On Thursday 11th April, creative portfolio website The Loop, some of Australia’s finest creative industry figures to celebrate the relaunch of their site.

Guests were given the opportunity to view some of the outstanding work that exists on The Loop. In the run up to the event, creatives with profiles on The Loop were  invited to exhibit at the party, giving them the opportunity to not only attend and network with some of the biggest names in the creative industry, but also to showcase, discuss and sell their work.  Works by Ben Brown, Simone Darcy , Hayley O’Conno r, Meeri Anneli , Julia Ockert and We Buy Your Kids were on show.

Design Federation’s Estelle Pigot attended and had the chance to catch up with Twitter acquaintance, James Noble, of Carter Digital , in the flesh. Carter Digital were appointed by The Loop to drive the design and development of the website’s redesign, creating a site that’s clean, easy to navigate, non-obtrusive and with very clear calls to action. The greatest challenge for these “Digital Httpsters” was to meet the highly aesthetic design expectations of the community The Loop represents? A challenge that would intimidate even the most experienced of designers.  They pulled together a team that included Sex, Drugs and Helvetica and Positive Posters founder, Nick Hallam, and delivered a damn fine job.

The Loop has grown to be Australia’s leading destination for creative professionals – it connects creatives with companies, collaborators and job opportunities from design and development to account management, animation and production.

The party took place at MTV, in Surry Hills and drinks were on Rekoderlig Cider, Mount Franklin, Little Creatures, Ketel One Vodka, Jim Beam and Jagermeister.

Create you The Loop profile today and connect to your creative community.

 

Image: Estelle Pigot at The Loop relaunch party

 

The world’s finest high-end foods and spices once attainable only by top chefs are now available to the public. The opening of retail store Gourmet Life in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs sees products used by such names as Quay’s Peter Gilmore, Est.’s Peter Doyle and Aria’s Matt Moran in the grasp of every lover of fine food. Brainchild of importer Josh Rea, Gourmet Life is an Aladdin’s cave of culinary and gourmet delights set to change the scope of the city’s food scene.

Josh has unearthed more than 1000 unique products to grace his store, from Rome’s oldest coffee to Europe’s most sought-after fresh almonds and hazelnuts that burst with genuine flavor. But his piece de resistance are his ranges of the world’s finest black caviar, truffles and wild mushrooms – each the largest of any in Australia and available only through his newly opened outlet. Indeed, nowhere else in the country can such an extraordinary range of produce be found.

Over the past decade Josh became renowned through Sydney’s leading restaurants as the supplier of rare, high quality products starting with vanilla and saffron. His dedication to excellence saw him succeed where others had failed: for instance he was the first to bring fresh porcini mushrooms – the king of their kind – into Australia and he remains the country’s sole importer of the delicate morsels. “We nailed the quality aspect of importing fresh porcini and it went gangbusters with all the leading restaurants,” Josh recalls.

 But the price of this success meant Josh’s home-based business took over his life. “We couldn’t fit all the hazelnuts in the hallway of my house anymore”, he says. “We had Mediterranean sea salt stacked to the roof. There was no restaurant we weren’t supplying.” The only way forward was to find a willing retailer to taking on his highly delicate produce, but when this proved impossible, Josh took matters into his own hands and Gourmet Life was born.

It is little wonder that Josh’s dedication has seen him become Sydney’s newest and best fine food purveyor.  Only at Gourmet Life can customers buy such delicacies as the world’s only sustainable caviar, Mottra of Latvia, which is gently milked from the sturgeon before the fish is returned to the water. The store’s hazelnuts are the world’s most sought-after, hand-picked and sorted by an Italian mother and daughter team using methods passed down through generations. Gourmet Life also sells rare wild French asparagus from the Pyrenees Mountains, harvested straight after its month-long growing period, as well as chocolate deemed the finest in the world. Josh has just become the sole purveyor of leading French foie gras brand Castaing, a favourite with Michelin star chefs. Gourmet Life is also the only supplier of beluga caviar in Australia.

 

Some of the treats available at Gourmet Life include:

• Rome’s oldest coffee label, Sant’ Eustachio
• Jams crafted by 2 Michelin star Chef Moreno Cedroni presented in hand-made stackable Venetian glass jars. Varieties include strawberry lemon thyme, and tangerine and organic fig with violets
• French spice range Terre Exotique and its unique varieties including Yuzu zest and Espelette chilli
• A L’Olivier olive oils, chutneys, pastas, mustards and vinegars
• The globe’s sexiest bottles of olive oil from Spanish producer Pepa Olivar
• Hazelnuts from Nocciole d’Etite, Europe’s most renowned producer of the variety.
• Homewares from Galateo and Friends
• Chocolates by Catalonian artisan chocolatier Xavier Mor

 

Gourmet Life is far more than just a shopping or browsing experience. Each brand has a story and staff can take customers on a sample tasting through the store, explaining the background of each so buyers fully appreciate products’ unique qualities. Prices are affordable, too, ranging from well under $10. Black caviar costs from $4.50 a gram.