We wish all our readers a wonderful festive season and look forward to lots more design news, discussions and debates in 2010.

Please click here to view our Christmas card

PS: if you have time please do visit Architects without Frontiers who do amazing work all over the world.  You can learn about the Anganwadi project and track progress over the coming months.

Happy Christmas and see you all in the New Year!

If like us you are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Grand Designs Australia, here are a few tidbits to whet your appetite. The Australian version of the popular UK show will be hosted by Australian architect Peter Maddison of Maddison Architects. It’s filming now and there will be ten episodes screening on the Lifestyle channel in 2010. The circular Mount Macedon House (below) by Melbourne based Andrew Maynard Architects is one of the houses to be featured in an episode. We discovered this over at architectureanddesign.com.au.

Here’s an interview with one of Australia’s best known and loved designers, Charles Wilson. His work is diverse and ranges from furniture through to civic design and domestic products but regardless of the field he always looks for ways to contribute positively to people’s lives. We’re fans and hope you enjoy this discussion.  For more on Charles visit Charles Wilson Design

Describe a typical working day?

I usually have a number of projects on at once and these will be at very different stages from design/sketching, modeling, organizing prototypes to be built, dealing with images and manufacturers. It’s very easy to design from anywhere nowadays and I’m very lucky in this regard. I spend about half my time on a farm where I grew in Forbes (central NSW) and rest in inner Sydney – I really enjoy the contrast between the two environments.

Can you give us a brief rundown of your creative process?

Really brief?  “What ever works.”

I used to tell students that they needed to start designing before researching a brief because with that ignorance might come an ideal/idealized solution. Of course like anything this can go wrong…  But I think it’s indicative of how there’s not necessarily a particular process in designing.

A good lie down is as important a part of my design process as anything.

Boulder Plastering

Boulder Ottoman Plastering

Where do you look for inspiration?

I don’t really look to be honest. Even when I can identify an external influence – say from a natural form or artifact – this usually comes as a realization during or even after the design process. So in other words it’s like tapping into the back of your mind, where everything has piled up, rather than actually seeking. Generally my favorite projects come from reconciling a process of problem solving with finding a sculptural expression.

GH Side Table

GH Side table

Who do you admire creatively?

I love the work of artist Olafur Eliasson – his installations are breathtaking and beautifully resolved. And his recent lighting design for Zumtobel is so original and clever. In Australia I really admire the work of Adelaide-based designer Khai Liew whose work draws upon an amazing breadth of influence from Australian colonial furniture to Czech cubism and oriental traditions.

What has been a career highlight?

There have been a number of highlights of different sorts – Woodmark commissioning me to design a whole range of new furniture in 2001 would be one. It was this commission that (after many faltered starts) really began my career as a professional designer. Designing furniture for the drawing room of Government house, NSW in 2007 was another. While I find the challenge of designing for manufacture one of the most interesting aspects of my work, it was great to design for a bespoke commission towards a neo-gothic interior that had no relation to my usual style. Then there was the Candelabra for MENU – The design was translated beautifully into production and has become a very successful product internationally.

Heron

Candelabra

What do you like/dislike about the Australian design industry?

In recent years there has been terrific support and appreciation for locally designed product and with this a growing confidence among product and furniture designers. And with numerous design competitions and grants there is considerable encouragement for independent designers. The down side of course is the scarcity of manufacturers prepared to embrace original, directional work.

Base

Cassandra

Can you share a goal with us for the future?

I have such a backlog of developed but unrealized designs – it’s an ongoing goal to have these commercialized.

Spool- winner of Bombay Sapphire Design Awards 2006

We were delighted to work with Belle recently to launch the beautiful range of desks for the home office from Herman Miller.  David Novak-Piper worked his magic using beautiful accessories and Herman Miller chairs to produce different looks for each of the desks.  What better excuse do you need to update the workspace?

We were happy to provide some of Heller’s Frank Gehry collection for Rosemount’s recent press ads.  The cubes designed by one of the world’s most celebrated architects add to the icy theme to help promote Rosemount O. The team here haven’t tried it yet but with the hot festive season upon us a drink designed to be served over ice sounds like its worth investigating.

Here’s a real treat; an interview with Mark and Rhynie Cawood, the husband and wife team behind Publisher Textiles. We’ve long been fans of Publisher’s work, often seeking out their screen-printed cushions for the lounges in our showrooms. Enjoy their interview below and check out their website to see their complete range of wallpapers, fabrics and products.

How did you come to be doing what you do? (eg. study, work experience etc…)
Mark studied and worked as a screen printer for many years, and I (Rhynie) studied fashion and graphic design. But it was a pure love of fabric and pattern that got us started on our path.
We both love drawing and making stuff, so designing and producing textiles and wallpapers became a work medium to facilitate our passion.

As far as starting a company is concerned: The business started small and direct from a rented corner in a friends factory. Original printed fabrics and garments were created during the week and sold at Paddington markets over the weekend.

