The Design Writer

Australian lighting innovation in Milan

March 31, 2015January 1, 2023despc

It’s that time of the year again, when all the major designers and design brands turn their attention to Milan for the annual Furniture Fair, happening in the second week of April. While I won’t be heading there myself this year, Ben Baxter of McDermott Baxter will be writing up some of the innovative lighting designs he sees there, while showing the Nimbus light.

Ruth McDermott and Ben Baxter will be showing Nimbus as part of Ventura Lambrate Station, one of four Australian studios showing work in this new part of the exhibition for emerging designers. Nimbus is a continuation of McDermott Baxter’s experiments into lighting, using new technology and a low energy philosophy to create innovation artworks and design pieces. Read more →

Design and performance: scenography

March 27, 2015January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Truly multi-disciplinary, scenography is design for performance environments – encompassing set design, lighting and more for the theatre (and musicals, dance). Also related is design for catwalk shows, as well as other temporary experiential designs – installations for events or festivals for example. As more environments are designed to be experiential, the skill of creating “scenes” is more applicable across disciplines.

Teatro Olimpico by Palladio in Vicenza. Image: Penny Craswell

The discipline is on the periphery of design – part interior design, part styling, part costume, part art, part lighting, part construction. Architecture can also play a role, such as in the oldest existing closed theatre, the 1585 Teatro Olimpico by Vicenza architect Palladio which features a beautiful facade with arches, behind which a false perspective creates the illusion of a streetscape. Read more →

The design writer’s postcard from Adelaide

February 27, 2015January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Great design and architecture are in abundance in Adelaide which I dicovered during a recent visit. The city is completely new to me – I knew the Jam Factory’s reputation for good design and that some fantastic architecture firms – Woods Bagot, Hassell and Woodhead (now GHD Woodhead) – had begun there, but I was otherwise unsure what to expect. The trip came about when, having commissioned me to write an essay for the catalogue of the Jam Factory’s Glass: Art Design Architecture exhibition, Director Brian Parkes invited me to the opening.

Glass artist Tom Moore's work at Jam Factory Glass exhibition. Photography: Penny Craswell. — Glass artist Tom Moore’s work at Jam Factory Glass exhibition. Photography: Penny Craswell.

The exhibition, the catalogue and the opening did not disappoint. With studios offering an associate program in ceramics, glass, metal and furniture, and some great exhibitions, as well as a retail shop selling design objects, the Jam Factory is an important organisation for design both in Adelaide and nationally. In addition, Brian – an old friend from his Sydney days – has added his love of design, as well as extensive contacts in the field (recent appointments include Jon Goulder and Daniel Emma) and great curatorial skills to the mix. Read more →

Gehry’s Sydney landmark: It’s complicated

February 8, 2015January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

After visiting the new Dr Chau Chak Wing building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) this week, designed by Frank Gehry, a number of people asked me what I thought of the building. I think they expected a simple answer – you either love it or you hate it. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. And answering this question well goes to the heart of the purpose of architecture, and also the role of a university.

Exterior, Dr Chau Chak, Frank Gehry. Photo: Andrew Worssam — Exterior, Dr Chau Chak Wing building, Frank Gehry. Photo: Andrew Worssam

The opening of the first Frank Gehry building in Australia was always going to be a major event for architecture and, perhaps even more so, for the media. Throughout his career, and ever since the Guggenheim in Bilbao in particular, Gehry has been one of the most famous starchitects in the world, even appearing on the Simpsons. Read more →

Design and food: new concepts in edible growth

January 26, 2015January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Growing your own food has become a movement worldwide, with city-dwellers getting up close and personal with their food for the first time since food technologies made food production and distribution on a global scale possible. Designers are taking this one step further, addressing food futures and working with the community to create new ways of growing food.

Chloe Rutzerveld Edible Growth with mushrooms and greens

Dutch designer Chloe Rutzerveld is addressing food futures by thinking small, as she relates in her talk at Ninety Minutes of Frame in Amsterdam. Using a personalized 3D file, Rutzerveld creates a small lattice shape in pastry or pasta, adding seeds, spores and yeast, with the resulting object developing and growing over five days into a delicious, edible and beautiful object.

