Design:Made:Trade at the Melbourne exhibition building on the weekend! Lovely sunny top photo by Miriam McGarry (thanks Miriam!), all other pics here by me unless otherwise stated.
Melbourne Design Embassy OK so I hope you have a strong cup of coffee this morning... because after much consideration I have decided to post ALL of my Design:Made:Trade highlights here in one very loooong post! Aggh. So much to look at!
In all honesty, I had originally planned to cover the State of Design festival in a very organised fashion using photo galleries and a guest blog, both of which are exciting features of The Design Files brand new Wordpress site(!!) - which was supposed to launch last week. BUT of course as is the nature of technical things, there have been a few last-minute hiccups, and unfortunately the new site is still not quite ready to go... thus I have no swish new photo galleries, and no choice but to post all pics in full right here!
Ah well. Onward and upwards.
HOW awesome was Design:Made:Trade on the weekend!? Seriously! I should know because I may or may not have spent four out of the last four days at the Exhibition Building. Sad but true. There was just so much brilliant local design to see! I loved the more 'open' layout this year (last year's D:M:T was a bit of a rabbit warren), and I must say the free wi-fi made me one very happy blogger. FREE WI-FI people! Few things make me so excited.
It was an excellent idea to locate lots of other fun events within the Exhibition Building alongside D:M:T - it really created such a great buzz in the building. Sanctuary Magazine's speed dating with architects was a resounding success - brilliant to see so many festival-goers all prepared with notes, houseplans and even lap-tops(!), snatching 10 minutes of valuable face time with some of Melbourne's best green / sustainable architects at the Long Table! Also I truly cannot describe the sheer brilliance of Jones-Chijoff's Paper Plane Academy - I have never seen so many tiny happy people in one room. Brilliant!
As far as exhibitors go, it was particularly great to see so many brand new designs on show... I loved Trent Jansen's simple but genius bike reflectors made from re-purposed reflective road signs, also loved Melbourne designer Kate Stoke's new Coco Pendant light at Tongue + Groove, Volker Haug's new hand-woven daisy lights are even more beautiful in the flesh.. as were Tim Fleming's new Flatland vessels / planters.
Other highlights worth mentioning include -
Best new festival initiative for 2010 - Free Wi-fi!
Best stand design - Yellow Diva for their excellent gilt-framed cubicle - nice work!
Best international accent - Festival photographer Tobias Titz by a narrow margin with lighting designer Volker Haug a close second.
Cutest couple award goes to Perth based Jayden and Jessica from B&M felt who make fabulous things from imported high density felt in the most brilliant range of colours (they didn't want me to make a big deal about them being 'together' but truly they are so gorgeous I could not help myself - soorrry dudes!)
Best death stares - Hookturn vs. Keep Cup. It's on!
Most popular - Sanctuary Magazine's architects at the Long Table - inundated!
Least popular - evil 'Warden' clamping down on photography... yeah yeah I get it, but really, how is one supposed to blog this thing without taking photos?!
Ok enough waffling from me... hope you enjoy the pics!
Volker Haug takes a breather - love his new hand woven 'Daisy' lights...
New handmade plywood vessels from Tim Fleming / Flatland OK
Tongue + Groove showed some excellent locally-designed lighting... My favourite was Kate Stoke's new timber / aluminium Coco pendant (top right).
Lox + Savvy back again with vibrant neon stationary... How good is the wacky printed wrapping paper!?
Paper Plane Academy - conducted with much seriousness by air-marshall Carl Jones. Love those binoculars, hats and boots... these guys take their pilot-training very seriously!
The great paper plane throw outside the Exhibition Building!
Hookturn! My mum Chrissie (on the left) and business partners Renae and Saskia peddle their coffee cups! Photo - Jules Tahan.
Julie Paterson at her very popular Cloth stand... love her hand-printed linen skirt in one of Cloth's most popular designs!
Brand new Cloth Wallpapers
Craft Victoria had three stalls and they were BUSY! 
