Designed in Melbourne - Brian Davis

Decor Corporation is an iconic Australian brand and it all started with one product the Habana beaker set. Today I interviewed Brian Davis who established Brian Davis Plastics which became the Decor Corporation in 1958. I first met Brian in 2009 while researching STILL09. Decor products have long been a focus of my research and collecting. Brian was recognised for his contibution to design in Australia with membership of the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame in 1996.

Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame member Brian Davis pictured with his very first product the Habana beaker set and his most iconic the Decor BYO wine cooler.

More posts on Decor Corporation here

Designed in Melbourne - Kingfisher International Fibersafe

Kingfisher International Technical Director Bruce Robertson and product designer Ross Williams with the Fibersafe optical fibre microscope designed in Melbourne Australia.

Designed in Melbourne - KI6610 Fibersafe fiber inspection microscope.

www.kingfisherfiber.com

Designed in Melbourne - Australia Day 2015

Don't forget the ice…. it's Australia Day.

Celebrating Australia Day with a refreshing glass of wine at the beach.

Celebrating Melbourne designers Max Beck (Wynn's Coonawarra wine label - 1954), Ed Kayser (Regis glass and carafe - 1969) and Richard Carlson (Decor BYO wine cooler 1978)

This Australia Day when you grab the esky, a stubbie of VB or lob the well worn Kookaburra cricket ball over the fence you would probably know these products are as Australian as a meat pie.

No matter how you choose to celebrate January 26th this year, more than a few of the products you will use were designed in Melbourne and have endured in our globally competitive market.

My research is particularly concerned with products that have endured and the research questions the common view that products are designed for obsolescence. The Decor BYO wine cooler designed in 1979 by Richard Carlson is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and also available today for $22.00 at a store near you.

Designed in Melbourne - Decor BYO Wine cooler designed by Richard Carlson 1979

Australian design icon the Regis glassware range designed by industrial designer Edward Kayser for Crown ACI. The Regis carafe is still in production.

This year it is fifty years since Stuart Devlin AO designed our decimal coins and more than 15,200,000,000 coins have been minted. That is just our coins. Stuart who grew up in Geelong and studied in Melbourne has designed coins for over 30 countries.

Designed in Melbourne - Decimal Coins - Stuart Devlin 1964

If you have a cup of tea with your lamington it is likely the cordless kettle has a round base. In 1994 Gerry Mussett and Paul Taylor working with the Centre for Design team and Kambrook staff created the Axis Eco Kettle with the now universal round base. 'We wanted to bring the kettle to the table and out of the kitchen…..like you would a teapot or water jug.' said Paul Taylor.

Designed in Melbourne - Kambrook Axis Eco Kettle designed by Paul Taylor and Gerry Mussett 1994

Design registration for Axis Eco kettle innovative base design adopted worldwide.

Products designed in Melbourne that you might use on Australia Day.

Kookaburra cricket ball - Kookaburra - Moorabbin 1890
Chanell 9 logo  - Brian Sadgrove - Albert Park 1970
Decimal coins - 5c,10c,20c,50c,$1 - Stuart Devlin - Geelong/London 1964
Polymer bank notes - $10 Max Robinson, $20 Garry Emery, $50 Brian Sadgrove.
Lamington tin - Willow - North Melbourne 1928
Nylex kitchen swing top bin - Lionel Suttie - Richmond (Icon Plastics) 1966
Wiltshire Barb B Mate - Wiltshire - South Melbourne 1980s
Wiltshire Bar B Tongs - Outerspace Design Group - Richmond 1986
Redheads matches  - Brian Sadgrove - Albert Park
Willow Alpine cooler - David Flynn - Tullamarine
Decor BYO Wine Cooler - Decor - Richard Carlson - Hawthorn 1978
Regis Carafe - Edward Kayser - 1968
Esky - Willow/Nylex/Esky
Knog bike locks and lights - Catalyst Design - Richmond
Knog - Go Pro and iPhone flash units - Catalyst Design - Richmond
Crumpler Bags - Crumpler Design - Melbourne
Globe shoes - Derek Yuen - Port Melbourne
Tomato sauce bottle - Jim Samartgis - Decor
Victoria Bitter stubby  - ACI Glass - Footscray 1967
Crown lager bottle  - ACI Glass - Footscray 1970
Cascade beer bottle - Julian Ditchburn - Hawthorn
Ronstan yacht fittings - Ron and Stan from Black Rock
E-Series tram - CobaltNiche/Bombardier Design - North Melbourne/Dandenong
Quest EFPOS card payment terminals - Outerspace Design Group - Richmond
Channel 7 logo - Cato Brand Partners - Collingwood
Holden Commodore and Caprice - Holden Design - Port Melbourne
Ford Territory, Falcon, and Ranger - Ford Australia - Broadmeadows
Any power board  - Frank Bannigan, Robert Pataki Design, Peter Talbot - Caulfield
Cordless kettle with a round base designed by Gerry Mussett and Paul Taylor - Kambrook
KeepCup  - CobaltNiche - North Melbourne 2009
Robert Timms coffee  - Cato Brand Partners - Collingwood 1970s
Baby capsule - Robert Pataki and Phillip Slattery - Caulfield - 1984
Visit the Zoo and use the Art Processors digital app on an iPhone - Art Processors - Collingwood
Orbitkey - Charles Ng - South Yarra
Drink lots of water….321 water bottle  - Charlwood Design - 2009
Clean up with the Oates Tilt a Matic mop - Charlwood Design - 2005
…..and finally remember don't party too hard!
Booze Bus  - CobaltNiche - North Melbourne

Designed in Melbourne - Willow cooler designed by David Flynn 2013

Early Willow cooler designed and manufactured in North Melbourne. Circa 1960

Designed in Melbourne - Australia Day 2015. 

