porsha marais

yes, I started a tumblr

2012-01-26T12:33:00.001+10:00

For years I have had a folder on my desktop called "things I like". Everything goes in there and it is chaos. When I am looking for inspiration it is always my first port of call, but its lack of organisation always leaves me a little frustrated. I finally decided to do something about it :) I started a tumblr.
Feel free to look, feel free to not. I made it for my own reference, but if other people like it too - good stuff.

Whilst setting up the tumblr, I decided to try making some custom scripty type like my friend Ashleigh Brennan does. I loved making it and really want to make some more in the future.

sophisticated gaming

2011-11-30T17:04:00.001+10:00

Recently, the Queensland State Library's digital culture program, The Edge, ran a promotion of illustrators and bloggers revolving around the theme of gaming. With a topic so appealing (in case you didn't know, I love console games and am a big game nerd!), I was more than happy to take part.

Enter the sophisticated girl gamer - just a late night with her cat, her playstation and Nathan Drake ;)

click image to see more detail.

have a purr-fect tail-wagging christmas

2011-10-30T15:29:00.002+10:00

I was given an amazing opportunity this year to do concept, illustration and design for a set of christmas cards for the RSPCA.

After looking at the other cards they have for sale, I decided they needed something bright and fun so I went with a colour palette of 6 pantone fluros. I made all custom illustrations to go with their brief of "a dog one, a cat one and a wildlife one", fitting the animals into christmas shapes. I also created custom embosses for all the designs to give a bit more texture to the animals.

The photos don't quite do the colours justice - they are so bright and lovely. I am so chuffed with the results.

The client loved them and from what I heard they are selling quite well (they have already ordered a reprint).
You can buy them here.

trying something new

2011-10-27T13:21:00.002+10:00

My friend Belinda always asks me to do the invitations to her children's birthday parties. I always happily accept because she doesn't mind what I do - its totally up to me. An open brief like this is always fun, but more importantly it provides an opportunity to try a different style or do something a bit out of the ordinary.

For this one, her youngest's first birthday, I wanted to try doing animals in a different style to my norm. It was lots of fun and I especially love the racoon :)

chocolate packaging

2011-08-10T13:34:00.004+10:00

This year I have been working on a different kind of design project, but an exciting one for sure ... packaging.
I was contacted by a new organic, handmade chocolate brand launching in Australia and was tasked with designing everything for their brand. Obviously branding and websites are things I have done before, but packaging was a new frontier I had yet to venture into.

Conscious Chocolate is an Melbourne based raw, organic, handmade chocolate launching in 2011. The packaging had to convey the brands personality and appeal to their target market, whilst being a luxury organic product.

The packaging I created was a small box made of a rich dark brown Mohawk Concept Vellum with black foil and emboss as the only detail on it. All the flavour specific details are on the coloured sleeve, printed separately on white paper. Each flavour has a unique Pantone coloured strip with its own quirky character illustration representing the flavour inside. I also sourced out some paper coated foil wrapping to cover the chocolate on the inside.

we heart winter

2011-07-29T16:12:00.007+10:00

The We Heart Collective's current show "We Heart Winter" is currently showing at the whitebox gallery at Griffith University. For the exhibit, the girls involved expressed their love of winter.

It is not hard for me to think of things I love about winter - I am constantly talking about coats and snow and scarfs and fur trims. It seemed obvious to me to look at the clothing side of winter, so I explored my love of layering and the extra layers you can build up to through the different temperature ranges of winter.

^ click the above to see more detail.

I got some comments at the opening night that the less layered extremes of the image seemed very summery. I guess this is true, but in the winters I have experienced in my life - from a 23ºc QLD sunny winter to a minus 15ºc German Alps winter - I have worn this entire range of layers in times designated as 'winter'. It is part of the reason I love winter :)

photos by fellow collective member Katelyn Hankinson.

poster children

2011-07-15T15:52:00.007+10:00

I was invited by Flat White Spaces to exhibit in the group show Poster Children in July 2011 on the Gold Coast as part of Surfers Paradise Oneway Project.
Tasked with creating a set of poster, I created 3 x A2 designs with beautiful girls ... of course (haha what else would I do!)
Each A2 print is in a limited edition run of 20. If you would like one, they are for sale on the Flat White Spaces website for $40 each for the next month.

cool kids

2011-06-22T13:43:00.003+10:00

The QCA put out an invitation to all past and present students to design a cover submission for this years issue of Gold Coast Creative magazine. Below is my submission :)

I chopped out the cover text and the masthead for use here. What I submitted actually looks like this.
The plan is that the line drawings are printed in pantone 812 (which is an intense fluro hot pink) and the speech bubbles are spot varnish on a matte cello cover finish.

drawing commission ... for dad

2011-05-25T11:28:00.005+10:00

After seeing the drawing of my friends, my dad asked for a drawing for his birthday, one of him with mum (awwww).
He asked for one of them swimming in the sea where we take our annual holidays.

