Fringe Furniture 2009 - Call for Entries!

Spaceleft - Squash Me chair, 2008 - from the Fringe Furniture exhibition 2008

Kristian Aus, Petal Metal lamp - from the Fringe Furniture exhibition 2008

Melbourne's Fringe Festival is calling all Australian-based designers and artists (emerging and established) to submit their entries for Fringe Furniture 2009!

This year Fringe Furniture is celebrating it's 25th year of supporting and promoting Australian design, and will exhibit selected entries at the Melbourne Museum from September 19th - October 11th 2009. The theme for 2009 is Silver, and can be interpreted as literally or metaphorically as you wish!

Fringe Furniture is recognised as a highly experimental design exhibition, and welcomes a variety of furniture, lighting, homewares, as well as wearable objects... it's a fantastic way for emerging designers to reach a wide market of both design industry professionals and the public.

Registration is open until Friday 31st July! Better get cracking!

Go here to download your Fringe Furniture registration info kit, and register online.

C10 chair by Yellow Diva, customised by grafitti artist Phibs

Moose online shop - 15% discount for Design Files readers!

Quirky brooches made from recycled lino by Melbourne-based BettyJo Designs. These unique brooches have also been picked up by UK fashion icon Paul Smith!

Resin bangles and hot air balloon brooches by Melbourne-based label, Madz has Runaway

Moose is a Perth-based online shop showcasing unique products made by mostly Australian independent artists and crafters. Moose began in 2006 with 12 artists and 60 pieces of handmade work, and in three years has grown to more than 130 artists and 1600+ items!

Moose represents a really varied group of designers, including a few previous Design Files interviewees including Elke Kramer and Madeleine Beatty! They're passionate about introducing Australian craft and design to international markets, and have helped many local artists sell their work to customers as far as Canada, Israel, China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, the UK, the US and The North Pole (seriously!).

Moose are celebrating their 3rd birthday this week and have offered Design Files readers a 15% discount! Just use the discount code moosedesignfiles at checkout to receive your discount. This code will be valid until next Tuesday 14th July.

ps) Moose have also just started their own blog.

Bangles by Elke Kramer

And the winner is....

I've written about the collage artist who created this gorgeous piece here before and do you think I can remember who it is? Shocking. Please let me know if you recall!!

Thanks so much for all your comments yesterday! 32! That must be some kind of record.

I wish I had 32 passes to giveaway to each and every one of you..! I actually ended up getting 1 more pass, so there are 7 lucky winners!

Here are the names I just pulled out of the hat (actually it was a mixing bowl) -

Imogen
Melinda
Ed
Amelia
Plasmo
Luci
Pinkurocks

Can you guys email me (lucy at thedesignfiles dot net) today with your addresses and I will post your passes out to you asap!

I'm so sorry to those of you who missed out! If any more tickets come my way I will be sure to let you know! x

Caravan - house swapping for creative types!

Caravan's featured property of the month!

You may have noticed another little ad pop up on the site yesterday (in amongst the mad dash for SoD Opening Night tickets!).

Caravan is an excellent idea from the excellent mind of Sydney's Rebecca Wolkenstein. Remember Rebecca Wolkenstein? I wrote about her wonderful photographic/design agency here. (Re-visit. The photos are beautiful.)

Anyway, Caravan is a house swap and short term sublet listing website for commercial creatives and those working in the advertising/media/fashion/art and design industries. Like a smaller, more community-based Craigslist, for creative professionals.

Rebecca says:

If you're an art director relocating internationally for a new job, you can find sublets for far less than the price of a hotel. If you're a photo assistant wanting to try New York on for size, you could post a 'house sitter available' ad and have no accommodation costs at all. A room in LA for a bedsit in New York? A harbourside Sydney apartment for a Collingwood terrace? The possibilities are endless and the costs are miniscule compared with even a modest hotel bill, not to mention the savings of being able to cook at home.

Makes sense to me. There are only a few houses listed currently... but I've no doubt this'll spread like wildfire! If you're heading away this year you'd be crazy not to consider subletting your place! It's what New Yorkers do!

The shots you see here are from Caravan's featured home this month! It's a stunning warehouse apartment in Sydney's Darlington - architect designed and owned, if you don't mind. It is available July 18th - August 8th for 1, 2 or 3 weeks. More details here.


ps) stay tuned late-morning for the results of the State of Design tickets giveaway!

Melbourne Open House - Call for Volunteers

Just a quick shout-out to say that this year's fantastic Melbourne Open House event is nearly here, and they need more volunteers! If you're passionate about Melbourne architecture and have some time up your sleeve next Sunday July 19th, please consider volunteering! Volunteers are needed to man info stations at buildings, talk to visitors and people in the queues. You don't need any experience or architectural knowledge at all, just a smile on your dial :) You can elect to vounteer either all day, or just half the day. Register here!

Volunteers will be provided with a MOH badge, scarf & tote saying you're a volunteer/go to person. The best bit is you'll have queue-jump access to all buildings open for the day! Did you SEE how long the queues were last time? 25,000 people turned out across the CBD! (Remember my coverage here and here?) This year's event is even bigger, offering a behind-the-scenes look at no less than 32 of Melbourne's most beautiful buildings. It's set to be a huge day!

