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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
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Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
A little like David Attenborough observing wildlife for an award-winning nature documentary, I have been surveying Magdalena Ksiekzak’s work intently for quite some time. Working under her alias 'Okay Kiosk', Magdalena is a graphic designer, paper artist and sometimes photographer, or in layman’s terms : a triple threat.
Now, for me, the Okay Kiosk magic really happens when Magdalena combines all three of her creative pedigrees to produce suspended scenes of exploding food, constructed using only paper and string, and captured photographically. Magdalena visualises a concept, hand makes each component meticulously, and assembles each layer to build a three dimensional hanging set. ‘Adding the floating element to the work adds a touch of surrealism, and I love trying to create a sense of movement and energy to the static components,’ Magdalena explains. The result is almost hyperreal - it’s like DIY CGI!
Originally born in Poland, Magdalena migrated to Australia with her family when she was a child, and grew up in Canberra. She studied photography at ANU, but felt a little frustrated working in a singular creative medium. ‘I felt like something was still missing, and I didn't want to limit myself,’ she recalls. So in 2005, when Magdalena relocated to Melbourne, she enrolled in a diploma of graphic arts at RMIT.
In the years since, Magdalena had been steadily working in corporate graphic design, but last year, with the support of friends and family, she made the decision to quit her job and go freelance. ‘Despite working as a graphic designer, I didn't have any commercial work I was proud to showcase in my folio. I started looking into design internships. In a way I felt as though I was going back to square one, but I wanted to get some hands on experience in the kinds of studios I really admired.’
After completing two internships at The Hungry Workshop and Function/Form, and having also been awarded Magic Johnston Studio’s 'Junior Johnston’s Hall Pass Scholarship' (the prize is free studio space for a whole year - such a great idea!), Magdalena finally launched her own creative freelance business earlier this year. ‘Working in a supportive environment like Magic Johnston has been an amazing experience. Freelancing has taught me so much about running a business, I can now appreciate what it takes to be successful.’ Magdalena now juggles her graphic design contracts with side projects such as her floating paper food sculptural pieces, which she has recently developed into a series of gift cards.
So what’s next for Magdalena? ‘I want to expand on this series of floating food related imagery' she says. 'I’ve barely scraped the surface of iconic foods, and there are definitely a lot of themes still to cover!’ Whatever she sets her mind to, we're convinced Magdalena can create it!
The Design Files acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
First Nations artists, designers, makers, and creative business owners are encouraged to submit their projects for coverage on The Design Files. Please email bea@thedesignfiles.net
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