Raw-Edges Design Studio

Stack shelving system - Raw-Edges Design Studio / Established & Sons

Tailored Stools reverse the usual upholstery process... rather than skinning a foam shape as with conventional furniture-making, the resulting 3-dimensional shape here is informed by the initial 2-dimensional fabric pattern.

I am quite in love with the kooky work of UK-based, Israel-born design duo Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, otherwise known as Raw-Edges Design Studio.

Their best known design is probably the 'Stack' drawer/shelving system, picked up by the UK's prestigious Established & Sons after spotting Shay's prototype at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition in 2006. It's now one of Established & Sons most popular and recognisable designs, and has won numerous design awards. It's place as a contemporary classic has also been confirmed by it's inclusion in MOMA'S permanent design collection.

Since graduating in 2006, this dynamic pair have received several respected design awards including The British Council Talented Award, an iF Gold Award, a Dutch Design award, Wallpaper* Design Award 2009 and the Elle Decoration International Design Award for best furniture of 08/09. They were also recently awarded the Designer of the Future award for 2009 at Design Miami/Basel. Phew!

Not bad for the 33 yr-old pair who launched their design studio only 2 years ago in July 2007! Jeepers. It's enough to make you feel positivity unproductive.

LOVE this packaging design for milk cartons, in which the amount of fat in the milk is distinguished by form rather than colour! The folds in the back of the package function as a handle for pouring, whilst the 2 folds in front function as the spout. Beautiful, efficient, clever, simple design.

Look how much fun it is working at Raw-Edges Design Studio!

Melbourne Home - Kat Macleod and Cam Teys

Cam and Kat balloons from their recent engagement party!

Top left - yellow and pink pig/elephant from Chapel st Bazaar. Top right - Pop Ink : Decor-a-Board given to Kat by a close friend.. purchased from In the Woods (Northcote). Bottom - lovely loungeroom... featuring an Aubrey Beardsley black and white print from an op shop (above the couch).

Dinign area, and Kat's favourite Marimekko cup by one of Kat's favourite illustrators - Maija Louekari.

Got another gorgeous Melbourne Home to share with you today... these shots are from the beautiful apartment of super-famous, ever-modest Melbourne illustrator Kat Macleod, and her partner - equally talented musician Cam Teys (he's the drummer in Melbourne band Gaslight Radio).

Kat and Cam are the cutest couple ever. Seriously. They also just got engaged last month in NYC! (I promised I would make it clear that they don't always have huge gold balloons in their house spelling out their names!! These kooky decorations were for their engagement party just a week ago!)

Cutest. Couple. Ever.

Kat and Cam have only recently moved into their beautiful older-style apartment in Carlton... it's such a gorgeous little nest, with amazingly high ceilings and huge windows, and lots of leafy foliage in the garden - visible from every light-filled room.

As you'd expect, there are quirky feminine flourishes in every room, lots of artwork by friends, and pieces by some of Kat's favourite illustrators. Cam balances out the girly stuff with his musical equipment, the odd motorbike mag and his favourite James Dean photographs!


Kat and Cam's friends gave them their couch. The yellow 'upholstery' is a doona cover Kat bought at an op shop. The cushions are all either op-shop or Ikea! The copper gloves on the side table are the most amazing engagement gift from friends! There's a boy and a girl hand. Sweet!

Dining area - Cam's James Dean photo hangs above the dining table alongside 'Roses and Hips', an original drawing by Tina Berning, one of Kat's favourite illustrators. It was bought on a trip to new york 2.5 years ago.

Bedroom details... wish I could have captured the light and enormous windows better (These windows are actually twice this tall! - I need a wide-angle lens!). Suzy sits in the window looking at the rain... The pillowcase is by Miranda July - from Third Drawer Down. Kat and I planted the red lips above Cam's side of the bed just for the photo! As if it wasn't girly enough... hee!

A beautiful little sketch of Cam and Kat hangs in the hallway, drawn by their good friend James Lin, from a photo he took of the pair at dinner one night.

Silver-foil peach made by Cam for Kat. Awwww! The embroidered doily was customised by Simone Elder, one of Kat's partners in graphic design studio, Ortolan.

Top - Kat and her baby, Suzy!! 10 year old burmese. Not in the photo is Andy, Cam's 10 year old black & white reclusive cat. (Very camera shy!). Bottom - new Iittala bowl, with illustrations by Klaus Haapaniemi. A gift from Ortolan for Cam and Kat's engagement. Don't you love all that beautiful lush green foliage outside the kitchen windows???

Lovely little bathroom details - Pencil shaving necklace by local jeweller Victoria Mason, Wooden heart earrings by Maru.

Kat enforces a 'Green Only' policy for bathroom essentials! All toothbrushes, product packaging and accessories must be green!

Succulents and other happy little plants on the back deck :) (It was rainy, or I would have ventured further outside!)

a huge, HUGE thanks to Kat and Cam for letting me run around their beautiful home on a Sunday morning with my camera! Also thanks for feeding me Dench bakery goods! :) Too lovely!

ps) If you missed my interview with Kat back in November last year, here it is!

