It truly was a night to remember. In the early hours of Thursday, 17 March, while the rest of Australia was tucked up in their beds, the Officeworks Chadstone store opened up exclusively to teams of artists and creatives for the first ever Officeworks Create-a-thon – and the results were mind-blowing.
Locked inside Officeworks Chadstone overnight, four teams were given free rein of the store for six whole hours, with a brief to make, well, whatever they wanted from the products and services available. To help keep spirits high, all finalists were cheered on by event host, the inimitable Flex Mami, and their creations were judged by esteemed Australian artists Beci Orpin and Darren Sylvester, who marked each team against three key criteria, ‘Originality of Idea’, ‘Skill and Level of Finish’ and ‘Use of Materials and Supplies’.
In the six hours allowed for the competition, our Officeworks Create-a-thon finalists glued, printed, painted, deconstructed, projected, photographed, cut out, stuck together and stapled four impressive creations while battling the clock.
SEE ALSO: Create-a-Thon: Meet the Contestants
Create-a-thon: What They Made
Contestants Netti Wagner and Samara Clifford found as much white paper as they possibly could and utilised the Print, Copy and Create desk to scan and print the Officeworks blue uniform and form a waterfall-inspired installation that cascaded down from the top shelves in one of the aisles.
Sydney’s Simon Greiner and Edan Lacey worked into the early hours of the morning to create The Circadia, an interactive dream-inspired vessel made using cardboard boxes, packing tape, levers and pulleys, and designed to transport the viewer through scenes of nightmares and dreams.
Jess Nikitina-Li and Sarah-Jane McMartin built a colourful creation inspired by the notion of time, that used their own photography of the store, captured on the night, stitched together in a collage on Photoshop and projected onto the inside of cardboard boxes.
Solo contestant Callum Preston, who, like Edan, was a last-minute participant, used his time instore to build a lifesize ‘inspiration creation station pinball machine’ using cardboard boxes, wooden rulers, rubber bands, paint, markers, pins and packing tape.
Taking Home the Cheque…
And the winners? Well, it was a tough decision for Beci and Darren, with four distinctly different yet boldly creative designs that used products from every corner of the Officeworks Chadstone store. But in the wee hours, as the sun began to rise, the judges crowned Simon and Edan the winners and awarded them the $25,000 grand prize. Congratulations!