Design and branding: the ethics of colour

January 14, 2015October 18, 2024despc

By Penny Craswell

What’s the value of a colour? In the world of branding, colour can mean a lot, so much so that companies are able to use it to deceive us. While researching an encyclopedia entry on Deception in Advertising (which I am co-writing with my partner Chris Falzon for the Sage Encyclopedia of Advertising and Society), we found many of examples of unethical advertising, which led me to question the use of colour in branding, packaging and logos. I found that the simple use of a colour was enough to convey a message, and that this message can be used to deceive us.

From We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion. Via Brainpicking.com — From *We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion*. Via Brainpicking.com

The two main examples of this are: greenwash and gendered advertising. BP is famous for its greenwashing, so much so that it was awarded Greenpeace’s Emerald Paintbrush award for greenwashing in 2008. In 2000, BP changed its name from British Petroleum to beyond petroleum, using the colour green in combination with a flower-shaped logo to create the impression it is environmentally aware, despite its terrible track record in environmental management (including oil spills, toxic waste and more, details here). As much as the name change, the flower and other aspects of the rebranding were important, the simple use of the colour green says so much about this brand. It’s not the only brand to use green in this way. For graphic designers who want to be ethical, check out Green Graphic Design by Brian Dougherty. Read more →

Review: Sydney Festival’s Inside There Falls

January 11, 2015despc

By Penny Craswell

Inside There Falls, on at Carriageworks as part of Sydney Festival this month, is the most inter-disciplinary art piece I have ever experienced, combining paper art, installation, sculpture, writing, spoken word, costume design, music and dance. The piece is an installation by UK-based artist Mira Calix, with dancers from the Sydney Dance Company and choreography by Rafaela Bonachela.

Dancers and installation as part of Inside There Falls. Photo: Penny Craswell

As an audience member, the experience begins by being led into a dark room and asked to wear white overalls or coat, and being given a scrunched up paper object to hold. The sound of a woman’s voice starts to emanate from the object, reading poetry on the body and identity, written by Sydney-based writer Brett Clegg and read by actress Hayley Atwell. Already the mood is set.

Top 5: Australia’s love affair with Nordic design

December 17, 2014June 9, 2025despc

By Penny Craswell

In 1981, a radical new design collective Memphis, headed by Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, released its first collection in the “new international style”. Since then, globalisation of brands and products has led to a consistent aesthetic across national boundaries in contemporary design, to the extent that discussion of national design styles has become increasingly irrelevant.

On the other hand, it is hard to argue with the fact that some countries do design really well (Denmark, Japan, Italy to name just a few) and some not so well (overbearing dark wood furniture and kitchens in some parts of the US or over-the-top glitz in Russia or China, for example). Read more →

Seidler Horizon Apartments architecture insider tour

November 20, 2014July 21, 2026despc

By Penny Craswell

Did you know that the Horizon Apartments in Sydney by architect Harry Seidler includes two low-rise buildings, pool, tennis court, underground carpark and beautiful landscaping as well as the iconic tower? This was one of the many new things I learnt about the project on a tour organised by Sydney Living Museums.

Horizon Apartments is located in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst surrounded by suburban housing and next to SCEGGS school. The site itself had previously been the location of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABC) Sydney office. Seidler’s intention was to create a tower that makes the most of incredible views to the harbour and city with a tall, slender tower that covers only one third of the block. The rest of the site is made of up two low-rise apartment buildings, while a beautifully landscaped garden, pool and tennis court provide serene grounds above an underground carpark. The building was originally designed in 1990 or 1991, with the building completed and tenants in residence in 1998. Read more →

Bruno Munari’s children’s book Circus in the Mist

November 13, 2014October 18, 2024despc

A couple of years ago, I contributed a number of texts to the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design which was my first book contribution and an amazing experience. The Phaidon editors selected every example they commissioned from me – from infographics, to fonts, to magazine covers – and as a result, I learnt so much about graphic design. Even though 26 of my entries were published, for some reason, a few stories I wrote on children’s books and toys were not published – they must have decided to leave these out. So, since it is just sitting there, here is one of the stories I wrote, on a beautiful book by Italian designer and artist Bruno Munari.

Circus in the Mist by Bruno Munari. Image via LOG.

Circus in the Mist – or Nella Nebbia di Milano – was created by Italian designer and artist Bruno Munari in 1968. With black illustrations printed on transparent paper, this is not just a children’s book, but an object of play. Read more →