Indigenous Emerging Designer Scholarship Great news about a fantastic Queensland design scholarship. QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) is offering a one year CEA Fashion Incubator scholarship for an emerging Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Designer commencing in 2013. This unique opportunity follows on from the the successful launch of the AKIN collection; a collaborative contemporary Indigenous fashion design partnership initiated by Arts Queensland and the Queensland Design Council. AKIN, produced by CEA, previewed at QUT’s elite fashion graduate show late last year. Recipients of the scholarship will join the CEA Fashion Incubator’s Emerging Designer Program. This program will provide the training, workspace, technical services, mentoring and networks needed to grow a sustainable fashion business. The scholarship will support an Indigenous designer to acquire the skills and experience needed to launch a career in the fashion industry. This unique opportunity is valued at over $10,000. The program includes: – Professional business and technical support delivered by CEA in partnership with QUT – Fashion and our industry advisory panel – Dedicated mentor with one-on-one sessions – A fully equipped studio, shared with like-minded fashion businesses – Access to sampling and production facilities – Office space with lockable cupboard – Access to WGSN, a trend forecasting site used by international fashion companies ...
‘Quench: The thirst for new design’ - a unique mentoring and international showcasing opportunity for emerging Queensland designers – has now launched and be quick to get your entry in by 6th January 2013! The Thirst for new design initiative is the creation of Quench, Queensland’s international award-winning design collective, developed in partnership with Gallery artisan – the State’s peak body presenting and promoting individual quality crafted design. Thirst for new design will select one talented designer to not only feature in the Quench-curated exhibition to be on show in artisan’s exclusive Ivory Street window in January 2013 but to have all flights and accommodation paid for and join the Quench exhibition in an international design fair in the USA. To enter, you need to create an interpretation of what the work of Quench means to you and present this in film, graphic design, animation or multi-media - you can be as cool or as crazy as your like! But first, you need to go online to artisan’s blog and register through the online process. Quench has had an amazing year, winning ‘Best in Show’ at Dwell on Design - one of the largest design fares in the USA – beating 276 exhibitors including global brands such as Miele, Kohler and Emeco and ‘country’ stands including design-gurus Switzerland. The year for Quench has ...
AKIN, the first ever, international luxury collection developed through a collaborative process between Indigenous artists and Queensland emerging fashion designers made a sensational debut as a ‘one-off’ preview at the sell-out Chaos and Control Queensland University of Technology (QUT) 2012 Graduate Fashion Showcase. The 20-piece ‘collection’ was produced as part of the Contemporary Indigenous Fashion Partnership which connected established Queensland Indigenous artists from far north Queensland with five QUT Fashion graduating students to develop the high-end fashion ‘range’ for commercial sale. Funded by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) – a business development agency who also operate a fashion incubator – and Arts Queensland, the project’s objective is to achieve commercial success and provide profits for both the artists and designers. A first of its kind, the project required consultation across the areas of business, fashion and the arts. Working closely with KickArts Contemporary Arts and Arts Queensland to establish an ethical framework for the project that respects both artist and designer, CEA delivered intensive workshops facilitated with QUT Fashion to mentor artists and designers, held in August as part of the 2012 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. This is only the beginning for AKIN and aims are set to develop an international fashion label ...
Travelling some 16,472kms from the Boucher & Co Toowoomba studio to Buckingham Palace in London, is the People of Australia’s gift to Her Majesty The Queen; an exceptional Royal Writing Compendium fashioned from unique Queensland timber by gifted Queensland designers and craftsmen. From their Toowoomba, Queensland workrooms, director and designer David Boucher with his team of artisans create rare and beautiful bespoke fine-art furniture and unique gifts from exotic materials for clients from Sydney to Paris, royalty and movie stars to private homes. Magical, otherworldly work conjured from lustrous figured timbers marked with such unusual swirls and colours they resemble landscapes. Presented to The Prince of Wales at Government House in Canberra on 10 November 2012, the Royal Writing Compendium was commissioned by the Governor General, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, as the official gift from Australia to Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of her 2012 Diamond Jubilee. This beautiful and practical piece is made from magnificent North Queensland Butt Maple. Its story is fascinating. Some 200 years ago, a large North Queensland Maple tree fell victim to the destructive force of a Pacific Ocean cyclone. The tree was crushed, bent and twisted by the massive cyclonic winds, but ...
Queensland’s artisan – presenter, promoter and gallery for unique quality crafted design – is steaming ahead with their current exhibition; The Antipodean Steampunk Show. Steampunk merges a 19th century aesthetic with scientific invention, salvage and new technology. This fantastical exhibition showcases highly imaginative handcrafted and functional Steampunk communication devices, sculpture, photography, fashion, lighting, weaponry, footwear, illustration, jewellery and film by Australian Steampunk artists and designers. Jordan Bloomer tells us that …”Born into the physical world in the mid-1990s by a group of science-fiction writers who had grown tired of the cyberpunk genre, Steampunk started out as a literary sub-genre that weaved fantastically worded visions, which amalgamated 19th century Victorian aesthetic principles and coupled them with modern technological advancements. This quixotic marriage of old and new has birthed a burgeoning sub-culture of creative individuals who are constructing a Neo-Victorian age that dwells within the current one.” Steampunk is only one of the feathers currently sitting in artisan’s cap. In the Queensland Australia Business Arts Foundation 2012 Awards, artisan won the Australia Council’s Young and Emerging Artists award in recognition of their Emerging Curator Mentorship Program created in partnership with BCM. Artisan don’t stay still, and you can find them touring highly ...