Max Beck (Wynn's Coonawarra wine label - 1954), Ed Kayser (Regis glass and carafe - 1969) and Richard Carlson (Decor BYO wine cooler 1978)

Designed in Melbourne - the VB stubby beer bottle 1967

This Australia Day raise a glass, like I did to our designers and those who commission them.

Stuart Devlin - Wiltshire Staysharp Knife MK1

Summer vacation each year provides a welcome opportunity to visit antique stores, markets and opp shops seeking items for my collection of products designed in Melbourne Australia.

The Wiltshire staysharp knife has often featured in my exhibitions and blog posts but until yesterday the MK1 designed by Stuart Devlin in 1969 had never appeared on ebay or on the shelves of any opp shop. Just $1 was all I was required to outlay to acquire this very important object for my collection. I had only ever seen one before and that was in the Powehouse Museum collection in Sydney when I visited in 2009.

Original MK1 Wiltshire Staysharp Knife designed in Melbourne by Stuart Devlin based on an invention by Wiltshire design engineer Dennis Jackson.

Wiltshire Staysharp Knife designed in Melbourne by Stuart Devlin

Designed in Melbourne - Kambrook Axis Eco Kettle

The Kambrook Axis 360 Eco Kettle was designed in Melbourne Australia in 1993-94.

The Kambrook Axis 360 Eco Kettle was designed in Melbourne Australia.

Kambrook - Powerboard advertising

Tina Arena and the Young Talent team promote Kambrook products during Young Talent Time in the early 1980s. Tina Arena is shown holding the PB1 power board designed by Robert Pataki Design for Kambrook.

Tina Arena advertising the Australian designed Kambrook power board in the early 1980s.

Designed in Melbourne.

The PB2 Powerboard designed by Robert Pataki Design featured in the 2010 exhibition '175 Years of Design in Victoria' curated by Ian Wong.

Robert Pataki Design - Melbourne Australia

Kambrook Powerboard - World's first electrical power board.

The common electrical power board was first manufactured by Melbourne company Kambrook in the 1970s. I remember selling this product from my our family business Wong's World in Shepparton in 1979. In 1987 while living in London I recall looking for a powerboard but realised only double adaptors existed in Europe at the time.

Frank Bannigan founded Kambrook and the electrical engineer who invented the power board in 1972 was Peter Talbot. 

In 1991 while at RMIT I ran a second year industrial design studio with Peter Talbot and Kambrook.  

Designed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Kambrook power board  - the world's first power board.

Kambrook power board  - the world's first power board.

Outerspace Design Group - Industrial Design in China

Industrial Design in China was the focus of discussions between lecturers from Suzhou and directors of Outerspace Design Group this week. Professor Xu Jiang was visiting Monash University in Melbourne for the first time in his role with the Industrial Design program at the Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School (Suzhou). Medical innovation in China is a focus for the Master of Industrial design program in Suzhou.

Professor Xu Jiang and Ian Wong from Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School (Suzhou) with Outerspace Design Group directors Fred Bochlinger and mark Johnson.

Decor - Habana beaker set

A modest but important addition to my collection of Victorian industrial design arrived in the post today.

Decor have manufactured millions of products since Brian Davis first tooled up to make the Habana beaker set in the late 1950s. The concept was to design an all plastic moulded set to compete with the popular anodized aluminium travel cup sets with leather cases. Brian had seen the potential of plastics in his sales role with Australian toy maker Toltoys. This was Brian's first product and it's success would launch Australia's award winning homewares company Decor Corporation.

Sixty years after production Ebay has allowed me to find a pristine Habana set, unused and with the original display packaging label in perfect condition. In my research work this is like an original Coke bottle, the first Nike shoe, or Apples first product the Apple 1.

One for the pool room!

Habana beaker set  - Brian Davis Plastics

Typical 1950s anodized aluminium travel cup set.

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.

Design + Industry - Beijing China

Industrial Design consultancy Design + Industry featured in the Design Institute of Australia stand at the China International Creative Design Week Exhibition at the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC) in Beijing China October 26th-28th

The stand showcased Australian innovation in medical and scientific device design.

Design + Industry - Beijing China

Design + Industry - Beijing China

Design Institute of Australia Stand at China International Creative Design week 2013 Beijing China.

www.design-industry.com.au

BlueSky Design - Beijing China

Industrial Design consultancy BlueSky featured in the Design Institute of Australia stand at the China International Creative Design Week Exhibition at the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC) in Beijing China October 26th-28th

The stand showcased Australian innovation in medical and scientific device design.

BlueSky Design - Beijing China.

Design Institute of Australia Stand at China International Creative Design week 2013 Beijing China.

www.blueskydesigngroup.com.au

Charlwood Design - Beijing China

Industrial Design consultancy Charlwood featured in the Design Institute of Australia stand at the China International Creative Design Week Exhibition at the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC) in Beijing China October 26th-28th

The stand showcased Australian innovation in medical and scientific device design.

Charlwood Design - Beijing China

Mittstrom Mid-Stream Urine Collection device designed by Charlwood Design exhibited in Beijing China.

Design Institute of Australia Stand at China International Creative Design week 2013 Beijing China.

www.charlwood.com.au

CobaltNiche - Beijing China

CobaltNiche  - Beijing China

CobaltNiche  - Beijing China

CobaltNiche  - Beijing China

CobaltNiche  - Beijing China

CobaltNiche director Jack Magree presents with Ian Wong at the China Creative Design Forum in Beijing China.

www.cobaltniche.com