DQ 44 preview

design quarterly people products parties

DESIGN AWARDS YEARBOOK 2011 diamond in the rough roll & Hill surf and sun designs for summer trend report four experts reveal their forecasts

DESIGN QUARTERLY ISSUE DQ44 summer 2012

inside word DQ Editor Alice Blackwood dq@indesign.com.au Art Direction Senior Designer Emma Warfield emma@indesign.com.au Lauren Mickan lauren@indesign.com.au Junior Designer Frances Yeoland frances@indesign.com.au Design Intern Ben Williams intern@indesign.com.au

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Alice

Advertising Traffic / Office Administrator Kelly Pickett kelly@indesign.com.au Online Manager Rish Raghu rish@indesign.com.au Online Coordinator Ramith Verdheneni ramith@indesign.com.au Web Designer / Developer Radu Enache radu@indesign.com.au Advertising Enquiries / Online Advertising Enquiries Dana Ciaccia (61 2) 9368 0150 dana@indesign.com.au Contributing Writers Anna Flanders, Ben Morgan, Joanna Kawecki, Linda Cheng, Lisa Kappel, Mandi Keighran, Marg Hearn, Mark Gambino, Nicky Lobo, Ola Bednarczuk, Patricia Nelson, Peter Sackett, Sam Eichblatt, Toby Horrocks CEO / Publisher Raj Nandan raj@indesign.com.au DESIGN QUARTERLY PEOPLE PRODUCTS PARTIES

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH ROLL & HILL SURF AND SUN DESIGNS FOR SUMMER TREND REPORT FOUR EXPERTS REVEAL THEIR FORECASTS

Jason Miller of Roll & Hill, pictured with ‘Superordinate Antler’ chandeliers (hanging), and ‘Bluff City’ light (on workbench), available from Space Furniture Photo: Julien Capmeil Alice portrait photo: Michael Gazzola, Studio 11

Published under licence by Indesign Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 96 101 789 262 Sydney Head Office L1, 50 Marshall Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 (61 2) 9368 0150, (61 2) 9368 0289 (fax) info@indesign.com.au indesignlive.com Subscriptions subscriptions@indesign.com.au AUSTRALIA $25 (inc GST) 1 year / $50 (inc GST) 2 years INTERNATIONAL $50AUD 1 year / $100AUD 2 years DQ is a wholly owned Australian publication, which is designed and published quarterly in Australia. DQ is available through subscription, at major newsagencies and bookshops nationally.

Subscriptions – never miss an issue by subscribing online at indesignlive.com, faxing us at (61 2) 9368 0289, or emailing subscriptions@indesign.com.au. Design Quarterly is a quarterly publication fed by who is doing what in the design industry, championing the personality behind design. It aims to promote and create the next generation of design as well as supporting those designers who are more established. The Editor accepts submissions from writers/photographers/illustrators for editorial consideration. We encourage those working in the design industry to submit news and announcements, so we can keep readers abreast of your new developments. Editorial submissions should be made out to the Editor alice@indesign.com.au. Any digital images should be supplied on CD at 300dpi with a minimum width of 15cm. Please also supply full contact details and captions with images. Contributions are submitted at the sender’s risk, and DQ cannot accept any loss or damage. Please retain duplicates of text and images. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. The publishers assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or any consequences of reliance on this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the publisher or the publication. Magazine Stock Our printer is Environmental Management System ISO14001:2004 accredited and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) chain of custody certified. Printing inks are vegetable based. Paper is environmentally friendly ECF (elemental chlorine free) and recyclable.

Printed in Singapore.

PA to Publisher Leanne Rogers leanne@indesign.com.au Editorial Director Paul McGillick editor@indesign.com.au

DESIGN AWARDS YEARBOOK 2011

2012 SUMMER $9.00 AUD $9.00 NZD

ur January edition of DQ is a big issue. It’s also a bit of a trendsetter – densely filled with leading examples of contemporary design available to us in the Australian market and surrounding region.