I love it. He loves it. Mum loves how complimentary it is ;)
It will be printed on canvas (still deciding on how big we should print it) and put up in the house.

wedding invitations

2011-05-04T15:34:00.005+10:00

Some lovely friends of mine got engaged last year and they loved their engagment-gift-illustration so much that they asked me to do their wedding invites :)

To match their ceremony and reception venues I made a few custom illustrations of vines and birds as well as some maps to help their guests find parking. The result reflects the couples personalities perfectly and of course they were really happy with their suite of wedding themed goodies.

The set included a DL folded landscape invitation, a thank you card and a gift tag for the favours. All were printed on a lovely thick white uncoated card and the names were embossed.

out with the old

2011-04-23T18:10:00.003+10:00

realising it has been 2 years since my last branding / blog / website update, I decided to re-do it all with a new look. Out with the beige and orange and in with a new bright teal and lavender combo.

we heart is now a collective

2011-03-18T14:38:00.013+10:00

Based on how much we loved making pieces for we heart paper exhibition last month, the artists involved have all banded together to make the new we heart collective. This means we will do an exhibition every 6 months and theme it around something we love. An awesome side project to work on with no client to please but ourselves :)

The next exhibition by the collective will be we heart winter. It will exhibit in July, but I am already so excited about it and keep thinking about what to create. If there is one thing I really heart, it's winter.

* awesome logo for the collective by fellow collective member Ashleigh Brennan :)

laser cut amazingness

2011-02-20T13:56:00.015+10:00

the final product of my artwork for the we heart paper exhibition project :)
Looks so amazing, I just want to stare at it for hours.

The amazing detail is hard to capture in a photo. To see full detail, have a look at the coloured illustration version.

The exhibition starts tomorrow if anybody is in the area. See the website for details.

i heart paper

2011-02-14T12:53:00.007+10:00

a couple of months ago I was invited to be a part of an exhibition based around paper and the girls who heart it.
The exhibition is on next week and I'm super excited to see all the artwork.

check out the website made by one of the girls for full details - www.weheartpaper.com.au

-------------------

For my piece, I am doing a forest scene with 6 sheets of laser-cut A3 paper sandwiched between sheets of clear acrylic.
The actual artwork is still with the laser cutter, but here are the drawings. I'm really excited about seeing the final result.

crack that whip ...

2010-11-17T23:42:00.005+10:00

the club

2010-10-03T19:26:00.006+10:00

A friend of mine runs a lovely club every month, where we get together, cook and eat.
She recently set up a blog where she posts about each meet and encourages people to start their own meets with their friends.

I offered to do the site design and illustrate some food to make it look as exciting as it really is.
check out thecookbookclub.net

fix up, look sharp

2010-08-07T16:42:00.004+10:00

This week I start full time work in a corporate office again.
After 4 years of uni & working from home, its time to put away the jeans for a bit.

obsessed with the print

2010-07-13T23:37:00.007+10:00

The illustration I did for my birthday invites, around the theme of blonde hair. Before I knew it, there was a giant leopard bag in there.
I love leopard print at the moment.

The invitation is A5 and I printed it on some textured card. Whilst planning my annual birthday dinner, I realised that none of my friends have blonde hair. So I bought them all a nice blonde wig. Now we can all go to dinner as blondes. Should be fun :)

ruby rabbit redux

2010-07-09T13:34:00.010+10:00

Ruby rabbit, my dream client, is having so much success with her business that it came time to update her site to add new services. have a look at her beautiful new site

so much has changed, but I would like to point out a few things that are my favourite.

1. new watercolour background
After somebody mentioned that the old background looked a little like dried blood (!!!?), I figured I needed a new background. So in came brighter colours, more orange and hot pink and more brush style strokes. Gone are those crazy blood connections.

2. brighter images
As much as I love the light, pencil-style images on the old site, it made the overall appearance a bit flat. So in came a new style of images and some watercolour splashes into the background of the old images to give them some life.

3. social media integration
Being a virtual assistant, it was imperative that ruby rabbit was well connected in the virtual world. I added in a twitter feed on the home page, facebook and linkedin buttons in the footer of every page and an email subscription newsletter. Now she looks like she is in this decade :)

4. honourable mentions
A few things that aren't huge, but make the site a little more interesting. First, the new drop-down menus that allow the site to have more content without the world's longest menu. Second, the awesome wufoo contact enquiry form. If you have ever tried to make a decent emailer form, you will appreciate wufoo's magic service.

And finally...
The promotion of my design services (air punch ... woo!). It is nice to have somebody else finding work for you. Thanks Belinda :)

my shoes go squeak!

