July – 2008 – The Design Files

Monthly Archives: July 2008

July 27, 2008 – 9:00 pm

Paper Tiger

The Paper Tiger stand at Design:Made:Trade in Melbourne last weekend

I can’t believe I forgot to add these shots of the Paper Tiger stand when I posted about Design:Made:Trade last week! It was one of my favourite stands, featuring a slick, well-designed booth, and showcasing the Paper Tiger stool – one of the most innovative, interesting examples of Australian design in recent years. Shame on me.

The Paper Tiger stool is an excellent solution for temporary, sustainable seating. The stool simples folds and slots into place from flat-packed cardboard – no tools or fixings required. Obviously the design also offers great opportunities for different patterns, colours, graphics and corporate signage etc to customise the style relatively cheaply. More shots of various colourways here and here.

The Paper Tiger stool is made in Australia from recycled cardboard. It has a lifespan up to 2 years, and is load rated to 150kg. It was designed and released in 2007 by Melbourne-based designer Anthony Dann, and won the 2007 Indesign Launch Pad award for sustainability in that year.

Anthony Dann recently developed a new range of furniture and lighting presented at this year’s 2008 Salone in Milan, and he will soon be broadening the range of Paper Tiger Products to include a bookshelf, table, wardrobe and children’s chair…. I’ll keep ya posted!

Posted by Lucy at 9:00 pm
Categories - Australian design, Australian people, Festivals, Industrial Design, Sustainable Design, furniture design, melbourne people, melbourne places, product design Comments (5)

July 24, 2008 – 9:00 pm

Interview – Sibella Court

images styled by Sibella Court

If, like me, you compulsively read every interiors magazine in the country, you might have noticed the name Sibella Court popping up here there and everywhere in recent months. In the short space of 6 months or so, Sibella’s dreamy NY loft was featured in Inside Out magazine… she’s been a featured contributer to both Inside Out and Vogue Living magazines, and there’s been a flurry of media attention surrounding the recent opening of her new shop in Sydney – The Society inc. All this attention sparked my curiosity, so i thought I’d find out a little more about the mysterious Ms. Court.

Sibella Court is an interiors stylist from Sydney who has spent the last 9 years living in New York, working for clients including Vogue Living USA, DKNY, Bloomingdales, and Bergdorf Goodman amongst many. She recently returned to Sydney to open her beautiful shop in Paddington, filled with all kinds of special homewares and eclectic finds inspired by her many years overseas. Ahhhhhh. What an incredible creative, exciting, inspiring way of life :)

Sibella’s style is eclectic, bohemian, feminine and quirky. She’s not one to shy away from bold, clashing colours, striking patterns and textures, or different cultural references. Her work has a sense of ‘realness’ rather than sterile, flawless beauty…. each image seems to strike a careful balance between new trends and well-loved vintage style – bringing a sense of history to the work. The result is an engaging portfolio that tells something of Sibella’s own colourful story.

A big thankyou to Sibella for her precious time, and to her agency RP Represents for facilitating this interview!

You’re originally Australian, but have spent many years working in New York with some incredible high profile clients, before returning home recently. Tell me a little about your varied background – what did you originally study, and what path led you to what you’re doing now?

Received my BA in history from Sydney University and started styling before I graduated at 20.
After a year of assisting became very busy on my own. My mother had an amazing eye and knowledge of plants, shells, textiles, art, crafts, literature and everything in between.
Both she and my father taught me to notice the detail.

It must be a very exciting time for you with the recent opening of your shop in Sydney! How long have you been hatching the plans for The Society Inc, and what challenges have you found in realising your vision?

The Society inc has been discussed and fine tuned for about 2 years. After looking for spaces and then about to in a lease on a space on Greene Street in Soho I decided to carefully consider the 10 year lease with a trip to Australia. Whilst there I made a very sudden decision to move home. Decision made, I extended my holiday to 3 weeks instead of 5 days then flew back to the US and wrapped up my whole life in 7 weeks. I flew out the day after all my shoots finished followed by a 40 foot container. 4 storage spaces and a 2000 sq ft loft worth of props and inventory for my shop.

