Picking winners - edp powerladders

A simple orange metal ladder designed as a stable and portable work platform, in Victoria's Goulburn Valley, was the first successful product by edp of Mooroopna. The company evolved to design, manufacture and export world class fruit picking, sorting and bagging machines. The Powerladder released in 1980, redesigned by Ian Wong and Jim Samartgis in 1987 and again by ejo in 1997 continues to be the industry standard and has sales of over $20 million.

Original edp picking ladder manufactured by E. D. Parsons Engineering in Mooroopna from 1950 to 2005. Fruit provided to SPC for world export was largely picked by hand on these ladders up until the 1980s.

edp Powerladder Series 2 designed by industrial designers Ian Wong and Jim Samartgis in 1997

Australian innovation the edp Powerladder series 3 designed by industrial designer Ian Wong.

edp Powerladder series 3 designed by industrial designer Ian Wong in 2007

Promotional video of the edp Series 3 Powerladder with crab steer.

Tidy design - Decades in fashion

The simple Nylex tidy bin designed by Lionel Suttie has seen kitchen design evolve and fashions change, but it's simplicity and functional design mean it is still in production after more than forty years. The Nylex kitchen tidy featured in the exhibition STILL09.

Classic Australian Nylex kitchen tidy, in seventies orange, designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie. 

1971 advertisement for BX Plastics custom moulding featuring designs by Lionel Suttie including the kitchen tidy.

A detail of the original 1960's technical drawing by Lionel Suttie for the kitchen tidy. 

1960s version of the product brochure for the kitchen tidy range of Nylex products.

1970s version of the product brochure for the kitchen tidy range of Nylex products.

Blade Runner - No 1 Sci-Fi Film

Blade Runner has been voted number one sci-fi movie of all time beating Star Wars and other classics in the recent total film poll. Syd Mead's collaboration with Ridley Scott is legendary, beginning with the vehicles but expanding to many key elements of the film. Syd's work inspired many Victorian industrial designers who worked alongside him in Eindhoven with Philips and he continues to inspire current RMIT industrial design students.

Original Syd Mead visual for the spinner - Blade Runner 1982

Visual futurist Syd Mead, Bernie Walsh and current final year student Angelo in the RMIT industrial design wacom lab.

Willow - Prints

Willow Ware tins celebrated the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and through our history have reflected the style and design of life in Victoria. The roses and fruit sets of Willow Ware canisters represented below are from the Wong family home. One set on display and one in the pantry.

High quality printing on metalware was a Willow Ware trademark with this 1956 Melbourne Olympics tin a proud example for the Victorian family business.

Willow roses tin canister 1940s

Willow strawberry tin canister 1950s

The seventies arrive in Melbourne with plastic moulded lids and 'Flower Power' prints. Willow Ware stacking containers.

Living in the 70's - Vinyl

Skyhook's album 'Living in the 70's' was produced by Ross Wilson and released on vinyl. It became the best selling Australian album ever up to that time with over 240,000 copies sold. Skyhooks were a Melbourne band and were the first band to have commercial success writing about our streets, our suburbs and our lifestyle. Countdown had begun and film clips were emerging but the album cover sleeve and your record collection were still king.

Living in the 70's album cover.

Seventies LP record rack by Decor

Colorado show car - Holden design

Tony Stolfo and the team at Holden Design worked on the Colorado show car currently at the Melbourne Motor Show.

Simply great - the D Chair stacks up.

Designed by RMIT alumnus industrial designer Barry Crone in 1978 and launched at Neocon in Chicago in 1980 the D Chair is unique for its efficiency.

The minimilist design of only two parts, one piece of solid steel rod and one plastic moulding, is also one of the world’s most efficient stacking chairs, designed for use in convention centres and large hospitality venues.

Barry worked in Melbourne at ACI Glass and Philips in Clayton before moving to Kansas City where he worked with Fixtures Furniture as staff designer and consultant for ten years. During this time Barry was invited, by the Head of the Kansas City Art Institute Victor Papanek, to lecture undergraduate students, which he did for five years.

Barry’s vision and the instant success of the D Chair established a design culture at Fixtures Furniture that continues today. Fixtures Furniture by izzy+ recently was awarded Best of NeoCon® for the Webster multipurpose chair. Tenth time in 11 NeoCon shows for izzy+ to earn industry honors for product excellence.

The success of the D Chair must not only be measured in unit sales, which have been outstanding, but for the minimilist principles that have conserved the earth’s valuable resources in it’s manufacture and transport by simple, efficient and elegant design.

The D Chair (d for design and dynamic) currently is part of the IZZY+ range and is ‘STILL’ in production. The D Chair featured in the exhibition STILL09.

The D chair designed by industrial designer Barry Crone 1978

The D chair is one of the world's most efficient stacking chairs.

