Semi Permanent is a creative experience company, best known for hosting annual design festivals. Semi Permanent provides creative and production services via SP Studio and SP Productions. Semi Permanent produces innovative creative experiences for clients, including Google, Dropbox and National Geographic. The first Semi Permanent event was hosted in Sydney, Australia in 2003. Semi Permanent host events throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as international events in the United States, United Kingdom and China. Semi Permanent curate and host new events throughout the world each year. Some of the executive attendants of the event have been

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began ...

Ed Templeton Ed Templeton (born July 28, 1972) is an American professional skateboarder, contemporary artist, and photographer. He is the founder of the skateboard company, Toy Machine, a company that he continues to own and manage. He is based in Hunting ...

Wieden+Kennedy Wieden+Kennedy (W+K; earlier styled ''Wieden & Kennedy'') is an American independent global advertising agency best known for its work for Nike. Founded by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, it is one of th ...

Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...

Jeffrey Deitch Jeffrey Deitch (pronounced ''DIE-tch'';Mike Boehm (January 12, 2010)L.A.'s MOCA picks art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as director'' Los Angeles Times''. born 1952) is an American art dealer and curator. He is best known for his gallery Deitch Projec ...

, Paula Scher,

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sca ...

, Radiohead and

Paul Pope Paul Pope (born September 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's ...

. In 2020 Semi Permanent announced their partnership with digital publisher Highsnobiety. Since 2013 Semi Permanent has been part of the Vivid Ideas calendar. Previous Semi Permanent festival line-ups have included presentations from Fancesco Zizola, Brian Roettinger, Numskull, and many more.

Background

Founded in 2002 by Murray Bell and Andrew Johnstone, Semi Permanent encompasses three core business pillars: Semi Permanent, SP Brand Studio and SP Productions. The Semi Permanent office is located in Sydney, Australia. Semi Permanent is the company's namesake brand, encompassing a global design festival, annual book, website and more. Semi Permanent have been running creativity festivals since 2003 in cities across the globe, including Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Portugal. Past speakers and collaborators include iconic filmmakers

, Michel Gondry, and the Coppola family; artists

Tom Sachs Tom Sachs (born July 26, 1966) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City. Life and early career Sachs was born in New York City on July 26, 1966. He grew up in Westport, Connecticut, attending high school at Gree ...

CJ Hendry Catherine Jenna Hendry (CJ Hendry) (born 1988) is a contemporary Australian artist known for hyper-realistic, large-scale renderings of luxury objects using a self-developed scribbling technique. Biography Hendry was born in South Africa and ra ...

and Alex Israel; and the world’s most renowned creatives including Nike’s

Tinker Hatfield Tinker Linn Hatfield, Jr., (born April 30, 1952, Hillsboro, Oregon) is an American designer of numerous Nike athletic shoe models, including the Air Jordan 3 through Air Jordan 15, the twentieth-anniversary Air Jordan XX, the Air Jordan XXII ...

, Pentagram’s Paula Scher, Pro Skater

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first docume ...

, architect Bjarke Ingels and many more. Previous festivals have included the collaborations with Google Tilt Brush and National Geographic. Previous festival themes include "Truth" in 2019, and "Restless" in 2020. Semi Permanent publishes an annual book, featuring interviews with creative thought leaders. Previously featured interviews, conversations and work include talent such as

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Colu ...

, Cara Stricker,

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

, Nadia Lee Cohen and Kevin Parker. SP Brand Studio co-created a two-day live sport & creativity experience in 2021, and created an immersive retrospective with Stanley Donwood and Radiohead with a bespoke soundscape by Thom Yorke. SP Productions is Semi Permanents 'white label' events and production agency. SP Productions worked with Google to curate, program and produce their global diversity and inclusion program, Rare.

Past speakers and collaborators (selection)

* Radiohead * Roman Coppola *

Kevin Parker, Tame Impala Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...

Olivier Zahm Olivier Zahm (born 25 September 1963) is a French magazine editor, art critic, art director, curator, writer, and photographer He is the co-founder, owner, and current editor-in-chief of the bi-annual art and fashion magazine ''Purple.'' In addi ...

(

Purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...

) * Michael Leon * Nicholas Felton *

kelly Slater Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time. Slater is als ...

* Gia Coppola *

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 19 ...

Chris Burkard Chris Burkard is an American photographer and artist, based in the California Central Coast region. He photographs landscape, lifestyle, surf, outdoor, and travel subjects. Burkard takes a photojournalistic approach to make editorial projects, ...

Shaun White Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986) is an American former professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a five-time Olympian and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding. He holds the world record for the most X ...

* Carli Lloyd * PAM * Willo Perron * Vince Frost * Platon * Danny Yount * Scott Dadich (Wired) * United Visual Artists *

Jonathan Zawada Jonathan may refer to: * Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

Cory Arnold As a given name, Cory is used by both males and females. It is a variation of the name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone. The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word ''coire'', which means "in ...

* The Monkeys *

* Banksy *

Seb Lester Sebastian "Seb" Lester (born 1972 in London) is an English artist, type designer and calligrapher. Lester is notable for prominent type designs and calligraphic prints. He is also known for his videos of hand drawn calligraphy, often of famous bran ...

The Talks ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

* Jeff Soto * Fafi * Michael Muller * Jill Greenberg * Ron English * Droga 5 *

Kris Moyes Kris Moyes (born 30 October 1978) is an Australian-born director and producer and founder of KMOYES PICTURES. He is perhaps best known for his innovative music videos. In 2005 he directed The Presets "Are You The One?" which utilized a large arr ...

* Nabil *

Floria Sigismondi Floria Sigismondi (, born 1965) is an Italian-Canadian film director, screenwriter, music video director, artist, and photographer. She is best known for writing and directing ''The Runaways'', for directing music videos for performers includin ...

* WETA Digital *

Taj Burrow Taj Burrow (born 2 June 1978) is an Australian retired professional surfer. Taj retired from the WSL World Tour in June 2016 where he left a legacy of power and impressive surfing. Early life Burrow was born in Yallingup, Western Australia, A ...

* March Studio * AKQA *

R/GA R/GA is a innovation consultancy and digital design and advertising agency, headquartered in New York City, Untited States, with global offices in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, London, United Kingdom, Berlin, São Paulo, Buenos A ...

* Tara McPherson * Moving Picture Company (MPC) *

Aaron Rose Aaron Rose is an American film director, artist, exhibition curator and writer. Rose is known as the co-director of ''Beautiful Losers'', a film that focuses on an art movement which includes artists such as Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, S ...

* Reg Mombassa *

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

Stefan Sagmeister Stefan Sagmeister (born August 6, 1962) is an Austrian graphic designer, storyteller, and typographer based in New York City. In 1993, Sagmeister founded his company, Sagmeister Inc., to create designs for the music industry. He has designed al ...

References

{{Reflist Design events