I went straight into action in Sydney and after a few short months bought the building that my shop is now housed in. A beautiful 1860’s corner shop in Paddington! The biggest challenge has been after living a very ‘buy&live as you please’ lifestyle to having a mortgage.

The Society inc

A lot of creative professionals say that they love the creative side of their job, but hate the paperwork, marketing and the ‘business’ side of things. How do you manage to balance these necessities with the creative side of your job?

I enjoy all parts of the business both creative and managerial. I believe in a tight infrastructure. I prefer not to do paperwork so have always hired bookkeepers, financial advisors and accountants to take care of that side of the business so I can focus on the fun stuff.
On the marketing side, I get so excited about my projects, whether it be the shop or concepting/designing a shoot, that its contagious and I end up being a walking talking PR.
As a large part of my job is meeting new people, talking to PRs, dealing directly with photo&magazine editors, photographers and general ‘girl about town’ this lends itself to all sorts of promotion.

Having a fantastic agent, RPR, behind me: organising and dealing with clients, is as essential as great financial people. To know you’re in good hands, lets me focus on beautiful things.

Readers would have seen your beautiful New York home in the May/June issue of Inside Out magazine. How would you describe your own style when it comes to architecture/interiors? How has this style developed over time? Do you think this personal aesthetic carries through in your editorial work?

My personal style definitely carries through all my work.
I suppose I have fine tuned my look along the way both with confidence and knowledge.
My own style is usually a bohemian mix of beautiful things that are both old & new, well-travelled, pre-loved and quirky. Most pieces have a story which I am happy t tell.
In life, I am a collector. I have a love of the found object. However a the end of the day a ball of string can get me excited.

However, despite all this, when I build my own house (house of dreams) it will be Comfortable Modern. Just the essentials: good strong lines, chalky warm whites, great bed, fireplace, all the cooking utensils, flat screen TV, to die for linen lounge , great light, indoor/outdoor.

Sibella’s NYC loft apartment (image from Inside Out, May/June 2008)

Which designers, artists or creative people are you inspired by?

Ilsa Crawford, Cy Twombly, Mark Dion, Noguchi, Brancusi, Matisse, James Merrell, Hella Jongerius, Terence Conran.

Where else do you find inspiration – ie books, magazines, your environment, travel, your family and friends?

My mother, travel-places that assault all the senses
Reading history books on Darwin, Tradewinds, Colour anything really
Beachcombing- anything in nature from colour combinations, form, composition.

What does a typical day at work involve for you?

Anything or all of this: Flower markets, shopping, building sets, negotiating with PRs, carrying bags moving furniture, not sitting down/running-all for a beautiful photograph.

What are you most proud of professionally?

Opening The Society inc.

The society inc. interior (image from Vogue Living)

What’s the best thing about your job?

Constant change. Ability & opportunity to take your job anywhere in the world. Being asked to do a paint range.

And the worst?

Hundreds of bags & boxes.

What would be your dream creative project?

To travel all year buying beautiful things from faraway places for my shop.

To make my own perfume scent and design the bottle

What are you looking forward to – professionally or personally?

Health, Wealth & Happiness

Sydney/NYC Questions –

What will you miss most about New York?

The accessibility of product.
The open all hours policy of NYC.

What and where was the last great meal you ate in Sydney?

Donna Hay’s house for fish & chips
Or
Longrain for Betel Leaf with prawn & kaffir lime leaves and other delicious secret ingredients.

Where would we find you on a typical Saturday morning?

Coffee. Orange Grove organic market buying plants (starting my own potted Garden of Eden) & coffee followed by browsing at furniture auctioneer house, Raffan & Kelaher. Then Relish for my final coffee before opening The Society inc for trading.

