Melbourne NOW Show & Tell - Melbourne Collectors

Melbourne NOW featured Show & Tell - Melbourne Collectors on Sunday 24th as part of the opening weekend events.

Four Melbourne collectors displayed their collections at the National Gallery of Victoria St Kilda Road Community Hall designed by McBride, Charles, Ryan architects for Melbourne NOW. Victoria Gridley’s amazing collection of over 400 PEZ dispensers, Ian Wong’s collection of orange products designed in Melbourne, David Beaumont’s wacky collection of prosthetic limbs, religious status and mannequins; and Simon Matthews shared part of his Christopher Dresser collection.

Ian Wong's vivid collection of 'orange' products designed and manufactured in Australia featured the work of industrial designers and manufacturers: Richard Carlson, Tony Wolfenden, Barrie Hudson, Lionel Suttie, Peter Bayly, Celina Clarke, Simon Christopher, Edward Kayser, Grant Featherston, Robbie Napper, Willow, Nylex, ISM Objects, Rosebank, Caroma, Bessemer, Capri, Decor, Wiltshire, Planet Lamps, Ventura, and Kambrook.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

David Beaumont shares his collection of prosthetic limbs, religious status and mannequins.

Simon Matthews shares his Christopher Dresser collection.

Victoria Gridley shares her amazing collection of PEZ dispensers

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Collector Ian Wong discusses an early product from Moulded Products. This Melbourne company started in North Melbourne, moved to Richmond and finally located to Mentone and Seaford changing the company name to the iconic brand Nylex. 

Ian Wong setting up his collection of orange Victorian designed products at the waterwall of the National Gallery of Victoria for Melbourne NOW Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors Sunday November 24th 2013.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne NOW - Show & Tell Melbourne Collectors at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ian Wong with some of his collection of products designed in Victoria on display at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Fresh Orange - Collection grows

The ORANGE exhibition has just closed but the collecting continues.

Award winning Wiltshire Staysharp Knife set designed by Bayly Design

The Decor Icicle insulated ice bowl designed by Tony Wolfenden. This ice bucket is one of the first products designed by Tony for Brian Davis.

Bessemer ash tray designed by Lionel Suttie.

Decor savory tray set including set with original packaging.

Crown Corning dish by Charles Furey.

Kambrook food and water heater in original packaging. This product is was of the first for Frank Bannigan.

Sir George Cox - Design Gallery visit

Eminent UK design policy expert and past Chairman of the UK Design Council, Sir George Cox visited the Design Gallery at the Design Institute of Australia whilst in Melbourne today. The AWA P4 17inch b&w television designed by William Moody is part of the permanent collection in the Powerhouse Museum and is just one of the many orange products featured in the current exhibition ORANGE curated by Ian Wong.

Sir George Cox discusses Australian design with Hall of Fame designer Geoff Fitzpatrick and curator Ian Wong whilst visiting the Design Gallery and viewing the current exhibition ORANGE.

Powerhouse Museum AWA P4 item link here.

ORANGE Exhibition - Extended to November 25th

ORANGE - Living in the 70s has been invited to remain at the Design Gallery for an extended period and will now close on November 25th.

Wiltshire Staysharp Knife designed by industrial designer Peter Bayly.

Sun setting on ORANGE

The evening burst of ORANGE before sunset signals the end of another day. ORANGE - Living in the 70s has had it's time in the sun and will close soon. Design Gallery Oct 6th-28th. Don't miss this unique opportunity to view the iconic Featherston Stem chair and archive drawing.

ORANGE - Living in the 70s curator Ian Wong with the iconic Featherston Stem chair and archive drawing.

Qantas - 70s service

Classic orange with brown tones in the Qantas uniforms in the 70s. The uniforms of Qantas, Ansett and also those from Expo67 are featured in the ORANGE exhibition at Design Gallery.

Orange 1970s Qantas uniforms.

IMAGE: QANTAS.www.qantas.com

The designers - ORANGE Exhibition

Orange celebrates the careers of local designers; Richard Carlson, Phillip Zmood, Lionel Suttie, Tony Wolfenden, Peter Bayly, Barry Hudson, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Mary Featherston, Grant Featherston, Charles Furey, Gary Emery, Paul Taylor, Kjell Grant, Robert Pataki, Richard Henderson, Adam Cornish, Brian Davis, and Gerry Mussett. In additiopn to these individuals many projects represent the work of design studios and design teams including the studios of GM Holden and Ford Australia.

