Anna Gerber (London, UK)
Is a designer and writer based in London. She has a background in philosophy and communication design. She writes for magazines such as Eye, Dot Dot Dot and Print and teaches on the MA Communication Design Course at Central St.Martins College of Art & Design, London. She is the author of All Messed Up, unpredictable graphics.

Kevin Finn (Sydney. AUS)
Over the past decade Kevin has worked at a number of leading design studios in Dublin (Ireland), Wellington (New Zealand) and Sydney. He is currently Joint Creative Director at Saatchi Design, Sydney, and has won numerous prestigious national and international awards, including a D&AD (UK) Silver in Typography and a Type Directors Club Judges Choice (USA). He is also founder, editor and designer of Open Manifesto, currently Australia's only journal of critical writing on design and visual communications.

Simon Pampena (Melbourne, AUS)
Mathematician with a difference.

Stephen Banham Convenor (Melbourne, AUS)
Stephen Banham is founder of Letterbox. Stephen has written and produced 12 publications on the cultural aspects of typography as well as lecturing on the subject at RMIT since 1991. He has spoken at design events from New York to Barcelona, New Zealand to Beirut. Stephen is the creator of the Character series of forums held in Melbourne.

Much of design, when boiled down, is communication from one human to another. It operates within the inherent chaos of life — where unpredictable things happen. Informed by its roots in modernism, graphic design seems to take a stance that is often apart (and possibly above) the maelstrom of everyday human frailty — built on the aesthetics of perfection, aspiration and desire. But is it right that graphic design is so at odds with the nature of chance? Perhaps we need to remember that the creative process is not only victim to accidents but also in need of them*.

Looking at the picture of perfection that a style guide presents for example, you could be forgiven that it comes from another place. A place where everything is plann ed, constant and above all — predictable. But perhaps we need accidents, mistakes and errors to move forward. Has the term 'accident' acquired its negative connotation through our resistance to happenstance? Can accident operate within the 'professional' sphere?

As Character is based on the premise of critiquing current graphic design practice and putting these issues up for open discussion, the third in the series was based on the role accidents play in the creative process.

This culminated in an exhibition on the theme Accidents not so grotesk, which opened Character 3 and was followed by a forum featuring a panel of speakers discussing the many aspects of this theme; Has graphic design become so professionalised that it may have forgotten the spontaneity of the happy accident? Is our drive for technical perfection and predictability at the cost of accepting happenstance? What can the acceptance of accident offer us as creative thinkers?

* Anna Gerber, All Messed Up, Lawrence King Publishing 2004