“Being perceived as professional by outsiders is a common challenge for small businesses. Many startups reach a stage where meeting clients in cafes no longer cuts it. Here are 10 simple ways that your company can make itself look bigger it is.” Read on

Rowena Murray Australian Anthill

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Craftsouth’s latest INFORM event in Adelaide features Melbourne-based public artist and designer Matthew Harding. Matthew will speak about the ‘tos and fros’ and risk-taking involved in developing public art, as well as the sense of accomplishment once a public art commission is complete.

The designer’s training in the visual arts, construction industries and various craft traditions has led him to use materials ranging from cutting edge technologies to wood, stone and bronze in the production of objects such as delicate fine art pieces, prototype designs for production or large scale public sculpture. Currently he is fabricating eight 10 metre light sculptures bound for the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The talk will be held Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 5:45pm for a 6:00pm start.

RSVP by email or phone is essential by 5:00pm Monday 9 November 2009.

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His heroes are graphic designers, global thinkers and big design-driven brands like Apple and IKEA “and authentic brands like Coopers”. In the 1980s he started a cult following with a shop that went from boom to bust and back. Remo Giuffré talks with Peter Salhani about reinventing an iconic corner store as an online global community.

A missing piece of Sydney’s retail history has been resurrected. In July this year, REMO General Store opened the doors to a new ‘kiosk’ in Bondi, 14 years after the iconic Sydney store closed its doors. REMO has been back with an online Global Community General Store since 2003, but the kiosk signals the return of something special.

Like our very own Mr Magoriam, Giuffré curated a wonderful emporium in the old Gowings building on Oxford Street from 1988 to 1996 selling the classic, kooky and the everyday. From Fortune Teller Miracle Fish and Fisher Space Pens to Cuisenaire Rods and Cornishware mugs – everything had a sense of humour, nostalgia or inventiveness to it. “People didn’t really need anything we sold,” says Giuffré, “but they connected to the objects through the stories they told. They were just things that people loved. Our idea of an old General Store was a place where people would come not just to buy things – a bit of everything – but to feel connected to the shopkeeper and one another; a place where they check the noticeboard, have a cup of coffee, collect the mail, it’s got a kind of cosy community feel to it.”

Clearly there was more to it than just stuff – the store had a little beatnik café and a working photo booth. Its mail-order catalogues (designed by Giuffré and graphic designer Aivi Juske) became collectors items and won design awards. Responding to the burgeoning local design scene, Giuffré opened the Pacific Design Source for the Japanese department store Seibu, representing local crafts and design talent like Robert Foster of FINK. Between the shop and the catalogues, REMO touched tens of thousands, but in hindsight Giuffré says it was probably too much too soon. In 1995 the business went into voluntary administration and the shop was shut.

“No amount of training prepares you for the sheer terror and chaos of a fast-growing small business,” says Giuffré, who had previously worked as a lawyer in Sydney, before moving to New York to do an MBA at Columbia University. It was here that the seeds for the business had been sown. Giuffré is a compulsive doodler and likes to draw complex relationships and business models using arrows, interconnecting circles and naïve stick-figures. In New York he was drawn to the advertising artwork of Tibor Kalman, the late graphic designer and former editor in chief of Colors magazine.

“The aesthetics and intelligence and sensibility really resonated with me and I thought I had to meet him. We connected and liked each other…I remember he had this little fortune-telling miracle fish lying around in his office, so did my friend Tucker Viemesiter [co-founder of Smart design]. I realised there was like a secret society of people who find these graphic images appealing. There were a few such things and people and ideas that I felt a magnetism towards. I was struggling at the time to work out how to build a life around my affinity with those things and I wondered whether I aggregated all that stuff I was passionate about into a retail space, whether other people would like it too.” They did, and even when the business closed, there was an outpouring of support.

After that, Giuffré moved with his wife Melanie and daughter Lola to the US and reinvented himself as a brand strategist with the global innovation company Frog Design. “There weren’t really any brand strategists then. My idea was to bring a strategic focus to branding in a holistic way. Also, I was secretly thinking about how to reboot REMO General Store without any money.”