2010-07-01T11:58:00.006+10:00

for many years I have been in love with and wanting a pair of the Marc by Marc Jacob mouse shoes, but I never could find my size anywhere - even the $600 overpriced ones in Australian department stores.
But the other day, luck was on my side, net-a-porter had them in a beautiful metallic grey AND in my size AND a really good price ($300, I thought it was a great price).
So the mice are on a plane and on their way too me for my birthday.
Mouse shoes you are mine!

jealousy will get me nowhere

2010-06-21T23:34:00.005+10:00

click for full illustration
a friend of mine has gone to Paris for 5 weeks and I am extra jealous. Her frequent facebook status updates don't help things either. I find myself wishing to be in europe in summer ... so strange for me. I don't like summer at all.
So afterwork efforts have been put into an image of how glorious everything would be if i was in Paris right now (and if I had lavendar coloured hair & wore knee high socks).
At least she is buying me some things while she is there :)

the engagement

2010-06-13T15:49:00.006+10:00

some close friends recently got engaged. They are hard to buy for because they have everything, so I decided to draw them a gift.
I illustrated this portrait of them and printed it on some lovely textured paper, then put into a nice white picture frame.
They absolutely loved it :) click to see full image.

I experimented with watercolour fills this time, I'm quite liking the result.

timelapse

2010-06-05T11:00:00.000+10:00

A recent family side-project is maketimelapse.com. My brother made the logo, but I did the business cards.
I decided on multiple back colours and people could pick which one they wanted (blue or yellow). They are printed on uncoated stock (so you can scribble on them), with a 4 colour back and a 1 colour front.
I love it when a card has a bright punchy back :)

thanks from the rabbit

2010-06-03T09:00:00.000+10:00

Ruby Rabbit wanted some simple cards to send as follow-ups to meetings/extensive phone calls/referrers/etc. The result is a nice little A6 card printed 2 colour with a sealer varnish on the outside. The client loves them - and her clients love receiving them.

cup type

2010-06-02T15:57:00.003+10:00

As a designer, you often get asked to do really small jobs. Most of the time, these jobs aren't very exciting and therefore, don't make it onto the blog, as I figure I would bore the pants off you.
But here is one, that isn't quite as dull as the rest.
A client of ruby rabbit wanted one of his quotes typeset for printing on a mug that was a gift to his clients.

now with 150px more

2010-05-21T17:46:00.002+10:00

It must have been bothering you, if it was bothering me, so I have added 150px to the post width.
It really makes things pop ... (what am I talking about?, it just made the pictures bigger, nothing is popping!)

intense wisdom

2010-05-21T17:31:00.004+10:00

QCA put out a request for students current & past to design a T-shirt to be worn by student mentors during open day. The design needed to be 2 colour, as it would be screen printed onto shirts (of which we should choose black otherwise nobody would wear it).

Behold my submission ...

I find out next week if I get picked or not.

getting back into the swing

2010-05-10T15:47:00.006+10:00

Some basic logos I did recently for some investment trusts/companies.
The client required them to be black&white and simple enough to print in the office (like template in a word doc style) . This seems to be the way everybody goes. Its a shame really. It lacks the ooomph that a proper offset printed letterhead has.
She loved the 21 again logo so much, I had to make a companion logo for 30 pty ltd to match. Another happy client.

an emphasis on explanatory diagrams

2010-05-04T19:07:00.008+10:00

A new feather in my cap of websites ... for Medical Minds.
Although a rather simple site, this one came with the challenge of explaining the clients new & complicated service through diagrams. It took a bit of bringing-things-back-to-basics, but in the end the client was super happy and felt the explanations summed up his service to a tee :D

nothing but shoes

2010-05-01T12:43:00.010+10:00

a new illustration.
clearly I cant stop thinking about shoes (and buying them). They all seem to be leopard too ...

the lamest of excuses

2010-04-05T13:20:00.005+10:00

Its a pathetic excuse, but I recently started a full time design job and I find it quite difficult to find time to do recreational drawing/design. Its mega-frustrating though, as there is so much I want to do right now.

One project I am forcing myself to work on in my (limited) spare time is a font book of all the fonts I have. It is an effort to learn more fonts, break away from my favourite two and have more variation in my style. It will take a while, but will be rewarding when its printed.

There are some projects that I will be posting soon that have managed to go un-blogged due to bigger projects. In the mean time, enjoy this gorgeous drawing I whipped up and my new favourite font, Mrs Eaves.

sexy stationery

2010-02-02T12:57:00.007+10:00

It was printed a while ago, but my europe trip got in the way of this being blogged until now.
The business cards and letterhead for medical minds was exciting to design. For the first time, I got to specify some paper other than floor stock ... so I picked K.W.Doggett Knight White Smooth. It has a beautiful, luxurious texture and held the blues nicely. I also did an emboss on the card, which the client loves.

1. business cards
4 colour 2 sides with emboss. printed on 350gsm K.W.Doggett Knight White Smooth

2. letterhead
4 colour 2 sides printed on 120gsm K.W.Doggett Knight White Smooth

I hope it snows ...

2009-11-24T14:55:00.006+10:00

Getting very excited about going to London next week.
Most spare moments are spent mentally planning my wardrobe for december. The problem will come when I need to get it all into a suitcase next monday. I'm really hoping for a white xmas ...

PS: good times whilst drawing in illustrator today ... I had a good little laugh to myself. lol.
pink cheeks + hidden neck + selection = crazed sad doll.

something a bit different ...

