creative nation

it's a busy weekend for the right-brains of the east coast… this saturday the city of brisbane will not only host one of the nations only full blue skies, it will also showcase the states best-known creatives at the Renegade Market.  Head to fortitude valley between the hours of 10 and 3 to pocket a piece of creative goodness.

further south, VIVID Sydney is in full swing.  you have until june 9 to admire the enormous (and free!) Good Design Showcase in martin place… a carefully curated selection of the the best in cutting-edge design and innovation from around the globe.

for those of us on the isle, the Design Centre Tas launches its Winter In Design program with it's usual belly and soul warming finesse.  Tapas, tunes and a tipple are on offer… as are a few 50x50 boxes in which you may submerse your noggin for full exploration of the senses.  hmm.. curious?  drinks will be poured from 6pm this friday.

So… what's happening in the west??

in vogue in vogue

a heavily oaked interior. the air infused with tobacco. a smouldering Marlon Brando perched over a scotch soaked bar.  greasers and communists aside, Vogue Living have nailed the atypical leather associations.  the graphics, however, conjure an scene more reminiscent of silver screen boudoir than gentleman's bar.  soft feminine hues, a smattering of sumptuous homewares and the, now famed, "autumnal" Pod Luxe.  yes, that's us peeking from the pages of this months style bible. generous praise to the Vogue Living stylists for demonstrating the versatility of our beloved leather pendant.  oh, and for the tip on that Jardan chair… ooh la!

cotton on the riviera

completely sochi-fied out from a blur of flying, twirling, olympic lycra, that I flipped down to poland… the reason for no posts these past two weeks. albeit, this heady tour was (regrettably) via eyetv and the pages of the polish 'riviera' magazine where the grandeliers skated onto the 'new designs' page. ah, the life of a light. and lycra.

natural lighting

French financial paper, Les Échos, warmed the euro winter with a botanical theme in last weekend's mag. leafing through perfectly manicured pages Parisians stopping to admire George Clooney sipping beans also got the 'pure pleasure' of other odes to nature...including our Pod Luxe. Voila!

mona and the leathered eggs

happy everything! holidays seem a distant memory but this morning's radiowaves declared easter's looming. really?! alas, my leather eggcups and vessels currently look like this. on saturday at 12pm they'll be dramatically trussed, studded coddled egg cuddlers. along with fetching vessels. MONA market, Hobart - 12 to 5pm.

festive marketing

if you're in tropical melbourne today (dec 8) then jostle in for the final day of The Big Design Market, Royal Exhibition Building...over 250 'designer shops'...close to the amount of hand cut 'leaves' for our wall. say hello to our new range.

aand if you're in Hobart, get down to the Masonic Temple where there are many beautiful present possibilities to be procured at the market. our fave creative collective, DOT (Designed Objects Tasmania) will be hosting their very own pop-up shop, brimming with covetable wares & illuminated by a few fine grandeliers, of course!

think BIG

think festive shopping is an oxymoron?  you've been visiting the wrong places scrooge.  now rid your sacks of that coal and nasty dollar store fillers, and prepare your list for The Big Design Market!  this weekend, melbournes Royal Exhibition Building once again provides the dramatic backdrop for over two hundred independent designers to showcase their wares.  2 Brothers Brewery will be bringing the jolly, alongside a troop of merry meal makers (everything from decadent triple choc brownies to beatbox burgers). intoxicated by the creative air, you may just be moved to partake in one of the many crafty workshops on offer…  and while you're at it - steer the tots toward the badge maker to knock up a few nifty home-made stocking stuffers.  

fashion, accessories, homewares, textiles, lifestyle and kids products, stationary, books and a spectacular new light by moi!  that's right - we'll be unveiling our latest pride and joy at this three day design extravaganza, so be sure to pop by (it's fab lighting for a few shameless selfies).  all the details and an a drool-inducing gazette can be located on The Big Design Market site.

images courtesy of The Big Design Market

alex the great

photo via TEDxSydney

juggling a portfolio that reads like an atlas; the workload that ensues a ranking in Phaidons 100 most influential designers worldwide; and a darling, new baby girl - it's little wonder why Alexander Lotersztain installed his luscious, fur-lined restaurant, Depo, beneath his west end studio, derlot.

photo via Design Addicts

the man is unquestionably prolific, and we had the pleasure of working with him at the recent flat.stack.fold workshop in queensland.  endearing us with his argentinian bred accent, and passion for designing a sustainable world (both flaunted in his TEDx talk), Alex helped us tweak the Pod Luxe into the mailable masterpiece that it now is.

so, if you're looking for a little weeks-end inspiration, or motivation, be sure to scan Alex's website (may require a few sittings), and also the highly desirable furniture he's created with our fellow taswegian designers under the one/third label… and then have a lie down.