When I say big, I’m referring to the extra publication we’re carrying – a beautiful flip cover magazine joined to the back of DQ, offering up an exemplary array of award winning design for everyday life. The Australian International Design Awards each year undertakes a thorough and considered process of review (which as you’ll see involves lots of testing, experimentation and play) to select the most outstanding, forward-thinking designs of the year.

It is with great pleasure that we present to you the 2011 Design Awards Yearbook, documenting numerous specimens of outstanding design. Therein you’ll find a vacuum cleaner which is made from 55% recycled plastic, offers users a 35% increase in efficiency, and brings with it the gift of silence! There’s a play equipment system that intelligently interacts with tech-savvy children; and also a vehicle grown from bamboo – a form of manufacture which breathes life into its primary material.

And while the Design Awards Yearbook gives us a definitive snapshot of where we’re heading in terms of industrial design, we’ve also explored the flipside (so to speak) within DQ, in our annual Trend Report. Here, writer Anna Flanders seeks out the advice of four leading forecasters, who provide real insight into societal and design developments which I feel will resonate with you all in some way.

I was most interested by the trend topic of metallics, which are rich in their emotional qualities. We tend to attach strong aspirational values to metallic colour; they tap in to our sense of achievement, becoming the embodiment of beauty and reward (among other things!). This, combined with technological advancements in modern pigments, means we can now select from a whole new spectrum of metallic tones, conceived from a single metallic colour.

Speaking of metallics and achievement, DQ has very recently received two special awards – in the form of silver and bronze. We last year entered DQ Issue#40 (Summer 2011) into the 2011 Eddie and Ozzie Awards – an international awards competition which recognises excellence in magazine publishing. There were over 2000 entries into the 2011 Awards, and to our great pleasure we came out ahead of the pack, receiving Silver for Best Overall Design – Business to Business, and Bronze for Best Redesign – Business to Business. We’re so proud of this achievement and want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. DQ has grown immensely in the last 18 months, and it’s because of each and every one of you, that we are here and doing what we do, to the best of our award winning ability!

Operations Manager Adele Troeger adele@indesign.com.au Financial Director Kavita Lala kavita@indesign.com.au Business Manager Darya Churilina darya@indesign.com.au Accounts Gabrielle Regan gabrielle@indesign.com.au Jana Kralikova jana@indesign.com.au Online Editor Ola Bednarczuk ola@indesign.com.au Events and Marketing Kylie Turner kylie@indesign.com.au Laura Sue-San laura@indesign.com.au Tegan Richardson tegan@indesign.com.au Hannah Kurzke hannah@indesign.com.au

DESIGN QUARTERLY ISSUE DQ44 summer 2012

contents

38 22

REGULARS

12 Open Forum 14 News 16 News Bites 20 Products 26 Emerging Talent

“ Technology has Industry

enabled people to lead multi-

81 PARTIES 71

dimensional lives, so maybe we just

FEATURES

need to let go of

29 PEOPLE

old paradigms...”

Emma Coulter, People section, page 34

Rolf Hay

Michael Laris

Emma Coulter Paul Charlwood

Tokujin Yoshioka

John Hamilton

Wilkhahn NAWIC Jardan

Blok Furniture

Luke Furniture

Mico Design Barrisol Gaggenau

94 ON THE MOVE 96 DIARY 22

43 EVENTS

London Design Festival

Copenhagen Design Week Cersaie

Sydney Laneway Art

Sex, Drugs & Helvetica

Interpretations III

57 BUSINESS

Report – Summer Lovin’ Comment – Shashi Caan of The Collective

Mico Design

Studio Becker

Porcelanosa Kitchens

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71 Trend Report 2012/13

DESIGN AWARDS YEARBOOK 2011 Flip to the back and turn us upside-down for the official australian international design awards Yearbook

NEWS

01 01 Communication Design

The Initiative takes a creative approach to marketing, and gets the end results.

