FORM

Kel, Josh and Matt from Treehouse Collective

The Treehouse Collective is boutique freelance graphic design & photography company. Their latest collaboration is a lifestyle streetwear label Elementree, a collection of hand-printed and locally designed apparel.

What do you do?

In addition to our clothing brand Elementree, we run a boutique freelance graphic design & photography company - Treehouse Collective. This sees us working on all kinds of projects from logo design, album and poster design, DVD editing, production and design, photography and custom tshirts.
We also have a variety of day jobs between the three of us:   

• Kel is a graphic designer at The Sunday Times.
• Josh does tshirt printing and sales through www.etshirts.com.
• Matt produces and Mc's for local hip hop outfit - Stoop Fresh.

Who is in your ‘creative community’?

Music and hip hop culture would have to be the number one source of our inspiration, although, I think all of us could credit a number of excellent lecturers from our TAFE and uni days, as well as all the young designers and photographers we have gotten to know through study and work. We also have strong ties within the Perth music scene, where a lot of our outside design work comes from. We enjoy working with other musicians and artists on their projects as they share the same ideologies and speak the same language.

What is your ‘creative footprint’?

We all went to school together in the Perth hills - best mates since the start of high school. We then progressed to Central TAFE in Northbridge: Josh took film, then photography; while Kel and Matt took graphic design; and both went on to gain degrees at Curtin University. After graduating and working at a variety of creative jobs we decided we'd much rather work together as a team, and pursue the type of work we want to do (not what our boss wants us to!).

Describe what creativity means to you…

For us, its hard to imagine having a career without creativity. To start with a design brief at stage one, to develop and explore your ideas, and refine them through to a finished design is a really fun experience. The most rewarding part of the whole process is seeing the final product, whether it be a tshirt on someone's back, or a poster in a cafe.
     
Describe the ideal conditions for your creativity, and what, if anything, hinders you in creating those conditions

• MUSIC! You have got to be listening to great music, otherwise you have no hope.
• Cool, creative people around you to bounce ideas off. Its so much better to be surrounded by like-minded people. It makes a BIG difference!
• A comfortable, easy-going environment (ie, cool artwork, comfy chair, no stress. ie, NOT AN OFFICE). For instance our workplace includes a fully-stocked bar, foosball table, pool table, dart-board & poker table!

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