The Internet was the answer. In 1994, REMO posted its first online brochure, and this remained online, though it offered no merchandise. By 2000 it had become a gathering of people who registered and voted for products they would like to buy…if they could. “It demonstrated to us the power of the brand we’d built – here was a retail website not selling anything, but with thousands of people registering. It made me think about how we could scale that alchemy, that loyalty, to a global audience using technology.”

With renewed belief in the business, Giuffré and family (which now included youngest son, Roman) returned to Sydney in 2001. By 2003, Remo and Melanie had launched “REMO for the 21st century” as an online retail community dubbed the Global Community General Store. The old favourite merchandise is there, expanding all the time, but does it deliver the same warm fuzzies as the shop?

“To me, the Internet can be far less impersonal than a shop, because there, people walk in, put their money down and leave, and you don’t know who they are (unless it’s a country town). Online you digitally know who everybody is – and you can program warmth and personality into the system.” Key to building loyalty online is communication: “Just be direct and human with your customers. Customer profiles, feedback loops, open forums and blogging are some of the tactics for that, but it comes down to respect. The higher level thing is to engage customers in a peer to peer dialogue that’s a collaborative conversation.”

Those customer conversations are now the major source of new REMO product: “We have a very involved global network of customers and that’s the development engine for the business.” And the engine is ticking along nicely. The new kiosk – a corner store on Bondi Road – is set to expand into the shop next door, though it won’t replicate the REMO of old. “We learnt not be so literal about what we were doing – we were sending ourselves broke selling things that were ubiquitously available – trying to fill product lines we thought a general store should sell. Now we just look at unique products and then figure out where they fit into the mix. It’s not so much a ‘general store’, but a store that sells general things, more of a metaphor for a general store. Curation this way is a lot more rewarding.”

As well as enjoying bringing REMO back to life, Giuffré is also bringing TED talks to Australia. He was first invited to TED (ideas worth spreading) in 1993 by founder Richard Saul Wurman, on the proviso that he supply all the speakers with Remo T-Shirts and attendees with a copy of the award-winning 1991 REMO mail-order catalogue. The search for talent has begun and TEDxSydney is scheduled for May 2010 at Sydney’s Carriageworks. Just as this pied piper has conscripted customers to help expand the product range, Giuffré has assembled a team to help collect inspirational speakers. “I’m very naturally a curator of things, but curating people of this calibre is quite another thing. It’s a huge challenge, but I’ve got great people helping – so it’s going to be fantastic – and that’s the joy of it.”

What advice does he have for designers or those in the business of design? “Persist and be passionate about what you do. Financial rewards are a byproduct, but you need to be enjoying the process for the whole endeavour to be worthwhile.” On our last meeting Giuffré is cutting giant decals into digital numbers for the Bondi window display – a count-down to REMO’s 21st birthday sale. Happy birthday and welcome back.

By Peter Salhani

Images courtesy of REMO General Store.

© Peter Salhani, 2009. All rights reserved.

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Successful export can take your business to a new level. However it is not easy and not every business is ready and able to export well. Canberra Business Point is holding a free workshop that will provide participants with an understanding of whether or not export is a valid strategy for their business and provide practical learning of how they might achieve export growth.

Through a series of case studies, mini lectures and participative sessions, participants will start to populate an ‘export plan’ specific to their business.

The next workshop will take place on 19 November 2009 from 10:00am to 5:00pm at Level 2, 8 Brindabella Circuit, Brindabella Business Park, Canberra Airport

Growing your business through export workshops are limited to 20 people per month. Early registration is essential to ensure you don’t miss out.

For more information and to register visit here.

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Arts Tasmania offers Artsbridge – a grant for out-of-round funding travel that is designed to allow Tasmanian artists and designers to take up exceptional opportunities to perform, present or showcase their work interstate or overseas.

Opportunities must be proven to be strategically important to an applicant’s career development. Applications are only accepted from applicants who have received a written invitation from a host organisation.

Notification will take up to six weeks (30 working days) from the submission of the application and projects may not be undertaken prior to that advice. As the program is becoming increasingly competitive and funds are limited, it is advisable to submit applications as early as practicable. The fund may be fully expended towards the latter part of the year.

Applications for interstate travel may be made at any time. Applications for grants for international travel are due the 1st of each month.

This is an ongoing opportunity.