Complementary backgrounds in design, marketing, finances and operations make Tamara Sheeran and Sean Morrison a creative force to be reckoned with. They are joint founders of The Initiative, an agency whose communications and business strategy offering is hard to resist. This is largely underpinned by business solutions, marketing expertise and an appreciation of design as a tool for creative communication – through beautifully resolved collateral and branding, or superior info-graphics and other visual reporting devices.

“We really want to work with people who understand the value of our services, design and creative approach,” Sheeran says. “What we do is quite intimate, and in order to create the right insight and drivers, we need to have a connection with those we work with.”

Illustrating the power of a “perfect fusion” in design and content is The Initiative’s working relationship with Gen Art, a United States organisation focussing on launching the careers of emerging creatives by strategically partnering brands with major events.

“We were doing a diversity of things with them, from marketing to collateral development, events [and] sponsorship activities,” Sheeran says.

“We breathed fresh air into what they do.” The result was to attract a major sponsor for Gen Art’s Fresh Faces in Fashion New York event.

Sheeran and Morrison are equally busy on self-initiated projects, having self-published a book, Enamel Diction, which saw them test their market power on themselves, and engage directly with consumer markets. Also in the pipeline is an exhibition exploring the intersection of art with design, and creativity with commercial viability.

“Everything we do is with purpose, and that’s the exciting part of what we do,” remarks Sheeran.

The Initiative tamara@theinitiative.com.au theinitiative.com.au

“ We really want to work with people who understand the value of our services, design and creative approach” Tamara Sheeran

02 02 POP-UP project

What better way to share your work than through a popup retail-workshop like Trent & Henry?

“We’re both into very conceptual models of design,” Trent Jansen says of his and Henry Wilson’s practices.

“A lot of work we do requires a certain amount of explanation.”

To demonstrate their craft, Jansen and Wilson created a pop-up retail space that drew its inspiration from the co-op community of Berlin.

In Berlin, Jansen and Wilson had discovered a hidden realm of, “milliners, boot-makers and bellmakers who had stores, but because of cheap rent, had a fairly big space, with a workshop, store and gallery.”

The two set out to create something similar in Sydney, where visitors could learn by watching – looking on as Wilson performed “interventions”, taking old products, such as an anglepoise lamp, and changing materials, adding

a new part – to make such objects more sustainable.

This work, “necessitates telling the story behind the object,” Jansen says.

The opportunity to share this with people in an accessible format, made possible through The Rocks Pop-Up Project, a ‘business incubator’ initiative spearheaded by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and Arts NSW, was too good to pass up.

Trent & Henry nestled in a 90 square-metre space at The Rocks, Sydney, a site that had also housed Australia’s very first Westpac Bank.

And within the project, Jansen says, “We decided the best strategy was to stock work by local designers, and only things designed and made in Australia.”

A similar initiative running in Sydney is Empty Spaces, which promotes creative and community development through short-term reuse of empty shops and spaces.

Trent & Henry (61) 408 209 600 trentandhenry.com The Rocks Pop-Up Project (61) 401 713 998 therocks.com Empty Spaces (61 2) 9514 2902 emptyspaces.culturemap.org.au

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03 03 BATHROOM DESIGN

Mark Bickerstaffe of Kohler talks of new directions in bathroom design.

“Bathrooms don’t have to be these material blocks,” says Mark Bickerstaffe, Kohler’s head of product development for Europe and Asia Pacific, on the changing perceptions of what a bathroom should be and do. “It’s about understanding what people are dreaming of, why they want it, and projecting forward so that we can deliver those things.”

Products such as Kohler’s roboticlooking ‘Karbon’ tap, result from what Bickerstaffe calls the “a-ha moment” – realising a lack in functionality in an everyday object and re-imagining new possibilities for its use. ‘Karbon’ is an articulated faucet that can be pulled into position and, “wherever you leave it, it will stay and point.”