Describe a typical working day?
There is no typical workday. There’s always the task of running the business, and there is the joy of designing prints, developing ranges, picking colours, sourcing fabrics, shooting products and then there’s the challenges of dealing with print or production issues.

Can you give us a brief rundown of your creative process?
Everything starts with scribbles. We do most of our conceptual work at home over a good bottle of wine and some music. From there, images are refined and artwork is drawn or painted neatly. Then it moves between the light box and the computer to get repeats right and colours separated.
Once a design goes onto screen, it’s ready to be printed. At this stage we spend a lot of time in the print room, either going through existing colours from our shelves, or mixing up the right colour, to create the right combinations.

Where do you look for inspiration?
Anywhere and everywhere – life, art, nature, culture, fantasy….
Most of our designs reflect what is happening in our journey – which can be better understood when you know the story behind why we called ourselves Publisher Textiles.

To publisher means to put into print.

We see our ranges as chapters, and the designs as characters, which come in and out of the story. Each chapter echo’s a feeling or story or environment, which is generally something we are going through in our lives. So we publish our story illustratively, on textiles and wallpaper.

Our new range is called DUSK
The range was inspired by “Parklife”. We live on the park and love nothing more than to spend our Sunday afternoons with friends and family, just relaxing out in the sun, with some good food, and lots of laughs.

Kids play…. adults play….

Its that feeling of “joie de la vie” – even with the hectic pace that keeps us going through the week, we believe balance is important…. and love to get back to basics and connect with the important things in life… like soul food.

So we have combined the textures of raw hemp and silk, used earthy neutral tones with metallics silver (like cloud halo’s), midnight blue, burnt oranges and ochre, and injected fuchsia and bright yellow (like that friend that you haven’t seen for years, who pops in …. and ends up being the life of the party)

Who do you admire creatively?
Love the work of MC Escher – he has taken repeat pattern to a whole other level. Also love the work of the Wiener Werkstatte, Timorous Beasties, Shepard Fairey, have always loved Alexander McQueen – and so many more.

But as far as “real-life” creativity goes, I have always admired my mum. I grew up in South Africa, and we never had white walls. The house would change continuously through the years, and somehow she would create different environments that mixed African bead and wireworks, with antique family heirlooms and my dad’s (who is an artist) macabre and often dark paintings and sculptures, massive pieces of wood that had been found in the dessert, Venetian glass. Everything was styled to perfection.

What has been a career highlight?
Moving into our own factory space!!!!
There is nothing better that having space and tools to play with.

And winning the Telstra Business award for Best Business in NSW, in July. This meant so much to us because it has always been vital for us to have a sustainable business that can grow and harbor design and production within Australia. For a young creative niche business to be recognized in a professional forum, was defiantly a personal and career highlight.

What do you like/dislike about the Australian design industry?
It has always puzzled us that Australia only really takes its designers seriously once they have studied, worked or made it overseas.

Can you share a goal with us for the future?
To grow our business to a stage where it can sustain itself. I have had to focus on business the last couple of years, which believe it or not takes a lot of creativity. We aim to make a healthy, sustainable, ethical creative business, which can facilitate artistic projects, and keep a dying craft alive.

What are you reading at the moment?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

What’s your favorite piece of furniture?
Our bed.

Chair Whore is “a blog about chairs and nothing else” and its pages are devoted hundreds of photos of chairs all available to view in one big bank of images. We were pleased to see a few Aussie creations including our very own Charles Wilson’s Heron chair and Adam Goodrum’s Stitch chair. Below are a few interesting photos we found of chairs that feature in the Living Edge family.

(above) Emeco Navy Chair

(above) Black Eames LCW’s

(above) George Nelson Coconut Chairs

(above) Eames Side Chairs

(above) Coloured Eames LCW’s

We love a good excuse to have a party so were delighted with the launch of Established & Sons in Sydney on Thursday night.  We love the product range (so amazing in the flesh) and meeting the very clever people behind it.  If you couldn’t make it on Thursday night pop into a showroom near you to experience it for yourselves.

We are delighted to be adding the Established & Sons brand to our range and will be celebrating with the team from Established & Sons tomorrow night in a unique space under the Harbour Bridge.  Here is a sneak peak of some of the amazing new products that will be available nationwide from our showrooms.  Tune in over the next few days for shots from the launch event.

Table, Bench, Chair by Industrial Facility / Sam Hecht

Convex Mirror by Sebastian Wrong

Font Clock by Sebastian Wrong

Louvre lights by Klauser & Carpenter

Fold by Alexander Taylor

Another post for the parents out there, apologies to those whose eyes glaze over at the mention of all that child-related! The bibs below by Paris based Coco Boheme are made from potato starch and natural inks and are designed to deteriorate in one to two years once buried in compost. Why bother? You might be surprised to learn as we were that some petroleom-based bibs (which is the common in plastic bibs and bib lining) can take up to 100 years to disintegrate in land-fill. Now there’s enough to worry about when you become a parent, but how refreshing to see products such as these entering  the market – it’s not a difficult choice to make if given the decision. We found them at Babyology.