Character 5 (July 2009)
The fifth Character broke with the forum format, becoming more public in its scope. Characters and Spaces is a project of taking one city block and telling the stories behind what we see in what we think is a familiar environment. 37,000 guides of this block were produced and distributed throughout Melbourne. This was done in partnership with the 2009 State of Design Festival.

Character 4 (July 2007)
26 Letters a second was centred on the intersection between graphic design and film-making. To mark this evolution, Character 4 hosted the Australian premiere of Helvetica — the first feature length film on a typeface ever made. The forum panel included special keynote speaker Gary Hustwit, Helvetica’s New York-based director. Other extraordinary short films made by graphic designers were also screened.

Character 3 (July 2006)
Accidents not so grotesk 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?

Character 2 (October 2005)
Graphic design and political neutrality, the second forum, also included Australia’s first typographic film festival.

Character 1 (July 2005)
Should Melbourne be styleguided? A debate on the relationship between corporate and cultural identity. Over 300 people from within and outside of the design professions came along to hear and to contribute to a panel discussion about what it is to live in a city and how (or if) this can be communicated through a ‘brand’.