Sydney’s best kept secret?

The Society inc.

The Society Inc
18 Stewart st
Paddington
NSW

Tues-Fri 12.00pm-5.00pm, Sat 10am-5.00pm

Styling enquiries to RP Represents

Posted by Lucy at 9:00 pm
Categories - Australian people, Interview, Styling Comments (8)

July 23, 2008 – 11:08 pm

Design:Made:Trade

Design:Made:Trade was a welcome addition to the State of Design line-up this year… the 4-day trade event took place last Thursday 17th – Sunday 20th at the Exhibition Building in Carlton, and was also open to the public on the Sunday. The idea for this new event is to showcase Australia’s small manufacturers, product designers, and design makers. The event was specifically created for designers seeking collaboration with manufacturers, retail and export buyers. Lots of great independent design was on show, some I’d seen before, but also some really interesting new companies I wasn’t aware of.

The best thing about Design:Made:Trade is that it separates these smaller design firms from the sprawling Furnitex/Decoration + Design event, giving them a more specialised environment in which to show their work.

Also I loved the design of the exhibition itself – cardboard fold-out booths gave it a low-fi, sustainable feel (although… I’m not sure what happened to all that cardboard afterwards!… I hope it got recycled.)

*update – Just heard from Melbourne-based design house Buro North, who are responsible for the excellent exhibition design at D:M:T. They have confirmed that all materials used in the project were recycled after the event, in collaboration with VISY. (see comments below) Wicked.

Highlights below:

Samantha Parsons of Studio Sam chats to visitors

Studio Sam products – above, Siena the book block table (available from Format Furniture) below, custom-embellished plates created by Samantha for the Eat Green Design event

Stunning textured wallpapers by Ilias, inspired by braille. I love the colours and the flocking – also he’s branching into rugs and showed the first rug in his range.

New typography/graphic design company The Foundry showed some beautiful simple printed products, with as much emphasis on well-researched content as aesthetic appeal. In particular I loved the ‘produce in season’ wall chart… I’ll write more about The Foundry next week – I think they deserve a post of their own!

The Foundry

The Foundry‘s ‘produce in season’ wallchart

Yellow Diva‘s striking pieces

Marc Pascal‘s colourful hand-made lights

It was lovely to meet Volker Haug in person after interviewing him a while ago for this site! He was so nice and friendly… wish I had more time to chat! (I was frantic as usual getting all my photos…) He showed a small selection of his fantastic lighting range…

Tractor Home had a gorgeous stand full of hand-made treasures from South Africa… including some of superstar South African designer Heath Nash‘s work. Nash makes his pieces from discarded plastics, combining different colours to create the most fantastic homewares and lights… I must visit the Tractor Home retail store! Stunning stuff.

Posted by Lucy at 11:08 pm
Categories - Australian design, Australian people, Festivals, Lighting, Sustainable Design, furniture design, melbourne people, melbourne places, product design, stationery Comments (6)

July 22, 2008 – 9:00 pm

Design Capital (including Nendo!)

Nendo‘s Oki Sato at Design Capital last week

I was very lucky to attend part of the State of Design Design Capital event last week… particularly as I managed to catch one of my all-time favourite international design heroes – Oki Sato of Japanese multidisciplinary design firm Nendo. I have written about Nendo before – I LOVE THEM.

Oki Sato was not at all the aloof, reserved man of few words you might have read about… he was utterly charismatic and entertaining, charmingly self deprecating – and nothing beats that Japanese/Canadian accent! I was completely smitten.

The best bits:

- Sato’s cute hand-drawn timeline of his life and career to date, citing influences such a reading manga as a 6 yr old, and starting a job placement agency representing 500-600 students temp workers at age 22 (‘I don’t know why I did that’).

- Observations Sato made at age 10 when his family moved from Canada to Japan – ‘in Canada you can wear you shoes wherever you like… in Japan you have to take 4 pairs of shoes wherever you go’.