2009-11-15T14:47:00.004+10:00

a brand for a new client brings something new to my portfolio ... a bit of blue.
This logo is for medical minds, a new medical liaison business, for which I broke away from the beige palette that has dominated this year.
The client is super happy with his logo and a suite of stationery is in the pipeline for the next few weeks.

Below is the four initial logos proposed for the business. The final logo is an amalgamation of the top left and bottom right, which were the clients favourites.

self-promotional puff

2009-10-31T15:56:00.005+10:00

As part of the graduate exhibition and the final year portfolio subject, I had to come up with a suite of self-promotional pieces that I would use in the exhibition and to help find jobs after graduating. My original grand plans were quickly beaten down by low finances due to the impending UK trip. I think the final results look quite pleasant when tumbling out of a resumé package.

1. brochure
a 180mm square, 8 page mini book with a small sample of my work and some general deets on my skills and interests.
I made four hand-stitched copies, printed on my canon inkjet at home.

2. business cards
88 x 40mm business cards printed on a nice feeling, environmentally friendly uncoated stock.

3. portfolio book
a 300mm square hard cover, 80 page book printed with blurb.com (quite awesome quality BTW)
this will be on display at the graduate exhibition and can also be taken to job interviews :D

and finally, an update!

2009-10-27T12:00:00.000+10:00

So it seems the only way to get me to seriously update my folio site is a university assessment item.
Here is an update with 19 new items I have done over the last year.

the making of ...

2009-10-25T13:45:00.006+10:00

inDesign cover creation from Porsha Marais on Vimeo.

The graduate catalogue had an accompanying DVD for which we needed to make a showreel. I decided to do a time-lapse of the creation of the cover artwork for the catalogue. Its made up of 350 screen captures of the design process, skipping out lots of bits to keep it short.

the graduate

2009-10-12T19:36:00.006+10:00

the graduate catalogue is finally finished and its beautiful.
here it is in all its 168 page glory.
my first time with UV varnish was a success... its looks so pretty I want to use it on everything.

invitations

2009-10-12T17:24:00.001+10:00

DL invitations for the graduate exhibition in November.
They include the deets for 3 separate exhibitions, so it got a bit crammed.
I am happy with them but prefer the octopus side more, even though its not my drawing. Maybe I've just looked at the mediamorphosis branding a bit two much this semester.

her faceless friends

2009-10-06T11:52:00.005+10:00

... it seems I never posted the other two drawing I did that went with the Lover Madeliene coat from july. I was putting together my portfolio for the graduate exhibition in November, when I realised I had never put them here... my bad.

graduate exhibition

2009-10-05T10:11:00.001+10:00

the poster I designed for my graduate exhibition in November :)

antlers optional

2009-09-24T11:30:00.001+10:00

seems the xmas related design requests have already started ... in september!
a little hard to get in to the xmas spirit now, whilst freaking out about uni, but here is a little drawing I did for a xmas party invitation.

nice legs

2009-09-16T23:41:00.005+10:00

the graduate catalogue has been sent to print ... yay, party.
... so work has finally begun on my personal portfolio & brochure for the graduate exhibition in November.

here is a drawing I am creating for my brochure. I still have a few more girls to draw, but I like the idea of the same girl moving across the page.

EDIT .... and then there were six

liveworm

2009-09-06T20:56:00.006+10:00

As mentioned, I have been spending every spare minute on the graduate catalogue over the last 5 weeks. I have been set up in Liveworm, the design studio of the uni doing my work experience 100 hours.
As part of the assessment of my work placement, I need to document my experience with photos. As I am normally to busy stressing out about the catalogue, the camera doesn't come out much, except for food time (ie. coffee/sugar time). Here is a little taste of what its like.

1. creating the UV pattern in the cover. freaking the computer out with so many paths.
2. one of many coffees required to function.
3. liveworm colleague, Megan, working hard
4. tasty animal cupcakes made by Megan.

the cover

2009-08-29T13:19:00.010+10:00

this semester I have spent every spare minute (outside of normal classes) designing the graduate catalogue for my design degree, which i was asked to do by the college director.
All the students collectively picked the name mediamorphosis for the graduating cohort (although no-one seems to want to take the credit for this rather ordinary name!)
So I needed to come up with an image that would work on the cover and all the other promo material for the exhibition in november.
Now the cover is done (and the catalogue is nearly in the same basket), here is the rough process and the final design.

-------------------

First I started with a really crap-tastic sketch of what I wanted to do.
In a nutshell - a bunch of objects that represent that different majors in the degree, exploding out in a poof of clouds.
After some terrible hand sketches, I realised I can't draw by hand and had to get onto the computer to draw this stuff.

So there is an object for each major (3D design, digital design, ePhotojournalism, fine art, graphic design and honours) + the uni logo, and some spare things to balance everything out. Half of it is new stuff, and the other half is re-worked items out of the first year handbook I did last year.

Now I to arrange them in the clouds...

add the logo type ...

... and add in the scanned paper background. Et voila!