While our needs and expectations of traditional bathrooms continue to evolve and shift, the bathroom of the future won’t be about “futuristic environments”, Bickerstaffe says.

Rather, it will be about maximum functionality and user interface.

One marker of what might soon be a regular feature of our bathrooms is Kohler’s ‘Numi’, a toilet-meetspersonal-hygiene unit. Features include a touchscreen remote control, in-built foot warmer, and a sensor that opens the lid, hands-free.

Smart storage is also set to be key, as is reuse of water and an even greater focus on sustainable practice. Perhaps the biggest change we will see in the way we use our bathrooms, however, is how we interact with them. “There’ll be a lot more intermixing of materials and sensitivity,” Bickerstaffe explains.

“Bathrooms are a very private space, a very tactile space, they’ve been quite cold and clinical for many years. I think that’s going to shift now, and that’s where we’re going to start to really push stylistically and bring in that emotional content through the bathroom.” kohler 1800 228 476 au.kohler.com

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04 ART & architecture

Artist Greer Honeywill’s new exhibition, Veiled, is stimulated by the spaces it inhabits.

When she was awarded an exhibition at The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre, Honeywill made her way out to the gallery, to investigate the space. “One thing I particularly liked was that it was not a single open space but four house-like, connected, intimate spaces, one of which is actually a vault,” she says.

“I immediately felt stimulated to engage playfully, with the different spaces and the moods of my works.

“My interest lies in the way in which history, society and culture impact on the human condition as we trace the ordinary patterns of life, layer upon layer, day after day,” says Honeywill. Her practice is ideas-based, with materials and methods of making supporting each individual idea. One of her pieces, Architecture of the Heart, is a serial work made from deconstructed and smashed birdcages. The surrounding dialogue focusses on “freedom and containment within the structures and relationships we create.”

“The container we inhabit exerts a great influence on our psyche,” comments Honeywill. “I have for decades been fascinated by the influence architecture exerts on the inhabitants of the home. I mourn the loss of experiments by great architectural minds who explored the idea of repeatable or serial housing that would bring low cost housing

to the masses, but with elements of the genius normally applied to the bespoke house.” This intense interest in architecture saw her undertake an artist residency with Carr Design Group, using that time to extend critical concepts and ideas for works.

Of the materials she loves to work with, Honeywill lists wood – which comes from “my love of the timber frame for the domestic house. And I like nothing better than exploring new methods by collaborating with tradesmen who have the skills.

“The sense of freedom to explore my realms of interest in any medium is utterly intoxicating,” she says.

“Constructed forms, found objects, video, sound, digital prints and largescale embroideries using mop twine on canvas or Belgian linen are just some of the techniques I have used to bring ideas to life.”

Veiled runs until 26 February at The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Culture Centre. greer honeywill greer@artwings.com.au greerhoneywill.com

PRODUCTS 01 Adaptations

Collezione

The ‘Adaptations’ range forms part of Tappeti’s new custom designed collection. Different pile techniques, such as cut and loop, highlight the angular shapes and change of colour.

Tappeti (61 2) 9698 2735 tappeti.com.au

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02 Saturday This up-cycled ‘Saturday Stool’ by Michelle Jansen Van Rensburg was created for the Café Culture pop-up bar at Saturday in Design last year.

Constructed from turned table legs.

Café Culture (61 2) 9699 8577 cafeculture.com.au

03 Kesseböhmer CONVOY Space-saving is the ticket, with the ‘CONVOY’ designed to work alongside the fridge, with enough room to store dry and fresh groceries in a super-organised storage centre.

Häfele 1300 659 728 hafele.com

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04 Papyrus This papyrus weave table runner is part of Armadillo & Co’s new ‘Papyrus’ range. Available in charcoal and natural, with tightly condensed hemp weft built around a raw jute warp.

