Rachael Johnston

Rachael was one of the content producers for Australian Idol 2023 live performances.

Rachael was invited by world renowned producer Kevin Shirley to create content and work on the Joe Bonamassa Time Clocks tour, including shows at Red Rocks and Nashville. She collaborated with a number of artists including Hugh Syme and Ahmed Nashabe.

Rachael was engaged by Rizer to help produce content for Qantas Gala Dinner. Content produced by Rachael Johnston, Ken Weston, Helena Papageorgiou, Ahmed Nashabe, Julien Alcone, Rodrigo Soto.

Rachael was invited to contribute visuals for some DJ Hanzel shows, she collaborated with Tanya Dovhoruk and Nguyen Phuong Thao to go one deeper.

Rachael was invited by Mario Adato to work on Boo Fest Seattle. Rachael worked with Julien Alcone to create some bespoke Halloween scenes.

Rachael was invited by SBVRT productions and Squared Division to contribute some pieces for Sydney World Pride

Rachael worked with creative director Mitchell Woodcock, illustrator Melissa Evelyn Karayigit, and Tones to create some content for her debut performance of song ‘Charlie’ on Kimmel Live.

Rachael was invited by Gflip and Colourblind lighting to contribute some logo clips for Gflip’s festival shows

Rachael collaborated with Gordon Koang and Sampology to create a one off show for Vivid 2022

Rachael contributed some visuals for the new Peking Duk show, collaborating with Aiden Tothill, Ben Dennis, Ahmed Nashabe and Tiktok and make up star, Mimi Choi, headed by production manager Claire Casement

Rachael worked with BMG and Nick Murphy to make some visualisers for his single remixes. Chet Faker remix with Boys Noize, Soul Wax and Atrak

Rachael worked with Delta Goodrem to create visuals for her 2022 tour

Rachael worked with Toni Watson to create content for Tones and I 2021 tour. Additional work contributed by Mitchell Sack. Lighting Director - Matthew Smith from Colourblind, Production manager was Claire Casement.

Rachael worked alongside Midnight Oil and Eleven Management to create content for the Makaratta tour. Rachael worked with Camera director Pete Gibbs to combine live camera grading and treatments with visual content.

Collaborating with Cochrane entertainment, Rachael created content for some of the 2020 AFL half time show entertainment, including Sheppard, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Electric Fields

Rachael created a set of loops for The Presets DJ shows

Quick set of fun silly gifs for Dillon Francis IDGAFOS Memorial Day weekend stream, Video director - Mario Adato

Visuals for Mat Zo, Rachael remixed two of Zo’s existing music clips and added two remixes of sampled content. Tag Line - Nature on Acid.

Under the direction of the brilliant Squared Division, Rachael created timecoded visual pieces for Sam Smith’s 2020 Sydney Mardi Gras headline show. featuring some 3D modelling from Mitchel Sack.

Video Content Director, creator and operator

Cold Chisel, Blood Moon Tour

Photos by Louise Stickland, Courtesy Robe Lighting

Director, Design, Animation

Visual designer, animator using mostly existing assets of The Kite String Tangle album artwork.

Rachael was invited by Colourblind and Vera Blue to design visual content for Vera Blue’s Lady Powers tour.

Rachael co-created this show with Julia, Angus, and Matt Hanson. The show contained a number of projection elements which were revealed throughout the show.

Visuals designer, animator

Very Honoured to work with Delta Goodrem on for the incredible Fire Fight Concert.

Director, Designer, Operator.

Rachael recently had to jump on board the Nicki Minaj train when the tour headlined FOMO festival and needed a VJ to perform her video show. Rachael learned 80 or so video cues in 24 hours and did the Australian and New Zealand shows of the recent tour.

2013 - 2018

Rachael worked with Azealia Banks as her video designer and production manager for five years.

She toured all over the world with the Azealia team during this time, including producing a main stage performance at Coachella and Glastonbury.

Rachael recently had the honour of working with Australian Alt Rock luminaries The Church. The show consisted of two sets: the first set being an ATP-style performance of their acclaimed ‘Starfish’ LP; the second set, an assortment of tracks from their forty-year career. The first set incorporated live camera effects based on the ‘Starfish’ album cover as a way of being immersive and stark.

The second set incorporated a psychedelic melange of diverse imagery and effects, including esoteric symbolism, hypnotic fractal mandala patternings, and urban streetscapes.

Invited by SITG to curate and contribute to visual installation at Tiny Dancer Stage. Large scale projections, contribution by several artists including Rachael. Images here from Rachael’s work, including “moog” which was made with Ken Weston.

Invited by Hannah Brontë of Fempress to contribute some visuals to her Motherlode Party.