Lucy King

All illustration / design here by Lucy King

Lucy King is a Melbourne based surface designer who has recently gone from full time design work to the wacky world of freelance! She's really excited about moving into more illustration work, and also is looking forward to focussing on personal creative projects such as Me Old China - accessories and artworks made from re-purposed vintage ceramics. I know recycled china does seem like flavour of the month right now... but Lucy has a slightly different take on it, have spent the last few years designing illustrations and patterns for ceramic tableware herself!

Custom artwork by Lucy King using recycled china

Me Old China pendants

Lucy has worked for both local and international clients over the last few years, creating designs for ceramics, textiles and childrens products. I love her flowing, painterly style and that vibrant use of colour.... so fresh and bright and summery!

Lucy also has a lovely blog here!

Pandarosa in Madrid

Been meaning to post this forever.... It is getting so hard to keep up!

Remember Melbourne creative duo Pandarosa who I interviewed many moons ago? With the excellent vinyl-cut wall graphics? Well, in typical form the Pandas are currently working and exhibiting overseas... and these shots are from their recent exhibition 'Creature Comforts', in Madrid!

Unfortunately I am a couple of days late... I think this show just finished. Aggh! I feel quite awful... I get around 50 emails a day at the moment and I'm finding it harder and harder to promote all the talented creatives who get in touch!

Anyway, the show was at a very cool-looking gallery called Subaquatica - check out some images and a profile of Pandarosa on he Subaquatica website here :)

Inside Out digital edition

Inside Out Sept/Oct digital edition

Inside Out Sept/Oct - Beci Orpin's workspace, photographed by Sharyn Cairns

Hey friends! I feel the need to just take a mini-moment to say thanks so much for reading The Design Files :) It is such a wonderful thing to have people tuning in everyday just to see what I've posted. You guys are the bestest! I truly appreciate your readership, thankyou!

OK now onto things. Did you KNOW you that Inside Out magazine is available to read online here? It doesn't include every article (makes sense, otherwise why would you buy the current issue?) ...but still, it's a very generous cross section of around 50% of the current mag's content. What an exciting discovery! The digital reader also offers the option to print pages you like, or save the whole mag as a PDF. You can click directly on all embedded URL links (awesome), and you can browse back-issues all the way back to 2007!

Am I the last person in the universe to know about this? Is it common knowledge...? And more importantly... are OTHER magazines available as digital editions too? If so I feel a whole new avenue of online procrastination opening up!

Inside Out Sept/Oct digital edition - this story photographed by James Merrell, styling/production Maureen Vivian

Interview - Jane Reiseger

Nursery murals by Jane Reiseger

Illustration for Spicers Paper commissioned by graphic design firm Pip and Co. Hand drawings with pen and watercolour on paper.

Drawings inspired by Pearl Restaurant.

You mightn't know the name Jane Reiseger, but if you're in Melbourne or Sydney, chances are you've almost certainly seen her work. You might have seen her playful illustrations for the Docklands on HUGE billboards on the freeway recently (as well as tramstops all over town). You might also have seen her beautiful nursery/kids room murals in Real Living magazine... her smile-inducing animal paintings all over the walls of Sydney's Children's Hospital... and if you've ever shopped at Nest Homewares in South Melbourne, you're more than likely familiar with Albi the elephant..!

Jane's work is filled with playfulness and childlike innocence... and it takes a very special grown-up to draw with the ease and naivete of a child! Jane's engaging illustrative style lends itself to a wide range of applications and has drawn a fantastic variety of commissions over the last few years. It seems so cool that some of Melbourne's luckiest tots gaze up to Jane's murals from their little beds, whilst high-end retailers such as Rogerseller commision wall paintings and branding illustrations from the very same artist!

My favourite snippet from Jane's website is the Van Handel's Christmas hat story. A few years ago Jane was working at Nest in South Melbourne, and had just created Albi for their Christmas display. Melbourne's well known restauranteur Frank Van Handel was a regular customer of Nest at the time. One day he came in, and after seeing Albi in the window, said to Jane “if you ain’t Dutch you ain’t much…”!!! Being Dutch himself he loved the little Dutch Oliphant and asked if Jane would create some hats for his family to wear at Christmas. In return Jane was offered a dinner with all her friends at his restaurant - the well known St Kilda Stokehouse. Jane's friend's mum made the hats, and she drew her gorgeous designs on them in red texta. Perfect! (... and what a cute story!)

Van Handel Christmas Hats

Thanks so much for Jane for this interview (completed in record time!). Do pop over and browse her lovely website for more beautiful examples of her work.

LOVE snooping in Jane's fantastic sketchbooks!

Tell me a little about your background – what path led you to what you’re doing now?

I have an earthy background.
I grew up on a farm on the Mornington Peninsula, there were horses and cows and an apple orchard. I was a shy child so used to spend a lot of time drawing. I could talk to people thru my pictures.

