The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

Although I wasn’t able to make it to Melbourne for this one, I feel that I have gotten to know Australian designer Elliot Bastianon’s work over the years and am excited to share information and images of his new exhibition “Analogue and Alchemy”, currently at C Gallery. Furthering his previous explorations of electroplating and patination, Elliot’s new series is made in collaboration with Punjabi master coppersmith Hari Krishan.

Elliot visited North India from his current home base in New Delhi in order to learn about the metalwork techniques of the Thathera community, who are renowned for their hand-forming copper and brass vessels, a skill passed down through the generations and recognised by UNESCO as an endangered form of intangible cultural heritage.

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By Penny Craswell

Melbourne-based designer Ruby Shields launched her new design house Studio Shields during Melbourne Design Week this year with an exhibition entitled Synthesis, including the work of over 40 artists, makers and designers in an immersive exhibition at the Bishop’s Parlour at Abbotsford Convent.

With this new show, Ruby has taken her background as an Art Director in advertising and mixed it with a love for rich colours and textures to create a show with real impact.

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By Penny Craswell

There is something wonderfully warm and organic to the feel of a wooden table, but they can also easily be scratched or stained by day-to-day living. Matt Sherwen of Sydney-based design studio Mat & Kin has come up with a solution in the form of the Revolve table.

The key to the table’s success is a rotating tabletop, which allows the scratched or stained surface to be rotated when guests arrive, revealing a pristine underside, now able to be used as a fresh table surface.

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By Penny Craswell

This redesign of a Federation semi on a long block in the leafy suburb of Ripponlea, Melbourne, focuses on reconfiguring internal rooms and a new living zone out the back that looks out onto a lush garden.

The owners, a family of three, told local architects Austin Maynard Architects that the home needed to be set up “for the next 100 years”, and that it should be warm, welcoming and friendly with environmental design at its core. Their passion for music, reading, art and plants/gardening was also key to the brief.

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By Penny Craswell

A Sydney architecture studio spent nearly a year developing a new oyster shell terrazzo for a pavilion in Sydney’s Barangaroo, designed as a public place of gathering right on the harbour.

Founded by Peter Besley and Jessica Spresser, Besley & Spresser found historical precedents in “tabby concrete”, which is made from crushed or burnt oyster. However, tabby concrete does not express the shape of the oyster: “Using whole oysters and expressing this in the material is rare and much harder to do,” says Peter Besley. “It took us over a year of experimenting and testing to get it working as we wanted, and we had to certify it uniquely ourselves.”

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By Penny Craswell

I’m excited to announce that my new book Design: Art Deco: Design Inspiration from Paris to New York will be published on 7 April by Hardie Grant North America. This is a richly illustrated sourcebook that traces the movement from the Paris salons of the 1920s to the skylines of Manhattan and the first great streamlined vehicles of the industrial age.

By Penny Craswell

“A room of my own” is a cabinet designed by London designer Nipa Doshi of studio Doshi Levien that is accessible from two sides, acting as a dressing table and a writing desk to encourage quiet moments of contemplation and self-expression.

The work is reminiscent of her work Le Cabinet for French porcelain factory Sèvres, which she described to me during an interview in Sydney in 2023 as being inspired by the shapes and silhouettes of modernist architect Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh.

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By Penny Craswell

The Radical Yes store in North Melbourne has had a redesign thanks to Molecule Architecture and Interior Design’s Richard Fleming and Anja de Spa, who describe themselves as longtime customers and fellow locals of the dynamic shoe, bag and accessory brand.

Radical Yes began when Kerryn Moscicki decided to start making shoes in a new, radical way – in small batches, with considered materials and with a focus on flat shoes. Their slogan “hasten slowly” resonated with a lot of people and the brand has gone from strength to strength.

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By Penny Craswell

Want to celebrate the festive season the ethical way? Then this is your guide on the best way to do just that this holiday season without losing the fun of gift giving. So, whether it’s being generous with your money when it comes to charities, avoiding plastics and single-use items, or simply buying from a maker or small business instead of the big corporations, give ethical shopping a go this year. Here are 10 suggestions for gifts to give in 2025.

1. Jess Sellinger is a Brisbane-based artist who works with Australian clay and glazes, making sculptures, vessels and furniture objects by hand in her studio. Jess also donates to local charities and has a yearly charity giveaway. The Wave Wall sculpture is $450. jesssellingerceramics.com

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By Penny Craswell

This year’s IDEA Awards highlighted some remarkable work from 2025, including a Brisbane restaurant full of novelty, an earthy house renovation that did more with less and the adaptive reuse of a former mechanic workshop into a creative studio.

At the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in Sydney, there were several outstanding projects, but no project was awarded more than Hong Kong-inspired Brisbane restaurant Central, designed by J.AR Office. J.AR Office’s Jared Webb got up on stage no fewer than three times, for Emerging Designer of the Year, the Hospitality category and Overall Project of the Year, complete with palpable amazement and wild hair flying. At one point he said if he’d known this would happen he would have had a haircut. Simply called Central, the restaurant is situated in a basement in Brisbane’s CBD, with an illuminated gridded ceiling and the chef positioned in the centre of the space creating a sense of real drama, juxtaposing the precision of the grid against the roughness of the walls.

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