28/01/14

Hey Colosoul readers!

My name is Mel, and I’m the assistant fashion director at The Colosoul Group Inc. I’d like to say that I’m still the new person here at the office but to be honest, I’ve been here for a few months now, however I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.  I’m 19 (my last year of being a teenie bopper) and I’m currently in my third year of uni studying Fashion Design. 

Today is my first day back at Colosoul for 2014, so now I can officially say that I've been here since last year! Still out of breath from climbing the three flights of stairs that lead up our small city office as I write this, luckily this is a blog post and not a filmed interview on camera otherwise I would sound like I were hyperventilating. 

I was a little nervous coming back to the office this year after being away for over a month visiting my family in Queensland but I’m excited for what's ahead and all the rewards, challenges, obstacles and failures that I will most likely experience this year. I always keep telling myself, and everyone out there, that you’ll never learn anything or achieve greatness without making a few mistakes a long the way.  A lot of mistakes! Don’t let it keep you down thought, think “Happy thoughts” LoL. 

Bye for now,

Mel the little lamb signing off. 

' Remember, remember ' - Quotes that Motivate and Inspire.

Why the music department works for me...

Thanks to its glorious reputation and friendly nature, I applied to Colosoul Magazine with fresh eyes after finishing my journalism degree at Curtin University. Initially skeptical about taking on an assistant music editor position, I was concerned as to what I could and would be able to contribute to the magazine. 

Day one got off to a shaky start. Not knowing where anything was or what I was doing was hard but Tricia (CEO) and James (a fellow Assistant Music Editor) pushed me forward. The music department is steadily ascending in quality and proficiency. We, as a cooperative and eclectic bunch, have banded together to improve the music section’s work ethic, contribution levels, and communication skills.  Working with James, we have interacted with bands and singer/songwriters from across Perth willing to share their knowledge of, and experiences within, the city’s music scene. 

As a music editor, I’m able to appropriately and effectively structure and improve an important section of the magazine. In addition, the music position is bringing me closer to Perth’s arts and entertainment culture. 

Having reviewed albums from bands across WA, and researched the state’s music hubs, this engaging and awe-inspiring side of Perth is widening my gaze. Assisting with this section’s development, I am learning to cooperate with writers and photographers, interact with lead editors/creators, and absorb varying genres, artists, and movements. 

- Tom Munday (Music Department Assistant Editor) 

22/01/14

It was great having time out from work but then when I get back after the Christmas break I feel overloaded. There is just so much to do - organising all the events for 2014 making sure all the dates and venues are locked in, having the right team to help put them together; emailing potential advertisers, promoting our design agency, catching up with clients and of course mentoring my amazing team. Fortunately for me I have an excellent PA two days a week so I feel like a can actually get through some of my work. The thing is I am ADD - highly active and find it hard to sit still. My admin girl Chelsea and my PA girl Sam keep me on track! Lucky to have them.

Some days I find things easy breezy and they just fly by, others days, like this week, seemed almost as though I have been climbing a mountain. I seem to spend two hours staring at my computer contemplating what I should be doing and not actually doing anything at all, I am then stressed for the next five hours trying to fit the workload in. 

Anyhow, I saw a cool picture today of Canadian mountain climbing goats and I thought to myself, "How the hell do those goats actually climb that mountain?" It actually looked impossible. I turned the picture sideways and upside down, it just didn't make sense. I have decided I am going to do some research into these goats and I will let you know what I discovered in my next post. 

One thing it did though, was remind me that the days are not so difficult after all and anything I really want to achieve, I can. I have just got to keep persevering and pursuing the goals I have here at Colosoul and anything is possible.

Tricia Ray

CEO/Publisher/Founder

The Colosoul Group Inc

Canadian Mountain Goats 

How time flies! 

It's funny how fast a day can pass when you're doing something you genuinely enjoy; how  a 10 'til 4 job can leave you not dawdling and passing the time with strategically placed toilet breaks, but instead time-managing as best you can to get everything you want to do, done. The pangs of lunchtime hunger are tutted at, against a flurry of e-mails to answer, and a blog post to finish. At 3:50pm, you're wondering how the hell you only have ten minutes left when you have so much more to do! 

That's the dizzying affect Colosoul has; A busy, buzzing office in which a million and one things seem to be getting done at once. Much like most other early twenty-somethings, work and effort is seldom something I revel in. Even my paid job requires an almost inhuman exertion of willpower to heave myself out of bed and slug my way through hours of dreary retail assistance.

But with Colosoul, I'm doing something I'm excited about, something I'm learning from every day and which is helping me reach goals I once thought were too extraordinary to aim for. When you're doing something that you love, where you're surrounded by others who are doing the exact same thing, the work doesn't seem like work. It's fun, it's an experience, and it's flying by at a million miles an hour!

- Chelsea L Brown

I've just spent over an hour choosing fonts.

Welcome to the world of a deadbeat graphic designer/resident Colosoul creative director. I just updated the look of this blog and literally took over an hour choosing the perfect combination of fonts from a very limited selection, and I'm still not entirely happy.

Sometimes I hate what I'm working on and have no creative motivation whatsoever to continue, often just scrapping the project completely and starting over. Other nights I'm totally in a "zone" and can look at my work thinking "daymm I'm good." But lately I've felt like I'm in a creative rutt, especially with this current issue of the magazine being such a mess, it's been hard to find the motivation to be great again. Then I recently came across this quote from Ira Glass on why creativity and excellence takes time:

CREATIVITY NEEDS TIME: "The first couple years that you're making stuff, what you're making isn't so good - it's not that great. It's trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it's not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you in the game, your taste is killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell what you're making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people quit.

And the thing I would just like to say to you is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be. We knew that it didn't have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing to do is - everybody goes though that. And for you to go through it, if you're going through it right now, if you're just getting out of that phase or if you're just starting off and you're entering into that phase, you've got to know it's totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work."

I fell in love with this instantly because it nails how I feel so perfectly. It's that feeling of spending hours working on something and still thinking "this looks like shit".

So I wish I could pass this on to everyone that comes through Colosoul. I see a lot of amazing talented designers come and go, because they go through this phase before having breakdowns or quitting and settling into jobs completely out of their field, stable 9 to 5 jobs because it's easier than finding a creative media job. Sure a lot of people who started at Colosoul have gone on to great things, and other times people have just realized that this field isn't for them. But the biggest bummer is meeting people with mad crazy skills and education who have settled into mediocre jobs. This is the beauty of Colosoul, it pushes you to be better, giving you a platform to recognise your potential and to build your portfolio essentially from nothing. What you get from your time here is only going to be as good as the work you put in.

So here's to 2014, to hard work, doing what you love and doing it well.

- x Lil

New Year, new you?

Welcome to 2014!

While we welcome in all the possibilities and opportunities that come with the start of a new year, we must also be weary of accidentally becoming a 'new years resolutioner' - those people insistent on the cliche that a new year means a new you.

For the few people where this saying goes, that's all well and good but here at Colosoul Group Inc we're not looking at becoming someone new, we quite like us, so you won't see us running to the nearest gym seeking a joining form. 2014 is all about building and exposing our brand name.

It's definitely going to be an exciting and busy year ahead for the Colosoul Group so watch this space to hear all about what's going on and what's coming up! 

 - Jenita xo