Growing up in small coastal town, Simon wishes he had stories of being a precocious child whose need to know how things worked had him forever pulling things apart or whose brimming creativity saw him build ingenious furniture out of scraps. But alas, his formative years were really pretty average.

When it came time to knuckle down and embark on a career, Simon first tried his hand at computer science at Newcastle Uni. But, 18 months later, he was bored and uninspired. Switching to Industrial Design, Simon found his niche.

“I like the creativity of Industrial Design and that it’s quite a practical profession,” Simon said. “You have to make stuff that not only looks good but works as well.”

One day, not long out of Uni, Simon sat down with a directory of creative companies and sent out a “shitload” of CVs. That night, he got a call from Will Colhoun, Managing Director of Big Kahuna Imagineering, to see if he could work on a project. Although that first assignment never went ahead, Simon (still in Newcastle at the time) worked with Big Kahuna remotely for the next 6-7 months before making the move to Sydney and becoming BKI’s go-to designer.

Originally setting his sights on design consultant companies, Simon fell into the imagineering industry.

“It’s certainly not what I thought I’d get into,” Simon said. “It’s not really on the list of industries at a career fair. Generally, people don’t think about how things are made, but it’s fun and interesting. I’ve done a lot of shitty jobs but working for Big Kahuna I never wake up and go, ‘Ugh! I’ve got to go to work.’”

As Big Kahuna’s resident Designer, Simon helps our clients turn their imaginations into something that can be imagineered. From initial rendering and material selection to 3D fly-arounds and build implementation and revision, Simon’s role is a crucial one and, as he says, quite different from project to project.

“Imagineering is certainly suited to those with dynamic, focused attention cycles,” Simon said explaining that he enjoys being able to finish a giant shoe one day and then move onto a motorbike custom-laden with bespoke-mounted computers the next.

The typical path for an industrial designer is 9-10 months on a single product and a maze of red tape bureaucracy before finally seeing your design on the shelves. Big Kahuna’s industry provides almost instant creative gratification with quick turnarounds between a vast range of projects.

Simon’s favourite projects that come into the workshop are those that require a bit of design work and a little bit of creative freedom. Where his passion truly lies, however, is furniture design. The Eames Chair tattoo on his forearm serves as a constant reminder of his goal to one day exhibit his work in Milan.

One of the great things about Big Kahuna Imagineering is that it lends its facilities to staff to enhance their personal development and to accomplish their own personal challenges (artistically). Recently, Simon exhibited his work at WORKSHOPPED 2011, an event aimed at identifying great Australian design and bringing it to local and international attention, which is exactly what it’s doing for Simon. His Infinite Clock design was featured a few months after the exhibit in InsideOut Magazine’s What’s New section. Simon also showcased his Infinite Lamp at Melbourne Fringe Festival’s “Fringe Furniture” exhibit.

Likes: Sport, His Fiancée, and Furniture (chairs especially float his boat).

Dislikes: Getting up in the morning, polyurethane because it makes him itchy, and the way Jim says “cinema”.

Comments from the Peanut Gallery:

Will: Astoundingly perceptive in design, Simon seems to effortlessly gather modern, “in the Vogue-moment” references… and incorporate them to his graphical interpretations of a brief. The most annoying thing about working with Simon is, as a die-hard micro-manager, seeing that he has gone beyond the brief – then giving-off for the inefficiency represented – only to then realise that what he’s done is utterly on-ethos with the Big Kahuna way! We demand originality and inspiration of ourselves and are building our brand on this – applied to suggested requests, and Simon gets this. No matter where he came from, he defines “niche” here!

Steve: Simon! Simon! He’s our boy if he can’t do it, no one ….

Jim: Sinn-uh-muh!!!!

With so much happening at the end of the year, we forgot to share the BIG news that Big Kahuna not only made it into the Top 50 of Anthill Magazine’s Coolest Companies but also had the honour of being a Finalist for the X Factor Award!

The X-Factor Award is awarded to a company that demonstrates extraordinary levels of innovative, entrepreneurial and creative flair. The winner of this particularly subjective award is assessed against the vision, strategy and execution of its exceptionally cool business product and/or service.

Congratulations to the winner, Starlettos, and our fellow finalists Nanotek, Doin Time and LX Design House as well as the other Cool Companies.

Here’s what the lovely people at Anthill had to say about Big Kahuna Imagineering…

“You would think that a company that models and fabricates giant shoes, soda bottles and coffee cups would be slam-dunk cool. End of discussion, right?

Ah, but Will Colhoun, the founder and principal wizard of Big Kahuna Imagineering, has no intention of stopping there. “We are a full-service provider often involved in projects from conception to installation/delivery and beyond,” he says. Clients get what they need, not what we feel comfortable supplying. We’re rarely in a comfort zone. Therefore, our clients are rewarded with powerfully original marketing tools.”

Colhoun, who worked as a model maker and prop designer on several big-budget films for Fox Studios, created Big Kahuna in 2000. Out of its shop in Rozelle, NSW, Calhoun and his small-but-flexible team create three-dimensional displays, signs, animatronic TV/video characters, puppets, device prototypes and art installations.

