes about the conceptual set design for LMFF” Business Seminar.
Great design is conceptually driven and this year’s LMFF Business Seminar, featuring future-forward speakers such as Dazed Group founder Jefferson Hack and the CEO of ACNE, Mikael Schiller, certainly promised conceptual fuel to burn. When LMFF kindly invited us at Qualia Creative to design this year’s set, we were therefore delighted to dive in and seize the challenge of creating something beautiful and meaningful for Melbourne’s premier fashion event.
Pictured: Jan Nord & Jorgen Andersson from ESPRIT speaking at the LMFF Business Seminar.
Conceptually, our objective was to create a set that not only supported the speakers, their histories and their projects, but also reflected the narrative of fashion’s progress and its function in shaping individual identities. Practically, the set’s content needed to be derived from the LMFF’s master creative (Daniela Federici’s gorgeous photographs of Melissa George) without detracting from the conceptual considerations.
The thematic basis of exploded frames was chosen as an allusion to the traditional fashion vernacular of iconic print publications and photography. However, given the nature of the speakers and the new directions and opportunities offered by the contemporary flow of digital information, we also felt it important to reference electronic culture as well. Recognising the ubiquity of digital imagery and its growing importance within the fashion industry, the individual frames were scattered and overlayed like pixels to form a larger master image, while the components exploding beyond the frames’ borders acknowledged the unconstrained flow of information in the post-digital age.
Pictured: Jefferson Hack takes to the stage.
Also conceptually crucial was recognition of the idiosyncratic use of fashion by individuals in crafting their unique identities. Each person is bound to have a distinct perception of fashion and current digital technologies give greater voice to the individual than ever before. By layering exploded frames, each suspended alone in space, our set invited multiple perspectives and experiences. Depending on where members of the audience were situated they were offered unique access to otherwise hidden details, creating real personal engagement with each viewer’s perspective.
The materials themselves were also chosen to support the overall concept. Comprised of clear pine and mirrored vinyl, the natural grain of the wooden elements offered distinct personal textures—a unique identity—impossible to mimic synthetically. The mirrored highlights, for their part, served as a dynamic counterpoint to the static wood, echoing the glow of digital screens and the constant flow of information as well as reflecting the ever-changing ways in which we view ourselves through fashion.
Ultimately, our mission straddled the need to meet strategic brand objectives while providing a creative, beautiful, and (hopefully) somewhat meaningful platform for the speakers to present their messages throughout the LMFF Business Seminar. In this regard we think it worked out pretty well. With any luck, the audience enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed collaborating with Yolanda, Caroline and the rest of the wonderful team behind the LMFF.
Stay tuned at o see what else we get up to this year.
Thanks to Brett, David & Dave from the Qualia Creative team for this amazing design – for the record, we loved it! Visit Qualia Creative’s website www.qualiacreative.com.au to stay tuned and see what else they get up to this year.
Photos by: Lucas Dawson Photography