I am quite happy with the end result and am looking forward to seeing it in print with it's matt cello + UV spot varnish pattern (too hard to explain this now, you will have to wait and see!)

the rabbit brochure

2009-08-16T15:09:00.004+10:00

A few weeks ago I got the ruby rabbit brochures back from print.
It is a 2 colour job - Pantone red & process black, but has a very nice look. The client totally loved it and I will be chuffed if it gets her some business.

Apologies for the lacking of posting this month. The uni semester has started again and I have been super busy with the 09 graduate catalogue for my degree + my usual classes. It is nearing completion, so hopefully soon I will have some nice visuals to show on the blog.

twenty three

2009-07-24T16:20:00.005+10:00

yesterday was my birthday ... yay.
I got a Canon 500D ... so excited to get all photographic.

park&cube

2009-07-17T16:03:00.005+10:00

a new illustration, this time of fashion blogger Park & Cube.
I felt compelled to draw her amazing hair! It really makes me wish I gorgeous dark glossy hair.

madeline

2009-07-15T22:37:00.005+10:00

a new practice illustration, with the subject being a lover coat I would buy in a snap if I had a real income (as opposed to my student income!).
Its called the madeline coat after the adorable little french cartoon of the same name and the cute drop collar coats the girls wear. When I was little I used to watch the show and wish I was a young parisian just for the snappy outfits... le sigh.

photographic anticipation

2009-07-09T18:52:00.007+10:00

I'm getting very excited about my looming birthday ...

what I really want is a crazy flower headband

2009-07-01T23:47:00.007+10:00

for my birthday invites I quickly did a new drawing ... problem was I made the dress white and everybody keeps asking me if its really a secret wedding and not a birthday ???
my attention to the dress was minimal, because what I was focused on was the huge floral headpiece ... which I really want to find / make. I guess they weren't looking at that.

NB: based on the invitation feedback I changed the dress to pink before I put it up here.

europe photos ... i finally did something with them

2009-06-24T16:53:00.009+10:00

photos form my recent trip to london and paris are now up on flickr ... enjoy.

NB: I wore the same coat and hat for 3 weeks due to poor wardrobe planning, so it looks like I did everything in one day
AND
I seem to like taking photos of ceilings ... (didn't realise this till I processed them).

ruffles for sale

2009-06-10T18:50:00.006+10:00

The ruffles are all up for sale on etsy ... yay.
Not sure I really expect anybody to buy, but it was a requirement of the folio that they were for sale somewhere :)

shooting ruffles ... again

2009-05-22T11:11:00.009+10:00

Earlier this week I did another studio photoshoot for my ruffles. This time I used Andrea, a friend and fellow design classmate.
The shots turned out great & both models will appear in my ruffle branding that I'm designing this weekend.

porsha in perspex

2009-05-20T11:05:00.003+10:00

Dad is looking at laser cutters and asked me to provide something to test cut samples. Being busy, I looked to the archives rather than creating something new, so sent them this negative space exercise I did in 2006.

The result is super cool ... yet difficult to photograph.

ruby rabbit

2009-05-08T23:31:00.007+10:00

Belinda's new site is finally up. Its not too complicated, but serves the purpose with some cute illustrations to keep it light... hopefully it will help her business.

tribal ruffle illustration

2009-04-28T21:20:00.009+10:00

As another part of my ruffle assignment, I decided to draw an illustration of the Limited Edition Tribal Ruffle (which has feathers & beads).
I am super happy with how it turned out ... it even makes me want to put leaves in my hair.

something silly ... squirrels!

2009-04-28T21:11:00.008+10:00

For one of my first year photoshop classes we had to create a composite image of one of our memories. My memory revolved around my recent trip to London and the fact that even though I was told I would never see squirrels in winter, I saw heaps.
We had to include as many things we learnt in class as possible, being a first year class - this meant filters to the max! Its a little silly, but was a fun change from my third year work.

dream client

2009-04-28T21:03:00.006+10:00

It's always nice when you get a dream client that lets you design whatever you want and loves everything you do. I am lucky enough to have a client like this now, which coincides nicely with developing work for my graduate folio.

My friend Belinda is starting her own business and asked me to do her branding. The company is called Ruby Rabbit (after her daughter - Ruby Abbott) and over the next month I will be creating all the stationery, marketing and pretty things she could possibly need for an emerging company - but for now, here is the logo.

i shot the ruffles

2009-04-18T22:25:00.011+10:00

the ruffle construction is all finished and this week I did the first of many photo shoots for the ruffle assignment.
A big hug & thank you to Danielle for taking a break from anatomy study to model for me.
Now to process the 375 images :(

ruffling in progress

2009-04-03T13:13:00.007+10:00

in the midst of making my ruffle neck-pieces, I feel I may go crazy from so much pleating and pinning!
The pieces are nearly all done and I am planning two very cool black & white photo shoots with friends as models.

dog politics

2009-03-25T16:29:00.009+10:00

Before I went to London, I was asked to design a dog collar to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration for family friends Hamish McBeth.