ORANGE @ Motorclassica

The Bob Jane Camaro and the Holden Hurricane concept car were 'ORANGE' highlights at Motorclassica. The Camaro links to the Holden Design studio work on the recent top selling Camaro.

ORANGE classic cars at MOTORCLASSICA

Launch with LaunchPad

LaunchPad by Sprocket allows controlled access to ORANGE blog posts for more details on objects on display in the exhibition. Sprocket CEO and Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame member Gerry Mussett is represented in the exhibition.

Sprocket LaunchPad at ORANGE exhibition Design Gallery, Oct 6th-28th

http://www.launchpad-sprocket.com

ORANGE Floor Talk

Savoy crackers, Skyhooks music and 1970s TV commercials added to the atmosphere at the well attended floor talk at ORANGE by curator Ian Wong.

Curator Ian Wong presents a brief floor talk at ORANGE exhibition at the Design Gallery

70s inspired food.

Monkey Grip - Adam Cornish

The Hula Hoop was a local child's toy that Decor founder Brian Davis took to the world through his connection with US toy maker Whamo in the late 1950s. RMIT alumnus Adam Cornish in his latest creative work pays homage to another mid century classic toy the Barrel of Monkeys. Monkey Grip was designed with space conscious living in mind. Monkey Grip is a system of linking pots which utilise space not currently available to common house pots. The pot’s unique shape not only enables the plants to be linked together to form a chain,  but also houses a water reservoir in the bottom with a simple wick system that allows water overflow to be saved and wicked back to the roots of the plant. 

Adam earlier this year won the Herman Miller Asia Pacific Design Competition for his Wooden Hammock design – launched Monkey Grip at this year’s Milan Salone. Monkey Grip was also a runner-up in the 2010 Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards, rewarding emerging Australian designers. 

On the market for less than a year the Monkey Grip pots have been selected as an example of contemporary design for inclusion in the ORANGE exhibition.

Classic child's toy "Barrel of Monkeys" first created by Lakeside Toys in 1965.

Monkey Grip pots designed by Adam Cornish. 2010

www.adamcornish.com

Decor Stack Fresh - Drawing

The original 1974 drawing by Hall of Fame designer Tony Wolfenden for the Decor Stack Fresh range of food storage containers will be on display as part of "ORANGE" - Living in the 70s exhibition.

Detail of original technical drawing in pencil and ink on vellum by industrial designer Tony Wolfenden for the Decor Stack Fresh food storage containers.1974

An orange donut? - Luke Troja

Donuts are not usually orange, pink or chocolate maybe, but not often orange. The tankmasta "donut" underground tank design by industrial designer Luke Troja is also not usually in orange. Orange is the complementary color to blue so it stands out against our vivid blue sky and attracts attention. Most commonly this is for safety applications but here it is for product promotion and with the ORANGE exhibition on at the moment it certainly caught my eye. The innovative aspect of this design is the solid external ribs that exploit the rotomoulding process making a strong one piece tank. The Tankmasta Donut & Bagel Underground tanks won the ARMA Technical Product of the Year 2006, the Endevour Innovative Australian Product of the Year 2006 (Consumer) and the Green Plumbers® Product of the Year award 2005.

Australian innovation - the award winning Tankmasta "donut" underground tanks designed by industrial designer Luke Troja.

Laine Furnishings support ORANGE

The iconic Stem chair by Grant and Mary Featherston has a bright orange stage thanks to the generous support by Laine Furnishings.

Iconic Stem chair by Grant and Mary Featherston. Stem chair appears courtesy of Gordon Mather Industries.

ORANGE exhibition supported by Laine Furnishings pure wool fabric - New Aquarius in Circus

http://www.laine.com.au

ORANGE - Design Gallery Design Institute of Australia

"ORANGE" currently on show at the Design Gallery features the Grant and Mary Featherston Stem chair, the Aloha chair by Kjell Grant, the Studio K Lamp by Planet and more than forty products designed in Melbourne. 

