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...