Plantation by Derlot Editions

WORKSHOPPED 13

"how can design be future proofed for a disposable society?"

it's the question that's seen fifty home-grown bright sparks weild hammer and pixel to bring you fifty innovative responses at Workshopped13.  honoured to be asked for our input, we saw no better time to debut our new 'mod tech meets ancient craft' pendant - Pod Luxe.

emulating the success of the designers they foster, Workshopped kicked off in 2001 as a hobby, with 5 designers and an opening night figure of 400.  ok, so thats not a bad crowd, but...  zip forward to o-twelve and we have the single largest event on the australian product design calendar, with a history of 200 designers, and over half million names on the visitors book.

Workshopped13 is free (yep, save your coins for all the goods you'll soon be adding to your wish lists), and runs from august 15 - 25 at sydneys supa centa moore park.

photo: chris crerar

imagine, collab, create

the conflux of rolodexes and blackberries will be audible in brisbanes fortitude valley, next wednesday, as we hobnob with the cream of queenslands design industries. renowned for their exclusive networking events for the architecture and interior design community, The Arc Agency are set transform brisbanes Judith Wright Centre with a careful edit of covetables, canapé and creative conversation. setting the mood will be a dazzling array of our finest grandeliers, courtesy of our date, and sleek brisbane stockist, Lumen-8.

rsvps are essential, so head to The Arc website pronto.

latitude love

this stunning transformation of the classic cage light is credit to the innovative disposition and modernist propensity of perth designer Flynn Talbot.  an industrial decorators dream, 'Latitude' perhaps takes its name from it's ability to direct the light in whichever angle you wish - indirect uplighting, downlighting, spotlighting… options endless. ourselves? we plan on moonlighting with a sleek teal number, post haste.

tasmania by hand

whilst tassie revels in it's rep for covetable goods forged by the hands of it's inhabitants, few people are aware of the enormous expense involved in transporting these precious wares across the bass and into loving homes on the mainland... and beyond.

next month, our little island incubator will deliver five gifted artists and makers, under the creative collective known as Tasmania By Hand, to melbournes exclusive Design:Made:Trade show. throw a little support (and some dosh) their way via their Pozible crowd funding site here.

portrait sitting

merely one of the many brilliant creations to emerge from last months Salone Internazionale del Mobile (aka Milan Furniture Fair) was this ingenious range of baroque chairs by japanese design studio, YOY.  sure to tick boxes for both apartment dwellers and those with a penchant for Heston-esque dinner parties, YOY's 'Canvas' collection is actually just some cleverly inked elastic bound to a wood and aluminium frame.  now, whilst the comfort factor is questionable, you are most definitely assured of a good conversations starter.

green inside (and) out

hot pops of cool colour adorn the vibrant pages of aprils Inside Out.  flip to page twenty for the leaders of the pack, featuring one, rather fetching, electric blue baroque. with vivid hues all the rage, these beauties are 'flat-out' proving that carbon neutral doesn't also have to mean pigment neutral.

whimsical science

fresh flowers, food colouring, chocolate… not this weekends shopping list, but the possible contents of the Maria S.C. Lamp.  okay, so perhaps a pendulous, incandescent fondue set still delves a little more into the fantastical, but it also demonstrates that imagination is the only limiting factor when it comes to this charming little chandelier. looking to fellow Pole (think pierogis not posts) and nobel prize winning chemist, Marie Curie as her inspiration, Magda Jurek crafts her pendants by suspending ninety six test tubes from two plywood hoops…  the rest is up to you! 

the talented Mr Smith

the devastation that this impromptu ice-cream installation must have left in its wake is palpable…  though for many a passerby, the polychromatic sludge is beauty…  it tells a story.  such is the creative ethos of 2012 UTAS furniture design graduate Matty C Smith.  'inspired by waste' and aspiring to give longevity to his versatile pieces by forming a connection between owner and object - this designer, philosopher, ex-architectural joiner and motorcycle demon is (hopefully) just moments away from his podium placing as DIA's GOYTA in furniture design! aka - the Design Institute of Australia's Graduate of The Year Award for very fine furniture.  Go team tas!

up we pop shop

we love a good pop up.  a bite sized burst of unexpected innovation.  materialising overnight.  gone in a blink. leaving nothing in its wake but an unquenchable thirst for more spontaneous creativity.  well guess what adelaide? we've been informed that twenty ebenezer place is the temporary trove of 'special pieces sourced from lots of 'sources', chosen for their quality, uniqueness, style and soul'.  head to the one small room website for dates and times.  out of town?  fear not...  one small rooms beautiful and eclectic range of furniture, homewares and clothing also launched into their (permanent) refurbed digs in croydon today.  pop along!