‘The O Series’ door handles by In-teria Design and Architecture, showing this weekend as part of Design Island  at Design:Made:Trade

‘The O Series’ door handles by Interia Design and Architecture – clockwise from top left, ‘Stealth’, ‘Curvy’, ‘The Big O’ and ‘Kaboom’! Photos by Dean Baird.

Design:Made:Trade is on again in Melbourne this weekend, and whilst browsing the lineup I was drawn to a couple of new finds.  Design Island is a collective which serves to promote the best of Tasmanian object design and small scale production, representing 15 design studios from the apple isle.  It’s an inspired initiative from The Design Centre Tasmania, based in Launceston, and run by Rye Dunsmuir, who is also the co-ordinator of the Tasmanian Design Award.

In-teria Design and Architecture are one Design Island exhibitor who instantly caught my eye – they’ll be showing their unique new range of handcrafted timber door handles at D:M:T later this week.  Entitled ‘The O Series’, this simple, elegant range is created entirely from high quality timber offcuts from the local manufacturing industry.

In-teria Design and Architecture is located just outside of Hobart, headed up by husband and wife team Karryn Dargie and Dean Baird.  The bulk of their work is architectural and interior design projects – both residential and commercial, but last year Karryn and Dean were inspired to develop their own range of door hardware.

‘We decided to design exactly what we couldn’t source for one of our residential projects’ says Karryn. ‘Our ‘knobs’ are exactly what we would like to specify for our own projects – natural, tactile materials in simple, classic shapes’ she says.

This industrious creative pair have lots more product design in the pipeline!  They are currently developing the next two series in their hardware range – The Flat Series and The Linear Series, as well as a series of recessed pulls.  ‘We really enjoy balancing our interior design and architecture with product design’ says Karryn. ‘We are keen to further explore the world of decorative hardware and homeware products, and have plans for objects made from a range of different materials. We would also like to develop functional products that offer solutions to some of the common problems faced by architects and interior designers – ceiling clutter is my latest obsession!’.  Oh my – this is a woman with an eye for detail!  Can’t wait to see what comes next from Karryn and Dean!

Look out for In-teria’s beautiful range alongside other design gems from Tasmania at the Design Island stand at Design:Made:Trade this weekend in Melbourne.

PS. Tassie has a long history of excellent craftsmanship, particularly when it comes to timber and furniture manufacturing.  Keep your eyes peeled for Designed Craftsmanship 2012 – another excellent design initiative which will bring together five of Australian furniture designers with key Tasmanian suppliers and manufacturers.  The resulting product range will launch at Saturday in Design in Melbourne next month.  Seems to me Tassie design and production might be having a bit of a renaissance… watch this space!

An early prototype of ‘The Big O’ in Celery Top Pine.  Photo by Jonathan Wherrett.