Barry Crone is currently a director of the Melbourne consultancy UNO

www.uno.net.au

Bessemer - Butter Dish

Designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie whilst he was chief designer at Nylex this butter dish was part of an early seventies Bessemer range.

Bessemer butter dish designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie.

Decor - Holiday Tumbler Set

Brian Davis quickly matched product to the Australian lifestyle with these outdoor "Holiday" set of tumblers with vibrant colors and stylish packaging manufactured in the early 1960's. The logo and visual identity for Decor, in it's first form, was established at this time and the company no longer branded product with Brian Davis and Company Pty Ltd.

Brian Davis and Company Pty Ltd brand Decor -  set of six tumblers from the early 1960's

1960's graphic packaging of the Decor Holiday tumblers.

Brian Davis and Company Pty Ltd packaging with early visual identity and logo for Decor brand.

Class of 64 - RMIT Alumni

This class photo was part of the personal archive of Lionel Suttie and shows industrial design students in what appears to be room 2B1. Lotars Ginters has provided names of most class members and the year is either 1964 or 1965.

Back Row: Andrew Moran, Geoff Putnam, Derek Clark, Andrew Dixon, William Kemp, John Buckley.

Front Row: Unknown, Robert Gilbert, Lotars Ginters, Paul Dillon, George Nikas.

Still tossing shrimp - BBQ classics.

Paul Hogan made tossing shrimp on the barbie a part of our culture and the Wiltshire Bar B Tongs are what most of us use to do it. Designed by industrial designer Wally Tench, during the early days of the Outerspace Design Group, the tongs are still in production. Wally was in my year at RMIT and Mark Johnson was one year a head of us. Wally, Mark and Fred Blochlinger all worked together at Christopher Collins Associates before embarking on the journey to Outerspace.





Famous Australian tourism advertisement featuring Paul Hogan.

Wiltshire Bar B Tongs designed by industrial designer Wally Tench.

Scape Dining Chair - Grant Featherston

Grant Featherston designed the Scape dining setting for Aristoc industries in the 1960's.

Dining chairs with orange vinyl and black metal legs were signature seventies. The 'Scape" dining chair by industrial designer Grant Featherston was designed in the sixties but also very popular in the seventies.

No Stopping - Australian Design

Every day, across Victoria and in cities around the world, millions of pedestrian’s are aided in their journey by a simple, elegant Australian design solution - the audio-tactile pedestrian detector (ATPD). Nielsen Design Associates, established by RMIT alumnus industrial designer Carl Nielsen in 1961, was one of the first industrial design consulting studios in Sydney. In 1985 whilst a director of Nielsen Design Associates industrial designer David Wood designed the ATPD.

The unit is a truly universal design made from cast aluminium with vandal-proof fixings, has a large magnetic button (tested to withstand millions of pushes) that is easy to find and push, and the Braille arrow on the vibrating plate indicates the direction to cross. “Still” in production there is no stopping this innovative and enduring Australian design.

RMIT alumnus industrial designer Carl Nielsen's company, Nielsen Design Associates, designed the award winning ATPD device pictured at RMIT University.

Inspiring the next generation. RMIT industrial design first year student Emma Gerard's Adobe Illustrator rendering of the ATPD.

BX Plastics - Fresh from the Seventies

Classic 1970's Australian designed biscuit bins and containers are back in fashion with decorators and collectors. Designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie for the BX Plastics brand, as part of the Casa Ware range, these unique containers featured state of the art ultrasonic welded two tone halves and solid Faux wood lids with quality seals. My oldest brother's first home featured these in the pantry, lime green laminex benchtops, and a Holden Monaro in the drive....classic. I was stopped at a train station recently by a ticket inspector, not to check my ticket, but to comment on how brilliant they were and how "the bickie's were kept so fresh".

Classic Australian design, the BX plastic Bickie Barrels, designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie.

Brochure for range of BX plastic Casa Ware containers.

Hedge sitting - Oliver Field

The event by Design Droplets to mark World Industrial Design Day at the Wheeler Centre was a great success, attended by a diverse and engaged audience. Raph Goldsworthy has, since graduating from RMIT industrial design, made quite a "splash" on the Victorian design scene with his initiative Design Droplets and he is to be commended for all that went into last nights event. I could not resist the photo opp, in the foyer of the Wheeler Centre was the wonderful "hedge" chair by RMIT alumnus Oliver Field. Recent RMIT industrial design graduates Charles Ng, Lousia Kwan, Edwin Conan and Jackie Wu were happy to oblige with some impromptu hedge sitting.

Industrial designers Charles Ng, Lousia Kwan, Edwin Conan, and Jackie Wu.

Schiavello "Hedge' designed by RMIT alumnus industrial designer Oliver Field.

http://www.schiavello.com/hedge.htm

http://designdroplets.com