Invited by creative directors The Squared Division to produce content for Samantha Jade’s Australia’s Got Talent performance.

Video director Mario Adato invited Rachael to contribute some visuals to Dillon Francis Lost My Mind Tour 2019. Rachael collaborated with illustrators to produce the finished visuals.

2012 - present

Rachael has worked with Delta Goodrem on numerous projects since 2012, commencing with the 'Child of the Universe' tour. 

Notably, she designed and operated the 'Top of the World' tour, which featured content projected onto a screen overlaid with a curtain of Swarovski crystals.

Most recently, Rachael worked with Squared Division to direct and design video for the successful 'Wings of the Wild Tour'.

She has also designed content for a number of Delta's television performances, including Sunrise, The Footy Show, and The Voice. 

Rachael was commissioned to produce and operate visuals for Australian darlings The Avalanches in 2017.

She recently performed  with them at Vivid Live at the Sydney Opera House.

Bernard Fanning invited Rachael to design the video show for his Splendour in the Grass Main stage show. During a brain storming session, Rachael suggested that they continue with the direction of the recent album artwork, integrating collage artwork and retro surreal landscapes and figures. 

Rachael and Bernard approached Karen Lynch (who had previously  designed Bernard's Album covers), and initiated the collaboration. 

All The Hits Live tour 2017. 

A multi-layered video component taking the audience on a journey from Jessica’s early beginnings to current-day success, punctuated with visual references to her Indigenous heritage and cultural perspective. 

A rewarding part of directing and operating this video show was being able to highlight what makes Jessica Mauboy unique to the Australian pop landscape, while at the same providing the audience with a visual means of  immersing themselves in her career highlights.

2012

A collaboration with award-winning lighting director Cory Fitzgerald (Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber) and Chan Marshall (Catpower) to create visuals for the US-based Manhattan tour. 

A highlight of the visual component was for the song ‘Manhattan', wherein Rachael worked with Sydney artist Paperform to create a large-scale New York City out of paper and cardboard.

Rachael worked with Nina to create a visual show for her 2016 Coachella performance.

Rachael has worked with US artist Girl Talk on a number of occasions.

She has produced several video shows, including a main stage show for Coachella. 

2013 - present

Rachael has worked with the Sydney branch of the Pacha brand on several occasions since 2013, designing and directing the video content for their choreographed stage shows.

She was also a guest VJ for a number of these events.

Most recently, Rachael teamed up with creative directors Squared Division to produce two seasons of content. 

A living obituary. A loving altar to the ones we adore, frozen in thought for perpetuity. A study in slow video, Rachael Johnston remixes iconic cult images, exploiting our neoteric devotions to worshipped deities. Death Notice appeared in the Brunswick St Mall as part of the temple of BIGSOUND 2019

Rachael was invited to operate the Australian dates of the Angus and Julia Stone 'Snow' Tour. The content was created by cinematographer Stefan Jose, with some additional grading/editing and content from Rachael Johnston. The show also used some Dope Lemon visuals (original still images created by Lauren Swan) animated by Ken Weston (Fox) and Rachael Johnston (deer/fox). 

June 2017

Commissioned by Sony and Squared Division to produce and create video content for Noah Cyrus on The Voice Australia.

Simple Logo Loops for Point Blank’s 2020 Fundraiser,

A Carry 4 Coins.

May 2017

Commissioned by Sony and Squared Division to create video content for the debut of Jennifer Hudson's new single on The Voice Australia.

The creative intent was for a parallel interaction with both Jennifer’s performance and the sweeping physicality of the dancer. The resulting video content interspersed rapidly edited imagery with a mapping/tracing effect of the dancer’s movements.

Jennifer was highly impressed by the content and intends to use it for further performances.

2013

Commissioned by Sony and Daft Arts in 2013 to produce a visual component for Daft Punk’s exclusive launch of ‘Random Access Memories’, in Wee Waa, Australia. 

The visual intent was to engage with the album’s retro-futurist themes and omni-directional stylistic approach, while at the same time being mindful of Daft Punk’s previous artwork and popularised aesthetic. 

The visual choices essentially drew on a retro throwback paradigm, referencing analog gear, neon, and Sci-fi pop culture such as Tron. 

The resulting content had to then be customised for projection on a round LED screen. 

Rachael occasionally works with Melbourne’s infamous Poof Doof to create themed visuals for their special event nights.

2007 - 2011

Rachael has designed and directed a number of video shows for Australian icons Powderfinger, ranging from national tours, one-off shows, and Arias performances. 

The 'Across the Great Divide' and 'Sunsets' tours received glowing reviews, with one Australian media outlet stating of the 'Across the Great Divide' show: "this could be the best lighting and video show ever produced by an Australian Artist".