Some familiar client campaigns are the Sensodyne Chill Test and Bankwest’s sunshiney “Happy Banking” characters. Visit the company’s website to see images of some uber-cool projects: a Land-of-Oz-like robot costume for a Korean music video, an acrylic “ice army” for State Opera of South Australia’s presentation of the Ring Cycle, a Titanic-size propeller for Cascade brewery.

In a world where protection of intellectual property is a nearly manic pursuit, BKI doesn’t shield its ideas, aside from watermarks on drawings and designs. Why? Colhoun would rather focus on making the next thing more awesome than the last. And though he’s a businessman, he has the soul of an artist. “An artist looks to create bigger and better things and has to live comfortably with that being their collateral,” he says.

“We don’t emulate anyone,” Colhoun says. “We shoot from the hip. We never have to re-hash and re-do old projects. Our staff love coming to work and we’re a family sensitive business. We respect experience, skill and enthusiasm without prejudice.”

Big Kahuna employs social media to spread the word about their work, but the majority of their projects come from the reputation they’ve built over a decade. And when a major project has been put to bed, BKI enjoys treating staff and partners to a slap-up meal.

“I’m not only operating commercially. We have artistic passion that runs through the veins of our business,” Colhoun says. “Often I ask someone to do a thing we don’t need to do because it will make for a better product. Looking at us as individuals, would any one of us say we’re cool? No, we’re actually quite nerdy. But, we know cool sh#t and we have the courage to do what many of our competitors are afraid to.”

Cheers Anthill!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCO_1ZtuvLg&w=560&h=315]<

With help from our friends at JibJab, the crew at Big Kahuna Imagineering wishes you a very Happy Christmas!

First-Class Technician

Steve’s vast and varied background in engineering, film and art makes him perfectly suited for the multi-talented Big Kahuna workshop.

A fitter and turner by trade, this Tassie-born imagineer got a bit restless (as imagineers do) and looking for a change, he found himself at the University of Tasmania studying furniture design.

In 1996, Steve won The City of Hobart Art Prize for Furniture for a pine side table and soon after he won a student prize for another, more sculptural piece that was acquired by the prestigious Tasmanian Wood Design Collection and traveled extensively, featuring at The International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York.

Steve has always been hands on and he attributes his “artsy side” to his mother who is a reasonably well-known artist in Tasmania. Once finished with his furniture design degree, Steve’s wandering spirit started to pull him across the Bass Strait to try his hand in another city.

Originally setting his sights on Melbourne, Steve made a trip to Sydney in the middle of Winter and sitting in middle of Bondi in a pair of shorts — he was sold.

After making the move to the Harbour City, Steve landed a job prototyping for Box & Dice before moving to industrial design consultancy KWA Design Group. With the jump, Steve found himself in the deep end moving from hand-built models into more complicated, industrial models which he says was “a huge learning curve”.

After a few years with KWA, Steve got wind that they were crewing up for Mission Impossible II and he jumped at the opportunity to work on props and special effects. Since that first film, Steve has worked on the Matrix sequels, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Superman Returns and Wolverine, to name a few. From being responsible for keeping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine-style hair coiffed just so to rigging a Volvo to crush when Superman places the weight of the world down upon it, Steve’s experience in films has been kaleidoscopic. One of his favourite projects was the assassin droid in the opening sequence of Episode II because he made it and “it looked sexy”.

It was on the set of his first film job, M:I-2, that Steve first met Will Colhoun, then soon-to-be managing director of Big Kahuna Imagineering.

Steve worked on a few projects for Big Kahuna in the early days, but has really been part of the core BKI crew for the last three years. Rarely are two projects ever the same at Big Kahuna which suits Steve’s love for new challenges — as well as his affinity for resins and lack of complete loathing of fibreglassing.

Steve likes the arts-based projects and architectural pieces even more so. He admires minimalistic and detailed design that are in keeping with his own style. Although as the father of three, Steve doesn’t get much time to do his own work any more one day he hopes to have a space of his own to tinker in. In the meantime, Big Kahuna Imagineering provides a niche perfect for this highly-talented Tassie to stretch his creative muscles.

Likes: Strong coffee, looking up stuff on his iPhone and the Chicken Cashew Nut from Bangkok Spice.

Dislikes: Making hundreds and hundreds of the same thing, footy talk and riding his bike to work in the rain.

Comments from the Peanut Gallery:

Jim: Steve is a highly-experienced professional within the wide and varied world of this industry. With a vast level of technical and engineering knowledge, keen eye for detail and precise tooling skills he never fails to produce excellent results. He also makes a nice strong coffee!

Simon: When I first met Steve, I thought he was a bit of a grump and I didn’t want to ask him anything. Now that I know him, he’s still a bit of a grump but I don’t mind asking him things. He’s very old, so he’s very experienced.

Will: It’s hard sometimes with Steve, having to be ‘the boss‘ — but someone has to do it! It’s a pain in the arse but often he’s right and I’m wrr…wrr…wrrooo…. wrooooooonnn….. This interview is over!