They wanted a collar that combined the American and Kenyan flags and would fit with the rest of their range. As far as I know the collar will be made and sold on their site.

I decided to blog it because I really liked how the drawings turned out in the end (especially as I was rushing through them a couple of days before I flew, in the midst of dealing with passports, coat hunting & packing).

The Obama Collar : designed for Hamish McBeth

new semester, new project

2009-03-24T14:30:00.010+10:00

The onset of a new uni semester brings exciting new projects. This semester I get to create a range of products that are expressive of my design personality (later on I will branding and marketing them).

I going to do something I've been wanting to make for years but never had the time. It will be a range of silk ruffle neck-pieces (kind of like necklaces but more haute couture ). There will be six different styles in a few colours. Below are the designs ... I can't wait to get into making them ... yay!

in the Hague

2009-03-23T11:35:00.008+10:00

Google analytics tells me that searches for 'De Stijl' are the number one source of traffic for my blog.

So I shouldn't be surprised that I was contacted by a De Stijl specialist at the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague (RKD) who found my blog and asked if I could send a copy of the brochure I did at uni in 2007 to him to be a part of the De Stijl collection and archive at the RKD.

Their collection is the largest De Stijl collection in the world and holds the archive of Theo van Doesburg and more than 600 letters from Piet Mondrian. Although not exhibited, the collection is seen by visitors from huge international galleries like Tate London, Centre Pompidou Paris and MOMA New York. And my little brochure will be amongst it!

what an amazing thing! I am still a little in shock.
Thank you Wietse Coppes for your interest in my work.

around the world

2009-03-13T15:16:00.009+10:00

well almost.

The temporary blogging hiatus can be attributed to much unexpected travel over the uni holidays ... yay!
1 week in Melbourne, 2 weeks on Moreton Island with the family and then 3 weeks in London with a 3 day side trip to Paris (plus nearly 1 week in total sitting on a plane to get to these lovely places).
More posts to come on more design related topics.

merry christmas

2008-12-25T12:50:00.006+10:00

hope you had a good one and enjoy a stylish 09

here are some deer I drew for a xmas card I never made. enjoy

portfolio site update

2008-11-15T15:19:00.004+10:00

Finally I have done an update on my folio site with my recent projects.

Its not done yet though ... there will be a few more to come in the next week or so, plus some new things I am working on at the moment.

tea girls ... now with spice!

2008-10-28T00:05:00.006+10:00

so there haven't been a whole lot of posts recently, but the semester is finishing up and subsequently getting quite crazy, but in two weeks time I will update my folio with all that I have been working on.

But for now, I can give a small update - the chai tea girls have had their swirl of spices added! This involved taking studio photos of the relevant chai spices, then re-shooting them because the first ones were crap, then casually swirling them around my drawn girls as if they were really in the whirlwind of spice!

The next step is to make these awesome images into magazine ads.

the new style.

2008-09-15T00:09:00.005+10:00

A picture of me and my buddy Gabrielle I drew for her birthday card. This faux-paper-cut-out style seems to be turning into a bit of a thing for me!

more tea illustrations

2008-09-07T12:54:00.003+10:00

So it seams I didn't quite read the Tea brief properly and when I proposed to do an illustration of a girl in her "tea moment", it didn't occur to me that I actually had to draw 3 of them... oh dear.
So I spent my weekend doing two more drawings that I didn't plan on.
here they are.

my first website - zulu.com

2008-08-28T15:22:00.008+10:00

In a recent clean up session I found a copy of the very first website I ever made. It was for a grade 10 web subject in 2001 and of course I did it about my dog Zulu (typical teenage girl).

I drew all the images and took all the photos and am particularly proud of the dog wagging his tail in the top right hand corner. There are of course some cringe features, like the awful graphic quality (the whole site had to fit on a floppy disc!), the use of frames (why???) and a super boring splash page.
check it out - but don't laugh too hard!

another project, another drawing

2008-08-24T13:39:00.005+10:00

For a different uni project (in which I am re-branding Lipton Chai Tea), I aimed to draw in a completely different style from my norm.
Step 1 was to create a drawing of a girl lost in her "tea moment"!
The inspiration for the style came from this awesome french illustrator.
The end result is a bit of alright - even if the hands do still bug me.

The next step is to create a "ribbon of chai" using photos of chai ingredients in a collage. These will be swirling around her.

its been a while ...

2008-08-23T17:15:00.004+10:00

I know, I know - no updates for months makes for a lame blog, but I finally have some new stuff to show.

As part of a new uni project, I am designing a handbook for the first year students in my degree. Here are some of the images I am putting into the book to make the important facts stand out.
Drew them in Indesign and filled with different paper textures.

birthday card for dad

2008-08-19T13:35:00.002+10:00

it was recently my dad's birthday.
instead of having to buy a card then straining to come up with something to write in the card, I just got to the point and cut out the message from a piece of board.
et viola!
(somehow the word dad looks like a panda - don't know how that happened!)

22 .... and a new jacket!

