Tuesday June 23, 2009
For Mike, what started as an uncertain journey following his heart swiftly turned into a creative adventure that couldn’t have been scripted. Mike landed in Australia two years ago with a laptop, a small bundle of cash and a girlfriend – and today heads up Holler Sydney, has a brand new MacBook Pro and a wife (yes, the same girl he followed). With a client roster that includes Lion Nathan (think Tooheys Extra Dry, James Squire and Boags), Universal Music and Johnson & Johnson, Holler Sydney is now 30 people strong, employing some of the best designers and developers in Australia (no horn blowing – for real!). Interestingly, Mike’s academic background is in zoology, which we’re sure helps on a daily basis – dealing with the monkeys, snakes and muppets that populate aspects of the wider business world.
Along the way, Mike met Claire, who is Holler’s Executive Producer and Mike’s right hand woman (read: technically the boss). After cutting her teeth as a Systems Administrator in various ad agencies, the lure of the world wide web proved too strong, and she hung up her RAM and earthing cables to pursue the more creative lifestyle of building websites. Constantly amazed at what’s possible in the digital realm, Claire can finally say she loves what she does. She’s overseen the development of some seriously awesome websites, and while she may not be able to write ActionScript herself, she knows enough to be dangerous.
Mike still thinks he’s the funniest person at Holler, which is why Claire took over writing this bio. Dad jokes just aren’t amusing.
Words by The Groop
Latest and Greatest
This Little Piggy exhibition
So I’m taking part in an exhibition this Feb, and it’s at China Heights gallery, which is really exciting. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to see my works one day. It’s called This Little Piggy and is organised by the uber-lovely and talented Sydney artist Rebecca Murphy. 25 piggy banks meet their demise at the hands of 25 artists! We’re also showing some of our artworks alongside our piggies.
The Attic
I recently got commissioned to paint a mural for the band room at Mona Vale Hotel, aka The Attic. The room has a new vibe and the mural certainly brightens the place up.Coincidentally, it was also rather cool to have Tame Impala break in my artwork on it’s first night with a sold out gig. I was pretty curious to see how the crowd would react to my work – would they like it? Spill their drinks on it? I had to resist the urge to ask one guy to take his foot off the wall!
a guitar, an old PC, a microphone & a speaker
In my attempt to raise awareness of great music, I would like to introduce something quite different from my previous post. This song, ‘Dusty’ is taken from the album ‘Handwriting’ (2003) by Khonnor a.k.a. Connor Kirby-Long, a 23-year-old American DIY musician. This song might not be his best one, but you’ll get the idea. It’s [...]
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remixes http://bit.ly/8JtU6 2009-11-17RT @modularpeople: Circa 1979: Signal to Noise just got Facebooked - http://bit.ly/L42VT - check it! 2009-11-04
RT @modularpeople: Modular presents Circa 1979: Signal to Noise as part of the @Sydney_Festival: http://is.gd/4NvnF 2009-11-04
Can you hear the whispers? http://bit.ly/11ZlNe 2009-10-21
The groop whisper http://bit.ly/45IgRg 2009-10-20
a short film http://bit.ly/39px6Q 2009-10-18
Australian Edge interview with great photographer Carine Thevenau http://bit.ly/DBAd8 2009-10-05
The Groop's own @littlegonzales in the Mona Vale Attic http://bit.ly/9Q3xH 2009-09-30
A sneak peek at what we are up to http://bit.ly/1MKlTS 2009-09-25
What were you doing on Saturday night? http://bit.ly/l566r 2009-09-23
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