I studied Fine Art at the Victorian College of Arts majoring in painting, finishing in 1993. I was 20 years old. After art school I painted and had a few exhibitions and worked in cafes. I started my own illustration business in 1999 after a family friend asked if I could design a wine label for their vineyard. I really enjoyed the whole process and thought maybe I could turn illustration into a job, so I started going to food and wine festivals and got inspired by meeting people like the Chef Geoff Lindsay and Donna Hay. I did illustrations for Yering station, Walters’s Wine Bar, Lindenderry, Gourmet Traveller magazine and The Age. I still needed a bit more income so I got a job working at Nest Homewares in South Melbourne 2 days a week. This was a great place where I could supplement my income and do some illustrations at the same time. I met lots of really interesting talented and lovely people. I used to draw on the tabletops of the shop and hand write point of sale signs.

Aesop point of sale Illustrations for Nest Homewares

I also got to illustrate the Christmas motif each year, which was very successful and got turned into product. The most well known is Albi the elephant.


My interest for interiors grew thru working at nest and I started painting on walls and doing illustrations for various retailers, stylists, foodies, architects (SJB and Maddison) and graphic designers (Hoyne Design and Studio Pip and Co.) I left Nest about 4 years ago and have been working fulltime as an illustrator. I have painted murals for Country Road, The Royal Children’s Hospital in Sydney and done a series of drawings for Rogerseller’s new identity with the graphic design company Lemonade. I also have been painting murals in private residencies by commission.

Sydney Children's Hospital wall paintings

What have been some of your favourite drawings, special projects or collaborations?

I am very fond of Cheekie Monkee who I did for a limited edition Hallmark range. He is very daggy. I want to make large silkscreen art prints using his image.

Hallmark cards

I had a lot of fun coming up with the bathroom images for Rogerseller. I also got to go to Sydney and Brisbane to hand paint two large murals in Rogersellers stores.

Illustrations for Rogerseller

My favourite nursery type mural is one I did for Real living magazine of a tree with birds… the photographer Dan Magree took a really nice photo with the stylist's dog jack in the shot.

Nursery Mural for Real Living magazine - photo by Dan Magree

I like my fruit and ice cream drawings… Inspired by moving to Yarraville and having a peach tree.


I recently worked on a project with RBD graphic design for the city of docklands access campaign. I handwrote words and did line illustrations that were then collaged together with photos. It was weird/exciting going around town and seeing my writing really large on billboards and metro lights.

City of Docklands advertising campaign

Where do you turn for inspiration – nature, travel, books, magazines or the web etc?

I love big skys and looking at the sea… I like visiting Flinders and going to the cafes down there. I often get inspiration drawing in my car. I like the small space it’s a moveable studio. I enjoy listening to 774 talk back radio. I like reading Elle Decoration UK, and Dumbo Feather… I like the design files.

Which designers, artists or creative people do you admire?

I admire the retailer and designer Daniella Moore and her shop 'Tree' at Flinders.
I think the illustrator Hanna Konola does beautiful work.

What does a typical day at work involve for you?

I work from home in Yarraville. I start the work day around 8.00 am with a bowl of muesli and a green chai tea in front of the computer checking my emails. My dog Misty sits under my table.

Around 9.00 I will call clients, talk to graphic designers, stylists then start working on drawings by hand with pens and paper.

At 11.00 I might have an onsite meeting with a client… a mum wanting a mural or a retailer, graphic designer.

Around 1.00 I like to go and sit in a café get some lunch and do some drawings and notes from my meetings.

At 3.00pm its back on the computer for more emailing and scanning of images and a bit of researching on the web and in magazines and some more drawing.

I like to finish work by 6pm and go down to Williamstown with Misty for a walk.

Jane's studio at home in Yarraville

What would be your dream creative project?

I enjoy what I’m doing and just want to do more of it. I would LOVE to collaborate with some talented folk on some limited edition products…maybe design some kids floor rugs?

What are you looking forward to?

Going back to Tassie…went there recently for work/holiday. Fresh air, lots of yummy local food and beautiful quiet beaches.


Melbourne Questions

Where do you shop for the tools of your trade? (i.e. sketching materials, paints, dyes, etc).

I buy my pens, tracing paper and tape from Officeworks. I shop at Eckersleys and St. Kilda Art Supplies for art papers, textas, canvas and brushes. I get my paint from Porters.

What/where was the last great meal you ate in Melbourne?

It was more an afternoon treat… it was a yummy syrupy lemon sponge cake thingy from Spoonful in Prahran.

More drawings inspired by Pearl Restaurant.

Where would we find you on a typical Saturday morning?

If we don’t sleep in My boyfriend and I like going to farmers markets... Recently went to a tiny one in Healesville.

Melbourne’s best kept secret?

Cibi… I think its on keele street in Collingwood?

It’s a cool Japanese café/shop down a side street off Smith Street it has great coffee, good magazines, interesting quirky things to look at. It has lovely natural light. It’s a good spot to do some drawing.

Big things!