The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

Soft pink walls, white marble and cabinetry, terrazzo flooring and warm timber are enough to make this Sydney house renovation distinctive, contemporary and welcoming. This understated warm aesthetic continues with soft green marble fan tiles in the bathroom and beautiful original stained glass in the hall. But it is the curves that really set this home apart. They are everywhere – arches in doorways, a large semi-circle cut into the kitchen bench, curves to bookshelves, undulating vertical timber battens forming the kitchen island, curved edges to the bathroom mirror.

Even the furniture has curves, from the plump cushions of the green Valley sofa by Jardan in the living room, to the spherical Flos wall lights designed by Michael Anastassiades, to the Hat pendant over the dining table, designed by Melbourne designer Luke Mills for Catapult. These curves are complemented by vertical lines to the cabinetry in the kitchen / dining room, vertical-patterned tiles that line the splashback and vertical timber battens to the kitchen island and bathroom cabinet.

By Penny Craswell

Enzo Mari is a master of Italian design. Born in 1932 and now living in Milan, he is known for his collaboration with Italian brand Danese, for whom he designed everyday objects like letter openers, buckets, pencil holders, calendars, ashtrays and more, as well as toys. Released in 1957, 16 Animali, or 16 Animals, was his first design for Danese, a wooden puzzle for children that is still in production today. Each of the animals – from elephant to hippo, snake to kangaroo – is a simple shape with a small dot for an eye.

The shape of the animals was determined through a painstaking process of problem-solving and the pieces are made with a continuous cut in a single piece of wood. A toy for teaching and for play, it is an expression of Mari’s sense of proportion, scale and balance and speaks to his ability to create visual harmony. He says: “The shapes of toys must be based on archetypal images, and these images must be realised with the highest possible quality and not in the style of ‘children’s ­drawings’.” (Interview, 2009, Metropolis.)

By Penny Craswell

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition Designs for Different Futures (2019–2020), curators presented a selection of speculative design projects from around the world. There are many fascinating examples, including Alien Nation: Parade 0 by Portuguese designer and artist Lisa Hartje Moura that explores the use of the word “alien” to mean foreigner or immigrant and suggests these “aliens” make a new home on the moon. A short film complete with costume, props and set design uses tropes that are familiar from science fiction – a reduced colour palette, a robotic voice-over and the concept of space travel itself. But the themes are politics, inclusion and society – this is a project very much informed by our current reality that explores a fictional absurdist alternative in an attempt to disrupt social norms.

By Penny Craswell

This Sneeze Screen has been designed by a Melbourne studio to protect essential workers like baristas, retailers and health sector workers from Covid-19 germs. Paul Loh and David Leggett both trained as architects in the UK and are now based in Melbourne where they started Power to Make with an ethos to: “capitalise on digital technology to produce highly crafted objects which are customisable and yet comparable in price to mass-produced items”.

The screen is simple in design and assembly, consisting of an acrylic sheet with two plywood legs, which can be easily cut and sent with free delivery within Australia. The design has also been released as a digital file on Creative Commons so that anyone with a CNC Router or Laser Cutter can make their own.

By Penny Craswell

Over the past 10 years or so, we have seen in increase in choice for customers looking to buy bedlinen from local brands selling their own designs. And now that we are spending a lot more time at home and the weather’s getting cooler, here’s five of my favourite quilt covers currently available for purchase online in Australia.

1) With an array of earthy colours and patterns, Sage x Clare is an online retailer selling bedding, but also other homewares, apparel and accessories. The Mathilde Stripe quilt cover is just gorgeous (pictured here in Lemon, but also available in Punch and Parchment) and also check out their range of awesome and funny bath mats.

By Penny Craswell

Three artists Kirra Weingarth, Dennis Golding and Carmen Glynn-Braun have designed and completed a mural at the Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab at UNSW in Sydney. The Lab is a specialised arts unit within the UNSW School of the Arts and Media that supports teaching and practice-led research, and manages the School’s performance venues, rehearsal studios and technical resources.

While each of the three mural artists have quite distinctive styles, they are all UNSW alumni and all are Indigenous: Kirra Weingarth is a descendent of the Biri and Juru people of North East Queensland, Dennis Golding is a Kamilaroi/ Gamilaraay artist and Carmen Glynn-Braun is from the Southern Arrernte, Kaytetye, and Ammatyerre nations across Central Australia.

By Penny Craswell

This house in The Hills District of Sydney was designed for a retired couple and built as a secondary dwelling on the couple’s son and daughter-in-law’s property. A simple design with one bedroom, Fundamental House features two connected pavilions – one for living and one for sleeping – and a skillion roof that slopes gently up from front to back.

Architects Sandbox Studio worked with the owners to choose a site for the building in a place that had minimal impact and clearing of trees, and used passive design principles (north orientation, high thermal mass, and cross-ventilation).

The 2019 Design Census has just been published in the United States, showing important insights into who makes up the design industry but raises important questions about their visibility. In Australia, there is little comparable or consistent information about gender in design. Guest contributor Jane Connory reflects on the invisibility of women in graphic design.

The 2019 Design Census survey was run by Google, the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and global research firm Accurat, and widely collected data across the United States. This data set is progressive because it was collected and analysed through a gendered lens—something rare in the design industry and in most surveys in general (Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women). As well as female and male genders, respondents had eight non-binary options (non-binary, gender nonconforming, gender fluid, trans, gender questioning, a-gender, bi-gender and pan-gender) to choose from. There were also the options of ‘other’ and ‘prefer not to say’.