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Armadillo & Co (61 2) 9698 4043 armadillo-co.com

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05 agnes There’s a raw elegance to the work of Roll & Hill, exemplified here in the ‘Agnes’ chandelier by Lindsey Adelman. Comes in black, bronze, brass and copper metal finishes.

Space Furniture (61 2) 8339 7588 spacefurniture.com.au

06 Break Sculptural yet functional, ‘Break’ sheds a powerful shaft of light across your indoor/outdoor area, marking transit areas and highlighting architectural surrounds.

07 STUDIO COUCH New to Temperature Design is Ercol with its ‘Studio’ couch. This 1950s piece was designed to function as a large sofa, and features steam-bent arms, made from solid Elm and Beech.

vibia (1) 732 417 1700 vibialight.com

Temperature Design (61 3) 9419 1447 temperaturedesign.com.au

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13 Modular Konkurïto Inspired by the bento box, this concrete vase consists of four modular stackable elements and cover; doubles as a vase or lidded box.

Xiral Segard xiralsegard@gmail.com xiralsegard.com

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14 Half Full ‘Half Full’ by Ross Gardam is a collection of solid timber tables, benches and low stools, its name derived from the extra playful half-turned leg.

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Stylecraft 1300 306 960 stylecraft.com.au

15 Mr. Cooper.

This spun copper light with line detail is inspired by the old tin-can telephone from childhoods past.

Made in Melbourne, it’s available with a range of coloured cables.

Coco Flip Design Studio (61) 412 292 990 cocoflip.com.au

11 08 Air The sculptural qualities of the ‘Air’ chair and ottoman make it a perfect feature piece in large open-plan spaces. Made from American Walnut, available for outdoor application.

NOOK NOOK (61) 435 917 388 nooknook.com.au

09 GLOSS With its luminous body and stylish appearance, the ‘Gloss’ range highlights and accentuates its surrounds; ideal for any modern kitchen or bathroom.

Phoenix Tapware (61 3) 9780 4200 phoenixtapware.com.au

10 CM 250 Espresso, latte, macchiato, cappuccino – you can have it all.

The ’CM 250’ is all about choice, preparing every imaginable coffee speciality in the home kitchen.

Gaggenau 1300 727 421 gaggenau.com.au

12 11 Pipe These ‘Pipe’ chairs from Materia offer comfortable seating through elastic design; the bracket-free seat and back are held in place using a patentpending design.

KFIVE (61 3) 9646 8611 kfive.com.au

12 Pixel Pleasing to the eye, this glass mosaic adds a colourful touch to the contemporary living space. Available in seven colours, ranging from blues to greens, yellow and pink.

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EX.T (39) 055 308 350 ex-t.it

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PEOPLE rolf HAY

SAVING BEAUTY Rolf Hay of Danish design brand Hay talks to Mandi Keighran about the importance of creating footprints of our time, and how beauty can save the world.

R

Clockwise from top left » Rolf Hay » 'Nobody' chairs

by Komplot for Hay » 'Fold Unfold'

by Margrethe Odgaard for Hay » 'Ru' chairs by Shane Schneck for Hay » 'About a Chair'

olf Hay, founder of manufacturing and design brand Hay, is quick to give credit where it’s due. He talks admiringly and at length about the variety of work that designers such as Hee Welling, Komplot and Scholten & Baijings have done with Hay. “When the idea and tension is right between manufacturer and designer, then it all comes together,” he says.

However, he credits the decision to found Hay in 2002 to one of the biggest names in the design industry.

“The main reason we are doing what we are doing is Giulio Cappellini. In the 1990s, he showed very clearly that it was necessary and important to keep developing new things.”

In the same way that Arne Jacobsen’s ‘Egg’ chair captured the zeitgeist of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Hay brand strives toward innovative design that speaks of its contemporary context. One of the most important things for the company is to make, what Hay calls, “footprints of our time.”

With a design history as rich as that of Scandinavia, it’s not surprising many Danish designers are tempted to look back to the classics. “Our generation has suffered a lot,” acknowledges Hay. “No matter what we did, we were always confronted by the fact that Arne Jacobsen already did the best chair in the world.”