For more information, please visit www.arts.tas.gov.au/artsbridge

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Ezio Manzini, the Milan-based advocate of design and sustainability, recently visited Australia to speak at the Alfred Deakin Eco-Innovation Lectures about the projects designers should be turning their attention to for the future – socially innovative projects including cooperative childcare models and communal home based restaurants. Here, Ewan McEoin looks at the growing role for designers beyond the object.

More than 30 years ago, during an interview with Charles Leadbeater for the Eames’ film series Design Q&A, Charles Eames, the American multidisciplinary designer was asked, ‘What are the boundaries of design?’. Eames replied, ‘What are the boundaries of problems?’*

On a recent visit to Melbourne, Milanese academic and prolific author on design and sustainability, Ezio Manzini, offered a range of examples he believes typify the kind of projects designers should be turning their attention to today, as both a social imperative and an intelligent business decision. Some of the projects put forward by Manzini include the development of networks and frameworks for urban farmers markets, share systems for household appliances, cooperative childcare models, and communal home based restaurants.

In Australia as part of the Alfred Deakin Eco-Innovation Lectures, curated by Professor Chris Ryan at VEIL, Manzini’s lecture and workshop responded to the theme ‘Climate and Innovation – Embracing the Low Carbon Economy Now’. Having traversed a lifelong investigation of design and sustainability – from green products to product service systems – Ezio Manzini believes that it is design for social innovation that is particularly suited to deliver the new social resources for a sustainable society.

As designers beaver away, applying their many skills to an ever expanding catalogue of products and places – from the necessary to the absurd – it’s easy for us all to get preoccupied with the never-ending exploration of the next great product idea, the next device, system, space or interface. Design responds and reacts in a uniquely servile guise to the needs, wants and desires of the market – yet by nature it remains flexible, adaptable and above all constantly reconfigurable for new circumstances and conditions. How this capability is enacted for the future is really up to designers and who they choose to work for, and what they choose to design.

The time has come for more designers to be encouraged to redirect their skills to social innovation that responds to the shifting strata of business and community, addressing social needs and the replacement of old systems that no longer work. Unlike the traditional design development process, which is only responsive to either a commission or a market gap, social innovations are not activated by consumer demand, but by an active decision on the part of a ‘social entrepreneur’ to prototype a new way of being and doing.

Focusing design thinking and skill towards social innovation projects that may not have a tangible physical product outcome is a shift many designers are starting to make – both philosophically and literally. Placed somewhere between the not-for-profit, government and for-profit sectors, social innovation is perhaps the new paradigm that deep down we knew we really wanted. The situation remains that even with better products, places, and systems, many of the most compelling issues facing our communities and broader society cannot be addressed – because we are not applying our most creative minds to them.

While Manzini concludes that it is not explicitly necessary for designers to participate for the social innovation process to occur, it is designers who are perfectly resourced to be in the vanguard of the social entrepreneurs. As part of ADU’s exploration of creative entrepreneurship, we can see the challenge this puts forward to entrepreneurial Australian designers well equipped with the tools for searching out problems or opportunities, and implementing and testing the solutions to address them.

With healthcare and education set to be the boom industries of the next generations, designers who can shift beyond the traditional physicality of the end-product and move to a world of design that enables socially responsible systems and networks are well placed. Inevitably we are realising that neither government nor business is going to deliver the world we all want to live in, so we need a good crop of social innovators to make it happen.

Ezio Manzini’s four steps for social innovation:

1. Create the brief (understand and frame)
A way of ‘stopping before you start’. This step asks designers to focus on the problem from the perspective of those that experience it. What is the root cause underlying the need, and what outcomes do people themselves want to achieve?

2. Design development (generate solutions)
Innovative and divergent thinking is the currency of social innovation. Many techniques for design exist – but Manzini focuses on user-centred co-creation – working closely with the end users in a cycle of design development that is facilitated and not imposed by designers.

3. Prototyping (develop and test)
As with the world of product design – social innovation requires small-scale, rapid prototyping and experimentation, this part of the social innovation process requires a clear focus on social outcomes.

4. Mass Production (Scale up)
Through an open source system or a collaborative network – creating the structures and support to facilitate the diffusion and dissemination of a successful innovation to a point where it can effect significant social change.

By Ewan McEoin.

Some Rights Reserved. View ADU Creative Commons license here.

