CrikeyCon X [2025]

Vector Illustration - Affinity Designer

CrikeyCon was back for its 10th event and I'm grateful to have been a part of it. I again returned to create key art and collateral for the the event. Since helping out for CrikeyCon VIII and CrikeyCon IX, I had a lot more experience to bring for CrikeyCon X.

CrikeyCon is a one-day volunteer-led cyber security convention held in Queensland, Brisbane. It's a day packed full of things to check out, including talks, workshops, capture the flag challenges and overall good vibes. You can check out all the talks recorded on the day over on CrikeyCon's YouTube channel.

This year was largely the same idea as last which was a continuation of the theme from VIII. I again wanted to create something that visually distinguished itself from the last two years so I went with a comic book inspired theme. Breaking away from the edgier vibes of CrikeyCon IX, I wanted to play to my strengths more with cartoony characters. This let me explore more expressive characters by keeping it simple.

Since last CrikeyCon I upgraded to a newer iPad and had been using Affinity Designer more, so I stuck with an entirely digital workflow. Sticking to a digital workflow and keeping it simple helped me to pick my battles and keep a steady progress to avoid burning out. Having the ability to work on things on the go also helped a lot too so I could go somewhere and focus if I needed a change of scenery.

Along with the usual collateral needed for the event, I created a short animation in OpenToonz to be used for AV. I am grateful for the guidance and feedback I had from the AV crew to help push it across the line into something well timed and visually interesting.

It's been a while since I had used OpenToonz, but it didn't take too long to get the hang of again. It's a great (and free!) program for animation with a decent amount of documentation and tutorials available to help get passed the initial learning curve. Protip if you're giving it a shot - Save often, I don't believe there is an autosave feature at the time of writing.

I didn't make it to the convention in person this time but I watched all the talks livestreamed from home. Great content content as always! I had some kind folks send me photos of the day to share here (thankyou very much!).