2008-07-25T11:11:00.003+10:00

this week was my birthday, and amongst other things I got a new leather jacket.
My favourite present though is a laptop stand and a keyboard so that i don't hunch over my desk anymore. yay!

new porshamarais.com site!

2008-06-16T12:22:00.007+10:00

Its been a long time coming, but my new website is finally here!
I had planned to redesign it in February, but my procrastination got the better of me and it has only happened now as part of a uni assignment.
Complete with ALL my folio items, and a new site design -plus its been done properly this time (no silly iweb business!)

Have a look and tell me what you think!

headcase exhibition

2008-06-06T19:06:00.008+10:00

For a uni assignment we could do a piece of artwork for the Headcase Exhibition being run in Melbourne to raise awareness for people with acquired brain injuries.
I was so exited about creating a canvas work, something I haven't done since highschool.

I decided to create a piece comprising of 2 canvas'; the first showing a young women and her memories, and the second showing how an acquired brain injury has changed them.

Here is the final illustrations, which I printed onto canvas. I am very proud of the end result and hope that it gets chosen to be exhibited in September.

illustrated porsha

2008-05-21T19:00:00.006+10:00

For an 'in progress' uni assignment, I am drawing simple little illustrations to convey the going-ons of my mis-managed group assignment. Here is the drawing of me.

Note that I have accurately portrayed my daily uni accessories of Witchery Poppy bag and maximus sandals!
Hehe... only I would think that was cool!

young porsha

2008-05-21T18:58:00.004+10:00

I think I am about 8 here. Too cute not to share!

exhibition poster

2008-05-10T18:11:00.006+10:00

so i was asked to do a poster for the first years exhibition at QCA - no theme, no name, just whatever I wanted. So I floundered for a while in my boundary-less brief and in the end came up with this. They loved it and for a week my cute little (sadly it was only printed in A3) poster filled the walls of the design buildings. yay for me!

on another note, i feel much web embarrassment at not posting since January and will endeavor to do more updates this week on what i am doing at the moment.

Warhol exhibit at GOMA

2008-01-19T17:07:00.000+10:00

Today mum and I went to see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane (we figured nothing this big would ever come to Brisbane again and needed to see it!). The exhibit was really interesting, there was the expected artwork, but also little sealed displays showing all the stuff he kept (receipts, letters, dinner invites for celebrities etc). I found this stuff really cool, and slightly more interesting than the works which I had seen in my art texts for years.

They also had a photo booth (for kids) to make your own Andy Warhol style print. This is the one mum and I did. Fun!

Ruby Alice Abbott born 13.1.08 2:30am

2008-01-13T22:32:00.000+10:00

Belinda had her baby this morning...
As soon as I go the message I arrange to go visit her and little Ruby.
She is such a gorgeous little girl, so alert and happy.
Congratualtions Belinda!
Here are a couple of pics that dad took whilst we were visiting her.

CHRISTMAS ...

2007-12-14T23:03:00.000+10:00

at Belinda's!
In order to get all the Brisbane peeps together before xmas, the lovely Belinda arranged a lovely festive dinner at her house on the weekend. We ate, we drank (juice cause we were driving) and we gave each other presents (mine was wrapped inside a balloon)!
It was super fun and got me very excited about real xmas later in the month when Jaysen is home!

uni is over - time for sun!

2007-12-03T13:58:00.000+10:00

Now that the semester is over (and what a semester - best grades EVER!) it is time to hit the beach. Mum dad and I went to stay in the lighthouse cottages at Double Island Point for a week and the weather was our best friend. Despite rain in every nearby city and town, we got beautiful sun for 6 of the 7 days. YAY.

End result, chilled out completely and even got a light tan ... woot!

lawball ... in the paper!

2007-11-22T22:53:00.000+10:00

saturday night was lawball! I got a free ticket for all my hard work on the the sla website in 2007.
a very fun night - the theme was masquerade and everybody was delightfully tipsy.
I ended up getting my picture in the paper a few days after ... now I'm famous (ha, not quite)

Party!

2007-11-04T16:48:00.000+10:00

Photos from Belinda's baby shower are up. The day went off without any porblems and everybody enjoyed themselves.
Bel also picked up an awesome swag of baby goodies.
click the pic to get to the rest

fashion magazine

2007-10-29T17:13:00.000+10:00

For uni, we had to do a 12 page magazine on anything - so the obvious choice for me was fashion (of course). We had to take all our own photos (for IP reasons) so jest all you like over the pics of me.

click the pic to view the pdf of the magazine

baby invites!

2007-10-08T22:18:00.000+10:00

let's get something straight - I love making invites!
so when belinda asked me to organise her baby shower and its invites, I could hardly stop my brain exploding with cute ideas for invites. anyway, after fiddling for days the final invites are done.

She doesn't know the sex of the bub, so the colour theme is gender neutral - orange and yellow! I couldn't go past transparent envelopes at art shop so they are in there too.

the actual invite is just textures cream coloured recycle thing i found in the invitation shop and to finish it off I put a "gender-free" baby head on the back to seel.

the end result is so cute - but classy. just like belinda!

so De Stijl

2007-09-11T23:39:00.001+10:00

I do not normally like to blog about uni assignments, but this was a bit too awesome not too!

