The new Hoshi range, including lounge, armchair and bench, is the latest work by emerging Canberra-based designer Tom Skeehan, working with furniture supplier Stylecraft. Loosely translating as “star” in Japanese, Hoshi is inspired by the designer’s travels in Japan: “I have personally experienced their deep attraction to materials and process, combined with a rich understanding of how an object is made and the purpose / life cycle of the work.”
Hoshi lounge designed by Tom Skeehan for Stylecraft. Image: supplied
“Aesthetically, I admire the restraint and often minimal approach to many aspects of Japanese culture, placing a strong emphasis on the overall process and individual daily ritual,” he adds. Read more →
The Carafe table has a visual and structural complexity to it that is characteristic of the work of Charles Wilson, a Sydney-based designer who worked in close collaboration with Herman Miller over a period of years to complete the project.
Carafe table with drawer designed by Charles Wilson for Herman Miller
The underside features a series of compartments in moulded plywood including open shelves as well as a closed, sliding drawer that opens both ways, sloping inwards to create a geometry that is tucked in under the tabletop. The leg structure spans to the corners of the table, supporting the shelves but visually forming a third layer underneath that is drawn together at the centre in a distinctive T cross-section which Wilson says references industrial structures. Read more →
Lyn Balzer and Tony Perkins are a Sydney-based photography and designer/maker duo with an international sensibility, whose works are nevertheless deeply rooted in Australia. Their new exhibition at Sydney’s Australian Design Centre, called Scented Intoxication, features works made from a range of materials in two simple colours: black and white. But it is scent that is the most extraordinary feature of this exhibition.
Gallery view, Scented Intoxication. Photo: Supplied by Australian Design Centre
When you enter the exhibition space, it hits you right away, a beautiful, heady perfume that is not sweet or perfume-like in the traditional sense, but is reminiscent of burnt wood or native Australian vegetation or both. Lyn and Tony worked with French-born Australian-based Elise Pioch Balzac of Maison Balzac to create two scents for two scented candles: L’Obscurite (darkness) is a black candle with a scent inspired by one of Lyn and Tony’s photographs of a sea cave in Kiama NSW. Elise interpreted the image in a scent inspired by volcanic rocks using tree resin, birch tar and red cedar. The other scent is L’Etrangete (strangeness), a white candle with a scent inspired by another photograph by Lyn and Tony, this time of a waterfall in a lush rainforest. Elise interpreted this image of sunlight in greenery as a scent with lemon myrtle, native ginger and hemp. Read more →
Ligne Roset is one of those furniture brands in Europe with a long history, with roots in 1860s France, where the company was founded selling walking sticks and sunshades. Skip forward to the present day and the 5th generation Roset family are running the company, including Michel Roset who first looked at Melbourne designer Nick Rennie’s profile in 2011.
Roset liked what he saw, in particular the Saldo table, a geometric design in 8mm thick ‘crystal’glass that comes with self adhesive sliders. Within twelve months, the product was launched. Read more →
