A big congrats to Gemma Mahoney, one of our 30 TDK Awards’ winners for 2018. A RMIT University graduate from Melbourne, her work was chosen by David & Hannah from Pleasure Projects: “There was a lot of contemporary typography of a certain style, appealing, yes, but fundamentally similar. Gemma’s work goes a step further and as a result stood out to us. It is clearly work that is engaged and interested into current typography experimentation, but so too is it fearless in playing with pastiche and historical type, bringing it bang up to date with colour composition and application”. We asked Gemma to answer a few questions for next years TDK Awards’ hopefuls.
What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?
When I was little I was always into drawing and doing crafty things to entertain myself. But it was in high school when I really started getting into art. I felt like I sort of found my ‘thing’ when I was about 15. I was given a task to do a free and responsive line and pattern drawings with fineliner and for some reason I just really connected with drawing lines. From then I then got really into drawing intricate abstract line drawings, I would sit there for hours. In my last couple of years of high school I knew I wanted a career path that was creative, but wasn’t completely sure what direction to go. Until I went to an RMIT open day. I saw the folios of graphic design students, and something just clicked and I new design was what I wanted to do.
What was your plan for graduating and what actually happened? OR What is your plan for graduating?
2017 is now my second time graduating. I graduated an Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design 2014, with the intentions to have a bit of a gap year and travel a bit. At that point in my life I did not feel ready to start working full time. I then went back to study a Bachelor of Communication Design, that I have now just graduated. This time round, I am super serious about going into full time work, and feel so ready to dive into my career. I began interning/working part-time at Confetti Studio mid 2016 and was really hoping that when I graduated that this could turn into full-time work. And so it has! I am feeling pretty damn lucky.
What/who are your top five places or people to follow online to get inspiration?
I love getting inspiration so I look at a lot of blogs and Instagram and Pinterest all the time.
I love Gior Konducta great design stuff and it’s also good for super cool imagery and random things, The Design Blacklist is great for daily updated content that is super diverse and global.
Also super great for a constant feed of content is Collect Graphics, I always look at Domoa and The Brand Identity is a great go to for branding solutions.
What advice would you give students starting out?
Practice, practice, practice! I think it’s so important to just dive in and try as many things as possible. I really think practice is the only way at getting better at something, so work on it as much as possible. Try to constantly look at design and art related things and analyse work out there. I find getting daily inspiration can sometimes spark random ideas and it keeps me super motivated to keep improving. I also think it’s really useful to try your best at not being afraid to put your work out there. Whether it’s on Instagram or contacting studios, you never know what opportunities can come, so having a good online presence can really help
