Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Short description David Blumenstein (born 1980) is a service designer, writer, cartoonist and animation director based in Melbourne. He is a founding member of Squishface Studio, a co-share workspace for comic artists.
Animation
Blumenstein's film Shit Party was a selection of the 2002 Melbourne International Film Festival.[1]
He directed the short animated film Herman, the Legal Labrador in 2004; it starred Shaun Micallef, Katrina Mathers, Loc Nghe and Santo Cilauro.[2] He later directed the music video The Happiest Boy for The Bedroom Philosopher,[3] segments of the C31 anthology series Take One and the animated series Be A Man.
He worked as a storyboard artist on the children's series Wakkaville and Jar Dwellers SOS, and as an animator on the children's series Dogstar and the adult animated series Pacific Heat.[4]
In 2014 he was one of a group of animators selected for the Designing Dreams Studio, an initiative of ACMI and Dreamworks.[5]
Comics
In 2012, Blumenstein co-founded Squishface Studio, Australia’s first open comics studio, which functions as a workplace, retail space and classroom.[6] It supports itself through workshops and memberships.[7] He was also part of the Caravan of Comics, a cartoonist tour of North America.[8]
In 2013, he won an award for Graphic Short Story in Melbourne's Lord Mayor's Creative Writing Awards for a piece called The Bolt Report. Blumenstein wrote the piece in epistolary voice, as his school-aged younger brother, Tristian, completing a media studies assignment.[9] The piece was subsequently attacked by its subject, conservative commentator Andrew Bolt.[10] Blumenstein later continued writing in Tristian's voice for pieces published at Daily Review and The Lifted Brow.[7]
He also illustrated a comics piece written by Paul Owen covering the Australian federal election for Guardian Australia.[11]
In 2015, Blumenstein wrote #takedown: My evening on a pier with pick-up artists and protesters, a book about professional pickup artist Julien Blanc, who was heavily protested, and eventually ejected from the country, while on a controversial tour of Australia.[12][13]
After submitting a piece by Tristian to the Senate inquiry into George Brandis' funding cuts to the Australia Council for the Arts in 2015, Blumenstein was warned that making a submission purporting to be from a non-existent person could find him in contempt of Senate.[7] He withdrew Tristian's submission but made one himself on behalf of Squishface Studio.
Blumenstein wrote Free Money, Please in 2019 and released it simultaneously on Medium and zco.mx.[14] It is a graphic essay about cryptocurrency and passive income.
He is currently serving as deputy president of the Australian Cartoonists Association.[15] In December 2019 a complaint was made against him by member Rod Emmerson following a cartoon/Twitter thread Blumenstein published drawing a link between News Corp's vilification of minorities and the atrocities that follow.[16][17]
In January 2020 The Guardian published Why Los Angeles is Scientology's perfect city – an illustrated guide, a non-fiction comic about the city of Los Angeles and the Church of Scientology.[18]
Other media
In 2014 Blumenstein was interviewed by comedian/writer Justin Heazlewood for the book Funemployed, which is about the financial challenges that face artists working in Australia.[19] He also appeared on the subsequent ABC radio series of the same name.[20]
Blumenstein co-hosted a podcast in 2017 called Pitchface in which he and co-host Adam Wajnberg pitch creative and business ideas.[21] He has also appeared on podcasts including xDiscipline and Graphic Nature.[22]
In 2020 he wrote about government communications on COVID-19 for ArtsHub.
Design career
Currently Blumenstein works as a service designer and visual communicator.[23] He was hired in 2015 as a founding designer in the IAG Labs, and spoke about his drawing, prototyping and design work at the UX Australia conference in 2017.[24]
Bibliography
- Herding Kites: A Celebration of Australian Writing (2008), by Michael Williams (Editor)
- Sciensatics, Going Down Swinging, no.30, 2010, p. 72-75 (ISSN 0157-3950)
- Showman? : the Bret Braddock adventures (2011), Nakedfella Productions
- Showman? : the Bret Braddock adventures. vol. 2 : overtime approved (2013)[25]
- Tristian Oversees : France, England and America Thru the Eyes of Australia's Youngest Political Journalist (2016), Nakedfella Productions,
- #takedown: My evening on a pier with pick-up artists and protesters (2015), Pikitia Press,
- What we Tell Them: A story Book by Mr Tony Abbott (2019)[26]
- š! #37 'Down Down Under' (š!, #37) by Kuš! (Editor)[27]
Personal life
Blumenstein is married to Squishface Studio artist Sarah Howell.
References
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