Nine Creative Australians You Should Have On Your Radar

You know who knows what’s up? You, that’s who, simply by virtue of making it this far. With all your savvy and discerning interests across a wide spectrum of creative endeavours; finger never not on the pulse, keen for the next and the now, thirsty lil’ ol’ you. 

With your interests squarely in mind, we’ve assembled the following: a concise list of a select few creative Australians making their presence known and felt on our radar at this very moment. Enterprising young turks – not unlike yourself – who you’d be well advised to keep a well trained eye or ear on before they begin to blow up on a major way. 

Building on momentum generated by an almost ubiquitous presence at Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week, model activist Ollie Henderson has expanded her #STARTTHERIOT passion project – hand-painted tees emblazoned with slogans like ‘Welcome refugees, save lives’ and ‘Keep Tassie’s bush – I keep mine’ – from a labour of love with a street style bent to a nascent political movement making its way around the globe. The ardent activism championed by Ollie and her likeminded contemporaries has garnered coverage in the world’s largest fashion publications, including Vogue and on style.com; their simple yet effective shirts are also now available online at House of Riot, and in stores from Bondi’s Tuchuzy to Patricia Field’s boutique in New York. 

Another labour of love – albeit a slightly more therapeutic one. We’re quietly enamoured with everything coming off the wheels at the Weak End Club – a ceramic side project started by graphic designers Mark Trzopek and Dana Rogers as an antidote to their 9 – 5’s. It would also seem the Vanishing Elephant lads feel the same way: you’re now able to browse their Weak End wares IRL in VE stores in Bondi and Melbourne, or on their site. 

Full disclosure: we’ve been working alongside Tim recently on a series of stellar editorials you might’ve seen right about here, so we’re more than well-placed to confirm that while his photos are eminently likeable and extremely stunning, he’s also not too bad either.  

Stop whatever it is you’re pretending to do and take the next seven minutes out of your day to listen to Adelaide newcomer Tkay Maidza’s new song ‘Uh-huh’ twice: once because you might on first listen be able to discern parallels with very early, very good M.I.A.; then listen to it again, because it’s so damn catchy. It was on the strength of that song that we made sure Tkay was the first act we saw at Splendour In The Grass this past weekend, which quickly turned into a mad scramble for face time, which has now turned into fully-fledged fandom.

Real talk: the best things in life are Japanese food and adorning your body with Japanese food. Enter Sydney-based creative director and design multi-disciplinarian Grace Tankard, whose fledgling artisan accessories label Ichi Knee creates kawaii edible costume jewellery for the emoji generation, perfectly package both online and off.  

Sydney via the Sunshine State illustrator Barry Patenaude creates worlds on paper that manage somehow to be both uniquely Australian and almost otherworldly. Wherever they are, the vibe is always decidedly chill, drawing generously from where we’d rather be. In other words, we’re very much picking up what he’s putting down. Case in point:

Nary a year old and Good Good Girl has already carved a comfortable niche in our hearts, right there in that atrium solely reserved for articulate New Wave Feminist critiques of contemporary culture replete with ample references to Tina Fey’s oeuvre. It would probably be remiss of us to speak for editor Wendy Syfret and her intention with GGG, so for a full rundown of what they’re about, you can and should place your bookmark well and truly here.   

The fact that her Instagram is currently set to private shouldn’t deter you from following the trajectory of filmmaker Sophie Hyde, whose innovative debut 52 Tuesdays continues to draw worldwide critical praise for its deft handling of issues like gender identification and sexuality. 

Having already won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the Crystal Bear for Best Film from the Youth Jury at the Berlin Film Festival followed by narrow cinematic release here, Hyde, her film and its lead Tilda Cobham-Hervey, are two – or three, the film included – local talents poised on the brink of something pretty special coming to another cinema in or around your life soon.

Here’s where you come in. Bose Australia have put out a call for you to effectively fill that last spot by launching the Bose Creative Development Fund, which aims to unearth and foster emergent Australian talent in any medium through gifting unto one lucky recipient a $20,000 grant. 

Ten weekly winners as chosen by an esteemed panel of developed creatives will, in addition to going into the running to win the grant, also receive a Bose Prize Pack to the tune of $800. 

To enter, head here, or simply do what you’d usually do on social media and upload a deft #humblebrag highlighting your exceptional talents accompanied by #ListenForYourselfAU. Simple.

Title photo: Tim Swallow, supplied