2021 may have been a year of hurdles for everyone but #Westies don’t shy away from hard work! With the gradual relaxation of lockdown restrictions now upon us, we’re coming out of the Covid-winter hibernation with HUGE plans for our 10th birthday!
Today, we’re excited to reveal our amazing poster for the 2021 festival!!
We're SUPER excited about this year's poster design we'd like to introduce you to the talented artist whose mad creative skills made it happen.
Tia Macgillivray is an illustrator and graphic designer who loves everything cyberpunk. After studying fine art, 3D art, animation and graphic design, she enrolled in Visual Communications at Western Sydney University.
“I developed a love and confidence in illustration in the second year of uni. I haven’t had much time out of university to create lots of illustrations but I hope to do it once it’s all over and go into the real freelance world!”
Tia says she knew immediately when she saw the brief for our 2021 festival poster design that she wanted to give it a go.
“Once I saw the brief I was jumping with joy! One of my favourite movies is Blade Runner 2049 which is such a beautiful movie so anything futuristic and cyberpunk was my ally. For me what really speaks to me about cyberpunk is usually the backgrounds and the environments so I wanted to focus most of my time and energy there,” she says.
Well her decision certainly paid off, because when the SSP team saw the amount of work that had gone into designing the futuristic streetscape for the poster, we were SO impressed!
We absolutely loved the familiarity of the scene and how it has been transformed so beautifully in our future cyberpunk world.
When we let Tia know that her design was chosen, she was surprised.
“At first I was in denial, I couldn’t believe mine was chosen out of the four. All the other student designers produced really great work. Being chosen really solidified my work ethic and confidence in my illustration. This will be the first time one of my designs will be seen on a big scale, and I can’t wait!” she says.
We can’t wait to see it either!
You can follow Tia’s creative life on Instagram: @toad.haus
Hats off to Tia for her amazing work and BIG THANKS for designing such a fantastic poster to celebrate our 10th anniversary festival.
We absolutely loved working with Tia this year, plus all design students from Burrow Studio at WSU and their fearless leader, Katrina Sandbach.
Have you heard? Western Sydney University just signed on as our Gold+ Screen Sponsor. WSU offers undergraduate courses in Communication Arts and Creative Industries with practical learning and industry opportunities for all types of creatives. You can learn more about creative courses at WSU here.
Actually, we've been busy working with Burrow on another project too - Made in the West MAGAZINE!
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY of our 10th anniversary Magazine and you can read all about the beginnings of Made in the West, our journey over ten years of festival-making and the award-winning friends and filmmakers we have met along the way.
SSP has worked alongside a team of WSU design students to bring to life this eye-popping LIMITED EDITION magazine, complete with AR elements that bring its pages to life --- we adore it and we can’t wait to share this special project with you soon!
Meanwhile, #savethedate and join us on the red carpet on Saturday 4 December 2021 from 6pm at Event Cinemas, Liverpool!
We'll have more announcements coming soon as we settle in to our new relaxed but still Covid-safe settings in cinemas around town.
No matter what, you can count on an awesome line-up of Western Sydney’s best short films, the biggest V-max screen in the West, comfy leather arm chairs, a private bar with cocktails, full DCP and surround sound, and of course, getting snapped on the red carpet in your best awards night get-up!
Let's face it, Made in the West is EXACTLY what we all deserve right now.
One week later we’re bringing the red carpet event to you! Pour yourself a drink, sit back on the couch and smash that home-popped popcorn as we celebrate the year’s best short films - streamed directly to your device! - with our second annual Online Festival screening from Friday 10 December 2021.
If you have made a short film featuring cast, crew, or locations from Western Sydney, we could be screening YOUR FILM on the HUGE V-max cinema screen at Event Cinemas!
We hope to see you there.