Michael Hassett (owner of video suppliers TDC) said regarding her camera effects work for Powderfinger: "[Rachael] has single-handedly changed the live camera effects game in Australia."

Rachael worked with Australian producer What So Not for some years before he relocated to USA, initially as a visual designer, VJ and Tour Manager.

Rachael was contracted as Video Content director for Festival 2018 which was a special 14 day/night music and arts festival based on the Gold Coast, QLD which was staged alongside Commonwealth Games 2018.

Rachael worked with Squared Division to create visual backdrops for a Demi Lovato TV performance.

Under the direction of Colour Blind /  Guy Franklin / Sony, Rachael was invited to produce some content for Jessica Mauboy and Peking Duk's performance on the Arias.

Rachael designed and operated the visuals for Dizzee Rascal's Australian shows. 

As part of Groovin The Moo tour in 2012, Rachael worked with Public Enemy's manager to produce some simple video branding for use on their GTM slot which she operated during the tour. 

Rachael has been part of the FOMO festival team as the house VJ since it's inception. 2018 saw Rachael running Artist visuals and camera shows for the FOMO lineup including Kaytranada, Post Malone and Sza, while also helping to create the national visual branding.

Rachael was invited by Sony to create some video content for Conrad Sewell’s performance on The Voice.

Rachael has been lucky enough to be working with the brilliant Fuzzy team at the New Years day party, Field Day for many years as house VJ. In this time she’s worked on both stages for many artists, helping to facilitate their touring video show.

2014

A collaboration with Australian and Asian illustrators Shaun Edwards, Megan Cope, Agus Syaiful, and Zhong Chen and additional animators to produce large scale building projections for the G20 Cultural Celebrations. Sound design by Heinz Riegler (Room40) featuring track by Kite String Tangle. 

2014 - 2015

Rachael produced an installation for Gail Sorronda's collection at Sydney Fashion Week. 

Borne of a collaboration with unique personality Gail Sorronda and the Queensland Ballet, the interpretation of Gail’s whimsical, magical ideas was a fecund experience. 

The resulting installation was performed by the Queensland Ballet, entitled 'As Above, So Below'.

Rachael was commissioned by Ken Weston to contribute to the Dope Lemon Visual show. The brief for the visual show was to remix, repurpose and animate artist Lauren Swan's paintings. Some of the visuals were worked on by both Ken and Rachael, including Marinade (Eagle) and River Love (Lion face).

Rachael was video content director for the Stereosonic festival for a number of years. Illustration by Javier Longobardo, Animation by Rachael Johnston and Ken Weston.

Right up until 2017, Rachael spent several years developing and creating the moving video branding for Groovin The Moo Festival, using Warren Taylors artwork and assets as the basis for the concepts.

Rachael worked with Squared Division to design visuals for Dannii Minogue's recent performance. 

Rachael collaborated with Bernard Fanning to design visual shows for his 2013 Day On The Green performances.

Rachael was video director and resident VJ for Big Day Out's EDM stage for many years. Within this role she directed and produced the Big Day Out Video branding for the national tour which was used across all stages. One of her favourite artists to work with on this festival was The Prodigy, where she collaborated with the lighting director to create a dynamic live camera show.

Rachael was the resident VJ for Fuzzy's Shore Thing, a new years eve festival set on Bondi Beach in Sydney. Amongst her favourite sets were mixing visuals for the Chemical Brothers DJ set, and working Snoop Dogg's visual show. 

Alongside Ken Weston, until recently Rachael has been the resident video director and operator of the Mix up Stage for many years. They have collaborated with several illustrators including Lauren Carney and Tim Woodward to create live illustration visuals. The illustrators would start with a blank canvas and a brief, and draw an image while the artist was performing. Ken and Rachael would then interact with this illustration, adding and remixing visuals. One of their favourite visual sets was for LCD Soundsystem, collaborating with the band and the lighting director to create live camera effects and visuals while the band were performing. 

Rachael worked with director's Squared Division to produce video content for Nick Jonas performances at Mardis Gras 2015. 

In 2012, Rachael collaborated with illustrator Brenda Andrade to direct and produce this filmclip for Danny T featuring Oh Snap, bringing to life script by Oh Snap and Danny T. 

Rachael worked with director's Squared Division to produce video content for Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) and Courtney Act's performance at Mardis Gras 2015. 

Alongside Ken Weston, Rachael was video director for Future Music for many years, working with Future Music branding creator to direct and producing Future Music video branding for the national and Asia tour, as well as video director for Main Stage. In this capacity, Rachael worked with many artists as main stage VJ including Skrillex, Pharrell, Dizzee Rascal, PSY, Naked and Famous, Ke$ha, Booka Shade, The Presets, Diplo, Roger Sanchez.