Hay believes the unifying quality of classic design is that it represents the footprint of the time in which it was created – and it’s this spirit he takes from the mid-century masters, not their language. Each product that bears the Hay name represents its time – from bed linen and rugs to chairs, sofas and accessories.

This leads to the question of what sets each generation apart

RN9007

Yo Dining Chair in American Oak

Heart driven • soul delivered

G e o r G e H a r p e r • 0 4 1 1 9 5 6 2 6 9 • w w w. t i d e d e s i G n . c o m . a u

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“ Amazing things can come from the cross-fertilisation of ideas”

Clockwise from top left » Paint palette detail » Emma Coulter, in studio with works (left to right) Melting pot, This landscape is mine, Mapping your existence » This landscape is mine » Untitled works on paper

ExclusivE distributors

Furniture options perth tel +61 8 9228 4878 e info @furnitureoptions.com.au furnitureoptions.com.au

EuropEan dEsigns madE in portugal

EuropEan bEEch timbEr

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prototype commercial Furniture brisbane tel +61 7 3010 4363

optima

sydney tel +61 2 8394 8205 e info @ prototype.net.au prototype.net.au

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EVE NT S

Change the Record event featuring ‘Speaker’ by Paul Cocksedge, London Design Festival, Photo: Mark Cocksedge

designquarterly.com.au

DQ HITS THE LONDON STREETS FOR festival season, AND WANDERs THROUGH sydney’s most inspired LANEWAYS.

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL • COPENHAGEN DESIGN WEEK • CERSAIE • SYDNEY LANEWAY art SEX, DRUGS & HELVETICA • INTERPRETATIONS III

EVENTs

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EVENTS INTERPRETATIONS III

Clockwise from top left » Sand casting process » Work by Andrew Simpson » Work by Liane Rossler Photos courtesy of Andrew Simpson

PRIMAL PROCESS E

arly last year, the gregarious Sydney-based industrial designer Andrew Simpson made a phone call to Liane Rossler, formerly of Dinosaur Designs and now an independent practitioner.

He admired her work, he said, and asked if she’d participate in a workshop he was putting together.

It would be the third in a biennial series called Interpretations, which Simpson had inaugurated in 2007 to expose designers to processes of artistic manufacture (such as glassblowing and sheet metalwork) previously unexplored by invitees.

Intrigued, Rossler agreed; the theme, she understood, would be sand castles.

“I had all of these different castles in my head, striped with colour,” Rossler recalls. But she had misheard; what Simpson had actually said was sand casting, an ancient metal process that uses compressed sand as the moulding material. She was unfazed. “I quite like it when you get thrown unexpected things.”

Simpson believes that to be successful in Australia, a designer

must be fluent with all facets of the creative process, from inspiration to finished piece and everything in-between. When even one phase remains murky, the design suffers.

“Sand casting is akin to a black art for most people,” Simpson says.

“They don’t know how it happens, but it’s quite achievable. Its origin was digging holes in the dirt.”

Early last year, Simpson, Rossler and five other recruits convened at a foundry near Sydney Airport for a demonstration of the method.

Designing would be up to them, and foundry craftspeople would execute their ideas. The group dispersed to produce the work, then reconvened in August to exhibit and sell it at the Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern, Sydney. The only thing common to the final menagerie was the primal, volcanic process that yielded it.

Simpson, for example, was drawn to the ubiquity and veiled menace of spear fences, and to the antiquated decorations of architraves. He produced two modern patterns: for the first, a section of fence that looks like spears (sharp, flinty, Neanderthal); for the architrave,

a ferrous, skull-and-crossbones garnish reminiscent of a Hell’s Angel tattoo.

By contrast, Rossler’s entry was placid and elemental—a cluster of eleven small crucible-like vessels cast in bronze. New to both the material and the technique, she derived quiet satisfaction from watching the fluid, irregular shapes fall free of the mould.

