Articles from the current issue
| The Melbourne Design Market Interview |
| Issue 1 Oct 2007 - Interviews | |
| Written by Rob Sidelong | |
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   Hanker by Aga, Line Pin by Rowan, Shade by Nelson. With Bonnie So, Rowan Dinning, Aga Kozlowski and Nelson Chan. A group of emerging designers in Melbourne have been taking a re-inventive, re-aligning and re-imaginative approach to secondhand wares and manufacturing offcuts, turning them into new products and pieces.They then, with guidance of the Melbourne designer, Simone LeAmon, took it a step further; to the mayhem and clamouring crowd of the Melbourne Design Festival. Sidelong was able catch up with Bonnie So, Rowan Dinning and Aga Kowalski and, sitting under the winter sun in Melbourne, ask them a few pointed questions about the experience and practicing as a designer. Sidelong: With the products you have created, you are outside of the manufacturing process and you make the products yourself, how much work was involved in getting to the market? Bonnie: I made 66, which meant 3 days in a kitchen making the pieces. Aga: I made around 80 Hankers (my hook). I think the total making time was a good few hours. Drilling, de-burring, bending, bag making, tag design. Ok total 10 hours...approximately. Nelson: 50 pieces of the key, less than one week. I spent a week drilling holes, sawing and sanding. Sidelong: How do these experiences and the products fit into your future practice as a designer? Bonnie: I see this as a portfolio piece, though I will look at taking it to the retail market. As it is one piece and as the labour costs are very high, I don’t see that at this stage I it will something that I can rely on for the future. There is potential in the piece but at the moment it is not my main focus. Rowan: I can see myself working in this way in the future. There is more freedom in working this way [independently]. For me it working more like an artist and this is how I see myself working in the future. Aga: I have worked at markets before and I don’t enjoy it that much; I couldn’t make a living out of it. The fact that recycled materials were used was a very important aspect of this experience for me. In the future I only want to work with recycled materials. Nelson: The experience was very good, the best thing I’ve have done [as an emerging designer]. The experience with a customer was a good experience, because I’m selling a real product and dealing with the customer who will buy the product. I was treated as a designer with a product. [On working independently] Very hard to do by myself. Finding a manufacturer and the resources is hard. Sidelong: In the market, you present yourself as a designer and others see you as a designer. What other skills did you find were needed? Bonnie: Retail and sales skills. For me another motivation was professionalism which is very important way to think as a designer. In a situation such as this it is important that product is high quality and speaks for itself. The personality of the designer should not be so important in these kinds of situations but the product should be presented professionally. Nelson: How you present your idea was very important; the idea of the product and how the product is presented to the customer so they can understand is very important. |
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Print issue, Oct '07 (A3 PDF) Download
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