I had to do a brochure for typography on a decade of type. Via a lucky dip system (v. high tech) I got the 1910s, so I picked the De Stijl movement from the Netherlands. De Stijl means "the style" in dutch. exciting stuff! here is my brochure ...

beer thai

2007-09-09T23:33:00.000+10:00

To make up for the fact that they didnt come to my 21st party, Tami, Tiffany and Jenna (including Emily and Gemma) took me out to dinner last night! We went to a place called Beer Thai (odd name, i know) which was very tasty indeed. Thanks girls!

^ tami and i

^ emily, gemma & jenna

the art of fringe.

2007-09-08T14:31:00.000+10:00

after seeing the above pic on the sartorialist, i decided to get a fringe. now. i have long resisted the fringe as it brings me straight back to my childhood (i had a big blunt fringe up until i was 12), but the stylin fringe of the above lady gave me hope that a fringe could be great.

so i booked in with the hairdressser and took the sartorialist's pic in as a guide and got a fringe.

i actually really like it... and personally think it makes me look more 'arty'. maybe i will fit in a bit better at QCA now.

movie night ... sort of

2007-08-28T10:31:00.000+10:00

Last night, Danielle and I set out to watch the Bourne Ultimatum, however when we got to the cinema, we found out it doesnt come out until this thursday... woops.

not sure how that happened, but we picked up some noodlebox and came home to watch some cable and Zoolander instead. Dan also whipped up a microwavable sticky date pudding - which was awesome!

baby ahoy for belinda ...

2007-08-26T09:20:00.000+10:00

On a whim I decided to go see belinda last night to eat yummy salmon and discuss her up and coming baby shower which I'm to organise. Its going to be an exciting event and we got into he nitty gritty of the details, however I am most exited about making the invitations - a great excuse to play with pretty papers and envelopes.

I am still toying with the idea of making it themed (I love themed parties). Possible pastels (all guest must come in pastel clothing) or bows (upon arrival guests are given a little cream bowtie or bow pin to signal they belong to our party), however i am worried that any theme will be to swayed toward one sex of the baby, which isn't known.
There is also the fact that I never mentioned the idea of a theme to belinda and she might hate it.

oh well, still in the early stages at the moment.

jaysen to London ...

2007-08-22T19:54:00.000+10:00

well jaysen left for london last night and although I know he will have a great time, I will miss him. He left on a midnight flight, which had its benefits, but it meant we were all super tired and the farewell was not as energetic as one would have liked yet more tearful than anticipated. :(

daddykins birthday

2007-08-19T19:48:00.000+10:00

this weekend was my dad's birthday and as he likes to keep things low key we just had a small dinner at home. However we still sprung for a mini-keg of heineken because it was hard to walk out of the bottleshop without it. Happy Birthday dad!

touring it up at seaworld

2007-08-17T19:08:00.000+10:00

In an effort to relax and try to forget about my cars state, Jaysen and I went to Seaworld to do the tourist thing for a day. It was actually a lot of fun and they have added some new animals since I was there last - about 10 years ago - namely the polar bear and the underwater shark viewing area.

Although I mainly went to see the bears, they were not particularly lively and was a little miffed that they only put one bear out in the exhibit at a time - also that this one bear didn't feel the need to swim whilst we were there. Oh well, maybe in 10 years time I will go back and he will swim then.

polo in peril

2007-08-16T22:45:00.000+10:00

Just in case someone out there thought I haven't had enough car problems this year with my car being away for 6 weeks under warranty repair, my otherwise beautiful car was the victim of somebody else's bad driving this week.

Although it is minor, it is terribly annoying to have some silly girl pull straight out of her parallel parking into your car. This I now know. What I also know is hire cars are disgusting and when you ask for "small" you are not necessarily seeing eye-to-eye on the size of vehicles. I am now stuck driving some enormous family car until my baby gets fixed!

... and a few more.

2007-08-10T22:19:00.000+10:00

I have managed to find a few more photos of the camping trip to show. plus Kay has also put up hers too. so much photo joy.

moreton in the winter

2007-07-28T15:22:00.000+10:00

it's taken about a week, but the photos of my 21st are finally up. For those not in the know, Me and a few friends (the ones willing to make the effort) went to Moreton Island for spot of winter camping. It was a bit chilly in the nights (5 °) but the days were nice and sunny. For some it was their first camping experience ever, so we showed them how the Marais' camp. Activities included boating, eating, drinking, marshmallow toasting, watching a movie and some singstar (yep, playstation on the beach). I will possibly do a more detailed post on trip, but for now you can refer to Kay-Lynn's. Click the image to go to all the photos ...

galavanting at goma

2007-07-24T23:37:00.000+10:00

today jaysen and I took a trip to goma in the city to take photos of stuff. We also went to IKEA for some cake and to avoid the peak hour traffic. Good times...