“And I like the way the sand goes back to nothing after the product is made. It’s a no-waste process,” she said. The vessels remained with Rossler after the exhibition closed.

“Actually, I didn’t put them up for sale,” she explained. “They’re on my living room table.”

Text by Peter Sackett

INTERPRETATIONS III What: Project investigating manufacturing techniques When: Biennial basis Where: Sydney » interpretations-sydney.com

features trend report

colour code trend report 2012/13 Anna Flanders sends the colour wheel flying, and asks four leading forecasters to share their palette and lifestyle trends for 2012/13. She uncovers a diverse spectrum of influences playing out – from technology to nature, and even a return to our roots.

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Clockwise from top left » Fabrics by Jakob Schlaepfer, distributed by CB Australia » '2pm in autumn' chairs by Keisuke Fujiwara » 'Neat' table

by Kristalia,

re we aspiring to be real or fake? Do we wish to be optimistic, or just to escape? It's a bit of everything, it seems, in the world of colour trends.

And we aren’t just drawing from the natural world to achieve our aims.

As in every other part of our lives, technology is shifting reality. In colour, it's pioneering new pigments, finishes and mediums to tint our world in new and stimulating ways.

Neon colours are emerging from the lab, while traditional surfaces such as rust, concrete and wood are being reinterpreted and applied to wallpaper, tiles, glass, and more.

When it comes to aged surfaces, which feature strongly in palette trends, science is speeding up the natural process to bring us anything aged, distressed, weathered or rusted. We don’t want to wait and we don’t have to. And we have to do a double-take to check if it is real – making the world all the more exciting and giving us a sense of escapism.

That said, we are also getting real. Think honest wood tones and

distributed by Fanuli Furniture » Glazed vases by Hella Jongerius Image taken from Colour Hunting - How Colour Influences What We Buy, Make and Feel (2011) by Frame Publishers

pre-loved objects whose patinas hint at a past and soul. Vegetal hues are also big, emerging in fashion and for the home. In fact, trend-forecasting doyenne Li Edelkoort says this is part of a bigger movement, and of a desire to return to nature. She takes this so far as to predict we will one day blend our homes with nature through form and colour.

Perhaps our continuing love for metallics is helping us achieve this, with their appeal being found not only in an appearance of prestige, but also in the finishes’ abilities to reflect and merge with the world around it.

Colours such as yellow – another strong trend palette – also inspire optimism in a time when the world around us doesn’t feel so appealing.

New York fashion forecaster, Stylesight says, “People are sick of overly aggressive, competitive styles. They want something comforting, egalitarian ... they can help create, direct and control.”

From our viewpoint, that certainly appears to be the case.

BUS INE SS

‘Chaplin Stripe’ umbrella from Basil Bangs, Photo courtesy of Basil Bangs

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business

DQ SOAKS UP THE SUN FOR SUMMER LOVIN’, A BUSINESS REPORT ON DESIGNING FOR SURF AND SUMMER.

BUSINESS REPORT: SUMMER LOVIN’ • INDUSTRY COMMENT: SHASHI CAAN • MICO DESIGN • STUDIO BECKER PORCELANOSA KITCHENS

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summer lovin’ When it comes to designing for surf and summer, there is plentiful supply of opportunity and new horizons for Australian designers, as Mark Gambino reports.

T

he signs of an approaching summer are unmistakeable. The sun draws itself higher in the sky and the temperature climbs. We shed layers of clothing and start soaking up vitamin D. And, due to our growing presence in the coastal cities dotted along our abundant shoreline, many of us spend more time by the sea.

It comes as no surprise, then, that one of Australia’s biggest design industries centres on the beach.

Sun, surf and sand is the name of the game, and in some areas of design, Australians even lead the way.

Appropriately, surfboard design is one such area. According to surfboard designer, Tom Wegener, like fashion, even this industry is not immune to looking to the past for design trends.

