Ian Haigh
Ian (that's me) sploshes around at the intersection of words, images, motion, and technology. I was born 'n' raised in Aotearoa NZ, and have pushed buttons for a living in Wellington, London, Amsterdam, and now Sydney. I make fun things for my little agency, Ketchup – writing, directing, filming, and animating. But I'm happiest when spending hours programming a computer to do something automatically that would've taken minutes to do by hand.
Charlotte Parsons and Oz Smith
Soma is a design and animation company based in Naarm / Melbourne. We specialise in premium animation and strive to create a positive, streamlined, enjoyable collaborative experience. We love to experiment, mix styles, tell stories and be out of our comfort zone. Oz is a graphic designer, animator and director from London with experience in design, branding, and broadcast animation. Charlotte has a background in live action TVC shoots and animation production.
Phillip Tibballs
Phillip Tibballs is a Creative Director for Motion at Canva, where he leads a powerhouse internal motion team crafting expressive, story-driven animation at scale. With 15 and a bit years in the industry, he's focused on the intersection of motion, branding, product and events. Picture a big Venn diagram with Motion Design in the middle.
Jess Wiseman
Jess Wiseman is a multidisciplinary 3D artist, illustrator, and designer, and the founder of Figuregot - a brand blending digital art, streetwear, and character IP. Known for hyper-real textures and surreal product design, Jess has created work for the likes of Samsung, KSI, Lil Nas X, Reebok, Clarks, Doja Cat etc. Her work spans from pencil drawings to full 3D animation, building an online presence around imagination brought to life through Blender and beyond.
Michelle Demkiw
With 23 years of experience in broadcast design (fuelled by an early triumph in the competitive world of kindergarten colouring), I now lead the Paramount Plus ANZ internal design team. I love drawing, reading, and these days consider a rare afternoon nap to be the ultimate joy. When not designing or napping, I'm wrangling my two children - arguably my most complex and demanding creative project yet.
Daniela Bau
Daniela is a seasoned Art Director and static/motion designer with a 24-year career in broadcast television promotion and branding — and a proud mum to a tween girl. After 16 years in design leadership at Network 10 / Paramount ANZ, where she launched and refreshed TV channels and solved design problems for a myriad of entertainment and sponsor brands, Daniela is now embracing the flexibility — and occasional existential dread — of freelance life.
John Gavin
John is the Co-Founder and CEO of the YouTube-first entertainment brand Nounish. For 20 years, John has worked in the ever-changing creative industry, through the closing of local film labs, to the rise of the influencer (and the 9:16 deliverable). Now, in a time when creatives are experiencing more pressures, less fulfillment, and even the threat of their livelihoods being automated into oblivion, John and his team have formed Nounish with a mission to create a playful, and inspiring universe for creatives to thrive and reconnect with the pure joy of making art. Nounish wants to shift the culture of the creative industry away from perfectionism and an obsession with the end product, towards the celebration of creativity in its purest form. In this exciting and optimistic future, the new creative commodity is the messy, imperfect, sometimes even scary process of being a creative human.
Billy Chitkin
Billy Chitkin is a freelance 3D Designer & Animator from Detroit in the United States. With over 10 years experience in the industry with a focus on the nitty gritty details, technical animation and look development. A nerd about all things motherboards, render engines, Star Wars and 1990's Japanese sports cars. He's also a co-founder of the studio collective Boxfort, a group of freelance artists spanning everything from cel animation to 3D in his hometown.
Jack Condon
Jack Condon is a Senior Software Engineer at Epic Games who is excited by real-time interactive installations - be it in media, entertainment, or visual arts. With over a decade of experience with these technologies in the live event and installation space, Jack has a passion for programming and integration of physical and virtual environments. His current focus is on processes & iteration to get the best outcomes quickly during production.