Aloha and Stem chairs feature in "ORANGE" exhibition curated by Ian Wong.

ORANGE - October 6th - 28th

Design Gallery

10am-4pm Monday-Friday

Design Institute of Australia

Level 1 - 175 Collins Street

Flower Powered Fler - Fred Lowan

I am yet to confirm this chair as an original Fler by industrial designer Fred Lowan but that is what it is believed to be. In search of an orange Caroma stool I was delighted to meet proud owners of this and another as yet unidentified bright orange Australian 70s chair.

Iconic Australian design the Fler Narvick chair designed by industrial designer Fred Lowan - 1961.

Orange - Design Gallery Exhibition

Orange exhibition - October 6th - 28th

Design Gallery

10am-4pm Monday-Friday

Level 1 - 175 Collins Street

The Skyhooks debut album ‘Living in the Seventies’, released in October 1974, declared loud and clear that it was a great time to live in Melbourne. Home Beautiful magazine declared with its April 1973 cover that the colour orange was “in” and homes from Balwyn to Beaumaris made the dream a reality. 'Orange' is an exhibition currently being shown at the Design Gallery in Collins Street, home of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA).

Home Beatiful magazine cover April 1973 featuring Featherson Stem chairs by Aristoc.

'Orange' celebrates the creative talent of local designers through a collection of orange products designed and manufactured in Australia.

The seventies was about bright colours as designers grasped the opportunity provided by developments in plastics to mould solid colours in exciting space age materials. Manufacturers looking for innovation and award-winning design, employed on staff or as consultants the emerging crop of professional designers from local universities. Like we have recognised the members of Skyhooks, these once young and influential designers are now recognised for their contribution to our culture, many as Hall of Fame members of the Design Institute of Australia.

Curated by Ian Wong and drawing from his private collection of Australian-designed products, the exhibition is a rich nostalgic journey as we return to objects familiar from our own past. “Built in 1971 our family home had orange vinyl chairs, orange floral curtains and my bedroom had a bright orange nylex clothes bin,” said curator Ian Wong. “The Holden Sandman and Wiltshire Staysharp knives are Victorian designed classics from this period.”'Orange' also includes a few earlier vintage pieces and some more recent examples of local designers’ use of orange.

Products featured include the Wiltshire Staysharp Knife, Holden Sandman, BX Plastics Bickie Bins, original $20 note, Décor egg cups, measuring cups and stacking kitchen canisters, Willow coolers, Bessemer dinner sets, Nylex kitchen tidy, Kambrook powerboards, and the Prince Phillip Prize winning GE kettle. A star of the show is a rare public outing for the iconic Aristoc Stem chair by Grant and Mary Featherston which was featured on the Home Beautiful cover and is provided courtesy of Gordon Mather Industries.

Aristoc Stem chair designed by Grant and Mary Featherston 1968

Designers represented include Grant and Mary Featherston, Phillip Zmood, Richard Carlson, Tony Wolfenden, Brian Davis, Charles Furey, Garry Emery, Gordon Andrews, Lionel Suttie, Peter Bayly, Kjell Grant, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Barry Hudson, Richard Henderson, and the design studios at Holden and Ford Australia.

Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame member Phillip Zmood concept sketch for the Holden LX Torana hatchback and advertising image.

Torana LX Hatchback brochure image.

This exhibition has evolved out of a presentation by Ian Wong as part of the highly successful Design Institute of Australia ‘Top 5x5’ series and Ian’s PhD research into the history of industrial design in Victoria. Ian writes a blog http://ianwongresearch.blogspot.com and is a lecturer in industrial design at RMIT University. Previous exhibitions curated by Ian Wong include Zmood - Designing Holdens at Melbourne Museum and 175 Years of Design in Victoria as part of the State of Design Festival.

'Orange' is now on until October 28th at the
Design Gallery
Design Institute of Australia
10am-4pm Monday-Friday
Level 1
175 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel: 1300 888 056
Tel: +61 3 9662 2345 (intl)
Email: admin@design.org.au
www.design.org.au

Curator
Ian Wong
M 0409554964
ian.wong@rmit.edu.au

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