Wegener says, “The bombshell dropped when we proved that the ancient Hawaiians were far more advanced at surfing than we ever dreamed. Their wood alaia boards are faster and better on a wave than anything since.”

And so it was that he collaborated recently with Global Surf Industries (GSI) on The Seaglass Project Tuna, also known as the finless surfboard, receiving a Design Award at the 2011 Australian International Design Awards for their efforts.

Wegener’s revolutionary design combines the feel of alaia surfing with the “perfect blend of flex, rail and bottom contours”, aided by modern materials to increase flotation.

The response from the industry and surfers across the globe was

astounding. “A wave of alaia surfing travelled around the world,” Wegener says. “This ignited a movement to look back in time for inspiration and take the design concepts to new boards. Many surfers started taking the fins off their boards and trying to get the feeling of the alaia with their foam boards.”

And it’s that focus on enhancing rider experience via design that propelled the simple concept of a finless board into the wider design community. But one of the biggest inspirations has also come from an unlikely source: YouTube.

“It has been a YouTube revolution,” Wegener says. “Surfers put their videos up and we all get stoked on what’s new and happening now. I see what others are doing on waves and

This page » Finless surfboard by Tom Wegener for Global Surf Industries

PARTIES WILKhAHN

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brisbane bier-fest

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“ Over 200 guests attended the Oktoberfest celebrations, which marked the reopening of Wilkhahn's Brisbane showroom”

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cooler by design

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WILKHAHN What: Oktoberfest party Where: Brisbane showroom When: September 2011 Guests: A&D community, clients, friends & colleagues Contact: (61 7) 3369 2088

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DQ44_Wilkhahn_QP.indd 1 DQ43_Wilkhahn_QP_Right.indd 1

01 Domenic Mesiti, Andrew Pennisi, Greg Lamb, Micheal Hogg, Ingrid Richards 02-- Zoe Burnett, Simone MacGinley, Claire Gaynor 03 Toby Read, Shane McGowan, Councillor for Toowong Peter Matic, Deputy Mayor Brisbane City Council Cr Adrian Schrinner, Olaf Menschel 04 Smiling for the camera 05 Amanda McFeat, Nichola Curtis, Amy Coats 06 Nick Mallios, Lisa Schlicht 07 Dylan Hughes, Ingrid Richards, Alistair Rathie 08 Lara Bliss, Anglea Spathonis, Shane McGowan, Scott Bagnell 09 Kaitlin Reading, Michael Hodges, Grant Humphrey

10 Adrian Berris, Philip Teackle, Rebecca Berris, Allison Hortz 11 Claus Ejlertsen, Katrin Moehler, Kim Donaldson, Renee Popovic 12 Julia McLeod, Nick Gentle, Tom Knight, Jennifer Hudson 13 Graham Wandes, Erik Lundberg, Grant Cameron, Cameron Douglas 14 Nicholas Vallance, Dennis Reading, Nick Webb 15 Olaf Menschel, Belinda McGrath, Emma Cecchin 16 Allison Hortz, Kasia Jarosz 17 Toby Read, Jacinta Siebert

4/11/11 10:20 1:16 PM 12/08/11 AM

PARTIES NAWIC

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LEADING LIGHTS

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01 Guests show their support 02-Lend Lease team 03– 04 Celebrating women in construction 05 Guest with Liz Nicholson 06 Jo-Anne Harrison, Matthew Harris 07 Champagne on show!

08– 09 Guests on the night 10 Guest with Neil Johanson 11 Laura Cockburn, Matthew Pullinger, Kristen Saul, Bridgeen Rocks, Krisanti Sivakumar, Photos: Grace Tham Photography

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nawic What: The National Association of Women in Construction 2011 Awards for Excellence ball Where: Doltone House, Sydney When: August 2011 Guests: A&D community, stakeholders, supporters Contact: (61 3) 8637 4724 11

» nawic.com.au

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