- Sato’s story about creating fake shadows to accentuate his 1% product range at IFF Tokyo in 2006. Nendo had no budget for custom lighting for their booth… so instead Sato photographed the shadow of each piece, and covered the floor with a printed film mimicking these shadows thrown by spotlights. The effect is fantastic! Only one problem – everyone at the fair thought they were exhibiting lighting concepts and would photograph the ceiling rather than their furniture! More info here.

Nendo’s 1% range shown at IFF Tokyo in 2006

I thought the 9 PAGES of notes I furiously scribbled down would best convey just how enthused I was by Sato’s presentation, so I included them for you to decipher:

furious note-taking during Oki Sato’s presentation

But it wasn’t just Oki Sato who stole the show… Design Capital offered so many great speakers from all areas of design… it was a truly inspiring line-up. Michaela Webb of Studio Round was another stand-out for me. Her innovative, experimental approach and the idea of ‘creating an experience’ rather than just a graphic solution really spoke to me… I must profile this company in more detail at a later date… in the meantime their website is fabulous and so is their portfolio (check it OUT).

Design Capital goody bag – pamphlets, paper, stickers, and a copy of inside magazine… always love a good showbag.

Posted by Lucy at 9:00 pm
Categories - Festivals, International Design, international people, melbourne places Comments Off

July 21, 2008 – 9:00 pm

Melbourne Design Market

Melbourne Design Market last Saturday – busy busy!

The Melbourne Design Market has gotta be one of the most popular events on the Design Festival calender. Saturday was the big day – and although I was there early, the crowds were incredible! The atmosphere was frantic, chaotic, friendly and fun – it was really encouraging to see just how supportive Melburnians are of local design talent. I think we can all learn a lesson here – if you want to get a good turnout for a design event in Melbourne, just make sure you’re offering something people can buy when they get there!

One of the highlights of the market was meeting some of the talented designers I have profiled on this site, but had never previously met in person! It was so nice to put faces to so many names – Danielle Sanders of Ellka, Paul Fuog and Dan Honey of The Co-Op (cutest couple ever), jewellery designer Victoria Mason and Pip from Meet me at Mikes were all so lovely… I must gush again and say how lucky I am that The Design Files constantly puts me in touch with such lovely, inspiring, creative people :)

There were so many fantastic stalls, it’s hard to narrow it down… some of my favourites below:

Stunning ceramics by Gretchen Hillhouse

Zakkaya – always gorgeous homewares, gifts and kids stuff

furniture restoration in progress at Great Dane

Spacecraft – beautiful prints as always

Design House Stockholm – Scandinavian design at its best. Great ceramics and what about those bicycle baskets! I love them. If you missed the market, catch the new Design House Stockholm range in Melbourne and Sydney at R.G Madden.

Third Drawer Down showed their collection of limited edition screenprinted tea towels. Lots of familiar designs but a few newies too. They were frantically stretching their prints over canvas frames on the spot for customers… it looked a little stressful :)

Forgive the slightly blurry pic here – Chook Leaf showed their range of gorgeous hand-made leather kids shoes – Camper-esque but even cuter (for real). I wasn’t the only customer wishing they had adult sizes…. I spied one lady desperately trying to squeeze into the largest kids size… hee hee.

Basic Shapes showed some lovely illustrated kids wall charts… the graphics remind me a little of Charley Harper‘s stunning geometric animal illustrations. (Better shots on the Basic Shapes website). Dan Honey and partner Paul Fuog are behind this little Melbourne company… Ms. Honey lives up to her name – she looked super-sweet from head to toe (managed to get her perfect silver shoes in frame – check ‘em out!), and Mr Fuog realised when I introduced myself that I had previously interviewed him for The Design Files – he and Dan are also known as 2 thirds of The Co-Op (super cool graphic design firm based in Curtin House). Small small world!

