Shillo Stories: Simon Wiltshire

G’day, I’m Simon, and I’m one of the full-time teachers at Shillington. I was a student with Shillington around ten years ago and since graduating I’ve been doing the freelance thing. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a lot of agencies in Sydney, both big and small, I’ve done some in-house work with some well-known Australian brands, and some illustration work within the music and hospitality industries. Aside from design, I have a beautiful wife and we have a three-month-old son named Elvis. I love music, classic cars, hoarding guitars, and spinning a yarn over a couple of beers.

Inspiring me

I recently re-watched one of my all-time favourite movies - Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It’s about this 80-something year old sushi chef in Japan who yearns to achieve sushi perfection in his tiny restaurant underneath Shinujku Station in Tokyo. In the movie Jiro makes the distinction of not doing what you love, but rather loving what you do, whatever that may be. He lives by the shokunin philosophy of striving for perfection through practice, repetition, and incremental improvement. If that doesn’t pump your little graphic design tyre nothing will.

On reflection

I was busting a mad dancer’s pose in a yoga class recently when the teacher started spitting some hippy garbage about finding stillness in the discomfort and using that as an opportunity to grow, and blah blah blah whatever. I was totally nailing the pose so shuddup and leave me alone… In retrospect, that little nugget of wisdom was very relevant to my career in design, which could very much be viewed as a series of uncomfortable moments. From humbling myself as a student in my mid-30s, to surrendering to the never-ending stream of client feedback - I’ve had many experiences in my career that have pulled me out of my comfort zone and provided opportunities to grow, both professionally and personally. And that growth is in turn reflected in my exquisite dancer's pose. Namaste doggies.

What's cooking?

I’ve been working on refreshing the brand identity for Green Farmers, who are one of the largest medicinal cannabis cultivators in Australia. They’re a great client to work for as the medicinal cannabis industry is still growing in Australia and it’s a unique opportunity to develop the identity of a business who are shaping up to be leaders in their industry. Here’s a sneak peak at the full expression of their logo, which takes its form from the shape of a cannabis leaf.

Namaste. Thanks a bunch Simon!

Check out Simon's Instagram for more of his work.