New PADC Artist in Residence Ross Scotland is passionate about making art that lasts

“There’s something really satisfying about a piece of work that people will see, touch, and interact with for years to come,” says Ross Scotland, founder of Okidoki Signs & Design, and Perth Advertising and Design Club (PADC)/North Metropolitan TAFE 2025 artist in residence. He’s absentmindedly patting his border collie, Mango, as she snoozes with her head on his knee, “It’s a lot more permanent than the digital world we’re so often defined by these days, where everything is very transient and temporary.”

 

Seated on a retro leather couch in his (no doubt heritage-listed) Fremantle studio, Scotland is framed by a striking skull and octopus mural that stretches across the wall behind him, a memento from his business’s previous chapter as ‘Ink & Anchor’—and some accidental foreshadowing for his current focus, the PADC Gold Skull trophy.

After reviewing submissions from artists across WA, the PADC has selected Scotland as the first artist in residence as part of their long partnership with North Metropolitan TAFE. While the residency program launched this year, the partnership has been in action for four years, both teams working together to bring WA’s prosperous commercial creativity industry to more hungry artists. For Scotland, the 2025 residency is centred around the design that adorns this year’s gold skull—a significant and truly tangible piece of art.

Fortunately, that’s his wheelhouse.

A style inspired by classic designs
Scotland describes himself as an ‘analogue kind of designer’ who approaches work with the intention of making something classic and timeless, a value that fairs well alongside the leader of the artist in residence initiative, Brendan Hibbert, Head of Program for Visual Art, Fashion, and Textile Design at North Metro TAFE.

“I look for inspiration in so many different places,” says Scotland. “I really love old school ghosts; hand painted signs, old fashioned packaging designs, old advertising material… anything from before the digital world came into play,” he says.

And these ghosts of pre-digital processes echo throughout his studio. There are shelves of nostalgic knick-knacks; an old glass coke bottle, a vintage radio, a somehow-not-ominous rusted saw painted with the words ‘a cut above the rest’, a collection of retro matchboxes, and several black and white photo prints, including the classic ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’. He even has a perfectly maintained 1965 Heidelberg letter press out the back of his studio—it weighs two tons and is ‘probably going to outlive us’.

However, one piece of classic media made a particular impression, and that’s the poster which always hung above his dad’s desk. The one featuring David Oglivy’s famous quote: ‘Please give me the freedom of a tight brief’. Because of course, Scotland’s Dad was in advertising.

Formative memories were spent visiting his dad’s office, witnessing the analogue version of an agency. “The design area was more like an art studio—it wasn’t full of Macs, with everyone sitting in front of a screen,” Scotland recalls, “It was a very different world back then.”

Becoming the analogue designer
With the influence of his dad’s work, plus a lack of academic inclination, Scotland decided to pursue a career in marketing and was soon working in-house at an agency. But as an office-bound designer, he quickly realised that he didn’t want to ‘sit in front of a computer’ for the rest of his life. So, he explored more traditional, specialised forms of design instead, beginning with letter press and calligraphy, then hand lettering and sign painting, and eventually mural artwork.

“Typography helped me understand my place in the creative world,” Scotland muses, “There are so many interesting rules and intricate details that most people don’t understand. They just read the words and never think about it. But they’re designed in a specific way to make things more legible or more optically correct. And learning these rules gave me a world to operate in.”

The freedom of hands-on creativity
Although Scotland speaks of the rigidity of traditional design, on a personal level he seems to approach situations with an enthusiastic curiosity, often revelling in the literal freedom that comes with his work. As he says, “I get to be in the fresh air, meet new people, and create something physical.”

Then sometimes, he gets to be six metres up in a cherry picker face to face with a large-scale mural. For an adrenaline junkie like Scotland—who regularly spends holidays riding motorbikes, snowboarding, and skiing—this high-altitude project was a fun challenge that spurred his creativity onwards. And when faced with the task of creating textured brush strokes on a huge scale, he replaced the paint brush with a straw broom!

On a technical level, one of Scotland’s stand-out projects was for Bloodhound Barbers, where he was able to test out another specialised skillset he’s been trialling—gold leaf gilding. According to him, “It’s a very complex craft. I don’t think you ever stop learning how that stuff works.” And with the Bloodhound project, this intricate work was pushed to the limit, as Scotland had to execute delicate gold chain designs using red abalone shell inlays, while making sure the typography fit seamlessly across multiple window panels.

Creating one-of-a-kind art that lasts a lifetime
The gold skull artwork is Scotland’s next big challenge, but it’s also an opportunity he’s honoured to receive. “I’m really excited to get involved and make something awesome,” he says.

From a practical perspective, the facilities at North Metropolitan TAFE make just about anything possible. Apparently, Scotland has been given permission to ‘annoy all of the lecturers’ with his questions, which he thinks will be especially necessary in the ceramics department, as he has only thrown ‘some stuff on a wheel once upon a time and glazed a few terrible things’.

However, when Scotland shares a teaser for his gold skull artwork, he doesn’t seem daunted by this lack of ceramics experience. He’s planning to lean into to the PADC 2025 theme of ‘elevate’ by exploring the concept of flight, crafting feathers that encompass the skull, and using colour and texture to create beautiful tones.

The PADC and North Metro TAFE partnership—which has now brought this desirable artist residency to fruition—exists to create meaningful opportunities for WA’s creative community. The partnership forges new collaborations across disciplines like the documentary film that will follow the making of the Skull, produced by local production agency, Sandbox, and co-directed by national award-winning photographer, Mauro Palmeri.

“The skull is going to be a really unique, one-off kind of piece,” he shares. “It’s a very cool thing, creating something that’s hopefully going to last for the rest of someone’s life. It’s exactly in line with all the things that I love and am passionate about.”

Written by: Caitlin Scott.

Photo credit: Mauro Palmieri.