Breaking the Pixel Ceiling

Gemma Mahoney is a freelance graphic designer and founder of Rise, an online movement and mindfulness platform. Gemma is a multidisciplinary graphic designer working across brand identity, creative direction, and typography for caring brands, in Australia and overseas. With Rise, her design skills and philosophies led her to champion the importance of design and aesthetics in the fitness space. Responding to the notion that good design improves lives. In her design practice, Gemma brings a balance of creativity and playfulness to a disciplined process. She is known for her use of colour and skillful treatment of typography, often leaning towards the structure while still being able to effectively communicate abstract concepts. Her expanding practice also includes custom lettering and type design, having released a few typefaces.

Sabina McKenna is an Australian writer and curator of Nigerian-Irish heritage. She is the creator of The Where Are You From? the project, a photojournalistic series about cultural identity. Sabina writes predominantly in interview style and has been featured locally and internationally in publications that include Youtime, The Big Issue, Partial Magazine, Frankie Magazine, Art Almanac, Broadsheet, Fashion Journal Magazine, Archer, Acclaim, i-D, G-IRL (London), Ladies of Leisure, Catalogue Magazine, and Hopes and Fears (NYC).

Her diverse creative portfolio explores themes of identity and belonging, and she is involved in a range of creative initiatives and institutions, which has included Future Girl Corp, Be. Collective Culture, Frieze Art Fair in New York, and The National Gallery of Victoria.

Where are you from? has achieved local and international acclaim, with features in press publications that include ABC TV, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie Magazine, iD UK, Fashion Journal Magazine, Acclaim Magazine, ArtsHub, Zee Feed, Vice, Broadsheet, ABC Life, ABC Radio, Triple R and FBI Radio Sydney.

After Hours is a brand-building shop that creates identities, websites, packaging, products, and more for brands, companies, and people on the internet. The shop is helmed by Shy Trutwein and Jasmine Gallagher. They partner with emerging and established brands alike, combining playful sensibilities and strategic methodology with innovation and motivation to create things that matter.

With a background in stylised character-based photography that draws on the surrealism of glamour and consumption, Phebe moved into film direction, bringing her eye for distinctive and thought-provoking imagery to the screen. She has over a decade of industry experience and a rare ability to approach complex topics with a playful sense of humour, often exploring the absurd nature of beliefs surrounding authenticity, aesthetics, and identity. Her unique visual language spans commercial work for clients such as UN Women, Mountain Goat, Nike, The Iconic, acclaimed national and international publications from Vogue to Vault Art magazine, and exhibits in galleries such as MONA and Art Space.