Another designer I stumbled across at the market after profiling her on my site a little while ago was the lovely Danielle Sanders of knitwear label Ellka. I couldn’t resist buying one of her beautiful knitted hot water bottle covers… (the grey one on the left there!) Stunning work.

Fable Designs shared a busy stall with kooky accessories by Limedrop and lighting design by Lists and Diagrams. I love the rooftop silhouette wall lamp by Piers Morgan (aka Lists and Diagrams)… also I bought one of Fable’s lovely printed tote bags…

Victoria Mason is another Design Files interviewee I met for the first time at the market…! (Thanks to Pip from Meet me at Mikes for the introduction!) Victoria’s beautiful stand was super popular… I could barely get a photograph! I also loved her packaging on display here (bottom image).

ps) must apologise for the shots! Dimly-lit carpark + bustling crowds = blurry photos and sketchy details! Oh well. All the labels featured here have great product shots on their websites, so please do follow the links…

Posted by Lucy at 9:00 pm
Categories - Australian design, Australian people, Craft, Festivals, Jewellery Design, Lighting, melbourne people, melbourne places, product design Comments (2)

July 20, 2008 – 9:00 pm

Patrick Blanc in Melbourne

(This post also published today on the MIDF blog)

Patrick Blanc’s vertical garden at Melbourne Central, installed last Thursday (July 17th) as part of the Melbourne International Design Festival

Patrick Blanc charmed a capacity crowd at BMW Edge last Friday evening, giving a detailed lecture about his famous vertical gardens as part of the International Design Festival. His lilting French accent and endearing pronounciations of English words (‘monthses’ = months), only added to the highly entertaining lecture… and while it did go on too long for some (around 2 hours), I was completely taken with the charming, eccentric Mr. Blanc.

Blanc attributed the enormous popularity of his work to the fact that more than half the world’s population now live in densely populated cities, and have less and less contact with nature than ever before. vertical gardens bring the natural world into the urban environment, and it seems everyone wants a piece of the action. Patrick Blanc has created his amazing installations all over the world – from hotels in st Tropez and the Qantas first class lounges (installations for ‘happy few people’ Blanc said, referring jokingly to the elite few who frequent such places), to the French Embassy in Delhi, art galleries in Japan, and even a collaboration with fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier. ‘This work is funny…’ Blanc said, showing an image of a fashion model wearing a botanical creation – ‘the guy is not so funny’ – referring to Mr Gaultier!

Mr Blanc was quick to (tactfully) dismiss misconceptions about his work. ‘I don’t like (ordinary) gardens at all’ he said! He made it clear he’s not a landscape architect or a gardener… and certainly not a designer (although he acknowledges the great interest in his work from the contemporary art and design worlds). He explained that first and foremost he’s a botanist, and he approaches his work from a scientific perspective rather than an aesthetic one. He explained the architectural arrangement of his installations – designed to allow each plant to catch the maximum amount of light (taking into account shade tolerance, leaf shape and arrangement etc). He doesn’t see himself as a designer ; ‘the artistic work is not my work’ he says, ‘this is the work of nature… nature organises itself perfectly’.

We learnt that a vertical garden, once installed, requires minimal upkeep, and is more self sufficient than a normal, ‘horizontal’ garden. There is no loss of water – all water drained at the bottom of the watering system is re-used, and no soil means no percolation, therefore no wastage. Where his gardens are placed in large interior spaces (such as his installation at Melbourne Central), water is recycled from the air conditioning system of the building to water the plants.

It’s clear that the secret to Mr Blanc’s success is the sheer passion he has for his work, and for the study of plants. He described visiting Singapore three days prior to his Melbourne visit, and discovering a new plant species while he was there. His excitement at this recent discovery was self-evident! ‘Just because lots of people go in a place, doesn’t mean there is nothing new to observe’ he said… ‘there’s always something new to observe in nature’.

Patrick Blanc didn’t get through all the images he had planned to show during his lecture, so below are the additional photos, including shots of some of his most recent works.