Loved Harvest Textiles beautiful hand-printed creations and DIY craft kits at Craft Victoria's stand. 'Bat in a Bag' - genius!
Me and Amber - beautiful, simple hand-printed artworks, cards and teatowels from two clever Sydney-siders.
Fun activities at AGDA's Design Fete - bottom photo - Paul Fuog from The Co-Op hand-painted tattoos for kids (and willing grown-ups!). Very authentic with the 'sterile' gloves...!
Illustrator / designer Skye Jefferys painted one of Buro North's X-mas Trees... lovely work!
After seeing Darcy Clarke's lights in Milan earlier this year is was great to meet him here at D:M:T! Lovely lighting and furniture all hand-made in Western Australia.
Beautifully crafted pieces with a slight scandi aesthetic by Melbourne designer George Harper of Tide Design.
More lovely laptop cases! The 'Shuky' is an envelope-style design in Italian leather (it felt really beautiful), by This Is accessories. They also do these slightly peculiar but seemingly very popular corian twisted bracelets and accessories.
Last but not least! From WoopWoop is a brand new Melbourne start-up who showed a kooky range of recycled cork tableware... cute Australiana-inspired prints with pop-out coasters and trivets.
Thanks for recording the event(and taking the rap fom the photo nazi). I spent two days at the festival- one "adult designer day" and one "family makedo party" day. Totally impressed all round.
ReplyDeleteWow - the weekend looks like it was fabulous. I'm saving my pennies for a cocoon fire.
ReplyDeleteGREAT WRAP UP THANKS! DIDN'T GET TO SEE EVERYTHING MYSELF!! KG
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! Feeling very jealous NZ doesnt have anything that compares with this. Lucky you.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, that show just looks amazing! I am slightly annoyed that I don't live in Melbourne any more when things like this come up... oh well, have lived vicariously through your photos instead!
ReplyDeletehi design files
ReplyDeletecan you recommend a smart/eco-friendly fruit bowl from the trade fair?
thanks,
lz
hey lz - hmmm not sure what fruit bowls were there but there is much eco-friendly kitchenware at Aus online store State of Green -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stateofgreen.com.au/shop/index.php
Yay, thanks for the round-up, it was hard for me to see everything but now I feel like I have!
ReplyDeleteAnd the photo thing? Please. It's a trade fair and open to the public... not to mention that TDF is a media partner of the festival! Who/what are they trying to protect exactly?
Regardless, great work as always Lucy!
Fabulous! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't make it so thanks for covering this. Always a fan of Volker Haug's work, and that sideboard by Matt Prince is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hardy and pretty blog and for making me feel like I was there, even though I was on the couch nursing a yukky (self inflicted) hurting head. Grrrrrrr.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Cat
Fantastic Article -Thanks for sharing, " kinda makes you feel like your there". However now i'm even more disappointed i was an able to make it down to melbourne for it. Thanks tho ;D
ReplyDeleteThanks Lucy! I wasn't able to go as I was moving house (in the rain!) and was so sad, i feel a lot better now that I have seen all your photos. Thank-you! I hope your resting today. Lizzy x
ReplyDeleteWow, great wrap-up and amazing pics! Looks like a great show. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool show! If only such a thing existed in NZ! Melbourne is such a vibrant city. I'm a little jealous...
ReplyDeletehey thanks for the coverage Lucy, it really was pretty cool! Loved that you got pics of the kids at play that whoop from the plane workshop was an absolute highlight!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the photos - it was on my list, but couldn't make it. Now I feel that I've at least seen some of it.
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDeletei love love the booths , are you able to tell me where they were from or how a mere mortal could get hold of one? saw sim in green magazine by melbourne architects , and these look great
meg
Well done on sneaking past the anti photo-taking wardens! I didn't have the guts, so great to see so many of your photos posted up.
ReplyDeleteMeg - the booths are made by VISY.
Jetsetting Joyce
Wow, now I want to go back as I feel I missed half the stuff! Great write-up, as ever :)
ReplyDelete