The Design Dividend program has been launched by the Australian Institute Architects (AIA), Queensland Chapter. Shane Thompson FRAIA, Queensland President of the AIA and current Queensland Smart Design Fellow, announced that “As the current Queensland President of the Australian Institute of Architects, I am constantly reminded of the outstanding value today’s architects bring to their clients and the communities they serve. This value is evidenced through the numerous anecdotes from both corporate and community clients, where their architects have produced amazing results on very limited budgets. Many projects have even been delivered under budget and ahead of time. This is the Design Dividend.” The Design Dividend advocates that “Quality design is an investment in the places that make our communities better environments in which to live, work and play…” To cast the project near and far, a series of postcards featuring selected Queensland projects will be posted to key public, industry and business figures as part of a need for architects to have a stronger voice and heighten awareness of the significant value their design-led role in the community can bring. Queensland projects featured include: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Winton, Outback Australia by Cox Rayner Architecture; Broadwater Parkland by RotheLowmanWhite; River Quay, Brisbane by Arkhefield ...
Queensland Design Council members have been celebrated in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac Group inaugural Women of Influence Awards. Yassmin Abdel-Magied, inaugural Queensland Design Council member and founder of Youth Without Borders, joins Dr Dawn Casey, previous Queensland Design Council member, chair of Indigenous Business Australia and Director of the Powerhouse Museum, to be honoured amongst the nation’s 100 Women of Influence in 2012. The inaugural 2012 Women of Influence Awards identify and acknowledge great leaders, entrepreneurs, mentors and role models who are working to help Australia build a vibrant, inclusive future. Entrants were nominated and finalists shortlisted for the ten categories: Board/Management; Diversity; Emerging; Global; Local/Regional; Innovation; Philanthropy; Public Policy; Social Change/Enterprise; and Young Leader. The judges extended further acknowledgement to Yassmin, recognising her – jointly with Marita Cheng – as Australia’s 2012 Young Leader Award winner.
The Queensland eco-design sector is again taking a starring role at London’s 2012 FX International Interior Design Awards. Kent Gration – a Queensland Emerging Design Leader Award winner - has been shortlisted for the 2012 Surfaces Award with the Greenery Workstation Screen System. This accolade follows on from Gration’s success with the Constellation Pendant Light which took out the 2011 FX Eco Product and Project Award. Gration’s premier bamboo furniture range Wambamboo has already received award-winning recognition, with products being exhibited and distributed around Australia and internationally. The Greenery Desk/Workstation Screening System provides an adaptable partition product which can be customised to create an array of functional and decorative solutions using two mirrored forms. The design was to created to enable easy social interaction and privacy in the workplace, whilst reducing the amount of material and infrastructure found in typical workstation arrangements. The design reduces the austere nature of workplaces by introducing organically themed elements hence the title ‘greenery’. Screen designs may be customized to reflect company branding/logos. Gration explains that the philosophy behind Wambamboo is to create “pieces which factor in the whole-of-life cycle of a product, from its material origin and benefits, biodegradability and recyclability. The prestigious FX Awards, now in ...
The 2012 Queensland Smart Design Awards honoured an incredible stable of established and emerging Queensland design practitioners. The Fellowship nominees were Kevin Finn, Shane Thompson, Christina Waterson, Anne-Marie Willis and Natalie Wright. The Emerging Design Leader Award finalists were Jenni Baxter, Kathryn Gough, Amy Saunders and Jenica Smith. Esteemed Brisbane architect Shane Thompson took out the 2012 Queensland Smart Design Fellowship. Mr Thompson received his award at the 2012 Queensland Smart Design Awards presentation at The Edge, State Library of Queensland on 28 June, while landscape architect Amy Saunders won the Emerging Design Leader Award. Mr Thompson’s outstanding contribution to Queensland’s design culture, as an advocate, teacher, mentor and architect, throughout a career spanning 30 years made him a unanimous choice for the judging panel. A director and principal of BVN Architecture from 1987 to 2011, he recently established Shane Thompson Architects. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland and President of Australian Institute Architect’s Queensland Chapter. The judging panel applauded Mr Thompson’s strong participation in community consultation, his cross-sector collaboration and ongoing work with the education system to create a stronger Queensland design sector. “Shane has championed design principles and been a leader in designing ...
Queensland architecture student Shannon Thompson has won a prestigious award at the ‘Architecture in Perspective’ (AIP) an international competition, which champions the best in architectural illustration. Now in its 26th year the competition is juried by esteemed professionals from the architecture, illustration, journalism and design education sectors, and has attracted entries from some of the most accomplished contemporary architectural illustrators from around the world. The AIP judges awarded Thompson the Student Award of Excellence for her illustration ‘Beauty + Nature’ – which Thompson describes as a “chapter on beauty that emphasizes the culture of emotion and natural ecologies, the harmony of people who choose to be removed, take refuge and integrate solidarity. The infinite memory of the self evident, playful and irregular web of hammocks is set in a location that fuses the manifestation of knowledge. In this piece, without walls rampant of formalism, nature ultimately defines the use of space.” The Award gives Thompson the opportunity to travel to Baltimore, USA in October this year to collect her award and to have her work exhibited alongside other Award winners at various venues internationally. We recently got the lowdown from Thompson, who felt that: “winning the award is confirmation that ...
