Evi O on Balancing Creativity and Business at Semi Permanent
Design as a practice is inherently challenging, but how do we apply right-brain creativity to the running of a business? Multi-disciplinary designer and self-taught artist Evi O will be discussing this and more at this year’s Semi Permanent festival.
Words: Hande Renshaw I Photography: Daniel Shipp & Andrew Grune
‘Media and communication channels have evolved so fast and far, so quickly. The commodification of identity has just gone next level,’ says Evi O. Photo: Andrew Grune
Brand design for Milly Dent by Evi-O.Studio. Photo: Daniel Shipp
‘Hopefully [the audience can take away] something that can help with their own creative journey. And a few laughs,’ says says Evi O. Product design by Evi-O.Studio. Photo: Daniel Shipp
Swill magazine by Evi-O.Studio. Photo: Daniel Shipp
Book design by Evi-O.Studio. Photo: Daniel Shipp
For many creatives, (myself included) navigating the tightrope of creativity and running a business simultaneously, can be a tricky affair. How do we apply right-brain creativity with the left-brain execution of business – keeping the wheel of financial viability and a design practice running smoothly?
At this year’s Semi Permanent festival, Evi O, leader of Evi-O.Studio, will be talking alongside Bijan Berahimi about this topic, giving us the opportunity to look behind-the-scenes of their independent design businesses and how they each find their balance.
‘It’s a full circle moment to me. 20 years ago I attended the first Semi Permanent in Sydney as a fresh, first year international design student at UTS, not knowing much and coming out of the festival feeilng inspired and challenged – now I have the honour to share my personal story since then. It will also feel rather celebratory for our design studio, too, all of us have been in the guest seats and it means a lot for us to contribute to the festival,’ says Evi O.
Based in Marrickville, Sydney, Evi-O.Studio is a design office famed for their highly-crafted, impactful design. In the art world, Evi O roams the abstract genre, celebrating the power of colour and utilising her practice as a way to understand the world and a channel for her constant curiosity.
‘Everything is a challenge when it comes to a creative running a business, simply because we’re all probably starting our business doing 2, 3 or more roles, not trained to do business, nor armed with leadership skills, or simply the brain’s not wired in that way, and that the relationship between money and creativity can be an awkward one – I will flesh this out on stage. I overcome these challenges with lots of failures, stubborn naivety and the thrill of courage!’
This year’s Semi Permanent theme is REFORMATION – shining a light onto how the world has changed in recent years and instead of rebuilding identically, leaning to a future that doesn’t need to look like it once did. ‘We live amidst a once-in-a-generation chance to write past wrongs, reform seemingly immutable practices, and redesign the world in a shape we’d like to se,’ says Mitchell Oakley Smith, Semi Permanent’s global creative director.
‘I love the word reformation, and it can’t be more fitting as I feel like coming out of 3 years of chaos, experimentation and adventures (I’d like to say the world would agree) and it’s time to let the takeaways be put in place to renew the present, and later the future,’ says Evi O.
The Business of Design
Semi Permanent
Carriageworks - 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, NSW
Wednesday May 31 at 1pm
Evi-O.Studio practices across publication design, identity design and creative collaborations. Photo: Daniel Shipp
“As a designer/artist, it’s very easy to get distracted by all the noise, but I also feel that more than ever authenticity is prized. It’s time to focus on what matters.”