Louvered timber shutters on the facade of Council House 2 in Melbourne's CBD

State of Design!

State of Design brand identity illustration by Qube Konstrukt and R-Co.

OK so I'm sure you all know that State of Design - Victoria's design festival is nearly upon us, running from July 15th - 25th. How exciting! But do you know what is even more exciting?

1) The Design Files is officially a 'media partner' of the festival - I am the official festival blogger!

2) I have 6 double-passes to give away to the Festival Opening Night Preview at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton on Wednesday July 15th, from 7.00pm! (Thankyou State of Design marketing team!)

If you want a double pass (tickets are worth $27.50 each and are strictly limited), leave me a comment at the end of this post. If more than 6 people comment, I will put all names in a hat and let you know tomorrow who gets 'em. Very high-tech competition procedures over here at The Design Files.

Personally I have a ridiculous itinery planned for the festival which includes 21 events (plus 6 more 'maybes') in 10 days and daily updates of course! Call me crazy. I will also be posting mini-interviews with many exciting Australian and international designers who are taking part in festival events!

But in the interests of everyone's sanity, I have shortlisted my top-5 festival highlights below. These are the things I am most excited about!

Lucy's top 5 State of Design shortlist!

Design Made Trade
Incorporating Designboom Mart - all the way from Italy!!!

Design Made Trade 2008 - beautiful hand-crafted homewares from Studio Sam

Remember I blogged this one last year? An accessible, low-tech trade fair aimed at showcasing Australia's smaller manufacturers, product designers, and designer makers... free to trade visitors, $10 to the public. BUT if you get one of the double passes mentioned above, this includes a special preview of Design Made Trade on the Wednesday night, before it's open to the public!

The highlight of Design Made Trade will be Designboom Mart, showcasing design from the hottest young international designers! Background info on Designboom Mart is here.

Designboom Mart in Tokyo last year

Design Made Trade - Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens.
Open 10am - 5pm daily from 16 - 19 July.
16 - 17 July - Trade only days - register here.
18 - 19 July - Public days - $10 entry, no registration required.

This is Not a Design Market

Melbourne loves a design market, and this one is sure to draw the crowds. Staged by Melbourne's own Bigger than Ten Bears (of Joost's Greenhouse fame), and the fabulous Moth Design (of Penthouse Mouse fame), there's no doubt this'll be a winner. Not to be missed!

This is not a Design Market - The Factory, 500 Latrobe St, Melbourne
Open 10.00am - 5.00pm Sunday July 19th (one day only!)

Design Capital Conference

UK designer Nipa Doshi and Partner Jonathan Levien in their London studio

An amazing line-up of Australian and International Speakers... I'll be there on day 2 (design day, Friday July 17th). I am so excited to hear UK superstar Nipa Doshi talk! If you don't know her work you must check out the Doshi Levien website. SO excited.

Doshi Levien's My Beautiful Backside couch and Principessa daybed (inspired by the Princess and the Pea, of course!). Both for Moroso.

Unfortunately Design Capital is a little pricey, but well worth it if you look at the international line-up! The upside is you can just buy a single-session ticket, which makes it a little more affordable and accessable than, say, AGIdeas! (No disrespect, but you know, who manages to get 3 days off work for these things?)

Design Capital Conference - BMW Edge, Federation Square,
Melbourne 16th - 17th July

Convergence at Yarra Lane

Convergence at Yarra Lane is a mysterious group installation in South Yarra... not sure exactly what it will entail, but the lineup of collaborating designers is extremely impressive and includes Julia deVille, Emma van Leest, Moth Design and Nick Rennie.

Oh, and Liane Rossler (of Dinosaur Designs) just tweeted(?) about it yesterday. So it must be good.

Convergence @ Yarra Lane - Yarra Lane, 9-19 Claremont st, South Yarra
18th July - 17th August, 24 hours

Design Dinner at Comme with Tim Yu from Cool Hunting

The Grand Room at Comme, Melbourne

This one is very posh. In Comme’s stunning Grand Room, Cool Hunting’s cultural curator, Tim Yu will lead a discussion on the current patterns and future trends in art, design, culture and technology around the world.

This'll accompany a three-course dinner, served with matching wines, to complement the discussion. $85 a head. Oooh la la.

ps) stay tuned with a mini-interview with Tim Yu here next week!

Design Dinner with Tim Yu - Comme, 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne
Thursday July 16th, 6.30 for a 7.00pm start
Bookings through Comme - +61 3 9631 4000

For more State of Design info, check out the website, download a catalogue, or pick one up from any number of affiliated venues around town. Also check out the State of Design lift-out in today's Herald Sun!

Unexpected gifts!

pretty Japanese Masking tape!

Is there anything better than unexpected present? I don't think so. Except maybe an unexpected hug. Depending on who is offering.

ANYWAY this afternoon I just received a little present in the mail from artist/designer/crafter/blogger Lisa Tilse of The Red Thread. It has totally brightened my day! I have never even met Lisa, but she sent me these gorgeous patterned masking tapes from Tokyo! How lovely is that?

Thankyou so much Lisa!!

Hand-printed card on timber veneer made by Lisa! (ps. for the record, Lisa also has the best handwriting I have seen in a long time).