Watch part 1 and 2 of the video recording of the Deakins 09 lecture by Ezio Manzini here.

Further Links:

Ezio Manzini, Alfred Deakin Eco-Innovation Lecture 2009 (audio available, video available soon)
http://www.climateandinnovation.com.au/program-09/social-innovation-and-sustainable-living-global-perspectives

Sustainable Everyday (Ezio Manzini’s international website)
www.sustainable-everyday.net

DESIS – Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (International)
www.desis-network.org

Geoff Mulgan:Post-crash, investing in a better world
Geoff Mulgan is the Director of the Young Foundation –  a centre for social innovation, social enterprise and public policy that pioneers ideas in fields such as aging, education and poverty.
www.ted.com/talks/geoff_mulgan_post_crash_investing_in_a_better_world_1.html

Social Innovation Camp (International)
www.sicamp.org

Participle (Leading UK social innovation practice)
www.participle.net

Centre for Social Innovation (NZ)
www.nzcsi.org

Centre for Social Innovation (Canada)
www.socialinnovation.ca

Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
www.csi.edu.au

*Interview by Charles Leadbeater with Charles Eames documented in “Design Q&A (1972, 5 min.)”, The Films of Charles and Ray Eames – Volume 4. Los Angeles, California: Image Entertainment, 2000.

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QUT Creative Enterprise Australia is holding a one day seminar in Brisbane designed to support entrepreneurs and fledging businesses operating across the fashion industry.

The event forms part of the Creative Launch Pad, a program designed to equip attendees with tools to deal with day-to-day business challenges and also the the critical skills needed for a creative business to survive and grow.

Whether you’re taking your first steps or needing to refine your existing skills, the seminar will help you maximise your creative talent and put your ideas into action.

The Fashion Launch Pad will provide an essential foundation to understand what it takes to be a successful designer and how to build your label. This includes essential strategies to manage your business, financial management, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

By attending the seminar, participants will also be eligible to apply for the Creative Launch Pad mentor program – a twelve month support program that provides mentees with business development opportunities and access to creative practice mentors matched to their needs.

Participation costs $90.00 (incl. GST) per person.

The Fashion Launch Pad seminar will be held 27 November 2009 at QUT Creative Industries Precinct, QUT Kelvin Grove, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane.

For more information and to register a place visit here.

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Emerging and established makers are invited to apply to take part in Craft Victoria’s Christmas Craft Hatch market.

The event is being held to celebrate the festive season and the launch of the State Library of Victoria’s exhibition ‘til you drop: Shopping – a Melbourne history.

The Christmas market will take place at Experimedia, a dynamic multimedia space within the State Library on Saturday 19 December from 11:00am to 4:00pm.

This is a great opportunity for makers to showcase their work and reach new audiences through online and print promotion by Craft Victoria and the State Library of Victoria.

Stall rates are $15.00 for Craft Victoria members, $30.00 for non-members and $50.00 for groups of 5 or more people.

Applications are due Saturday 31 October 2009.

For more details including the online registration form, visit here.

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QUT Creative Enterprise Australia is presenting the latest in their Creative Launch Pad seminar series. The seminar will be held at QUT Kelvin Grove in Brisbane and is designed to equip attendees with tools to deal with day-to-day business challenges and also the the critical skills needed for a creative business to survive and grow.

By attending the seminar, participants will also be eligible to apply for the Creative Launch Pad mentor program – a twelve month support program that provides mentees with business development opportunities and access to creative practice mentors matched to their needs.

Participations costs $90.00 (incl. GST) per person.

This seminar will be held 18 November 2009 at the Creative Industries Precinct, QUT Kelvin Grove, Parer Place (off Musk Ave), Kelvin Grove.

For more information and to register attendance visit here.

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Australian Fashion Partners (AFP) is holding a free information session in Sydney for Australian businesses working in the textile, clothing and footwear industry that want to learn how to access government funding through the AusIndustry TCF Small Business Program. The competitive grant system that offers financial support of up to $50,000 to Australian fashion businesses and is open for applications in November.

Grants are available for business that manufacture in Australia and have fewer than 20 employees and are aimed to assist to improve their business enterprise culture. Submissions must be for projects commencing from 1 July 2010.

Australian Fashion Partners is a Sydney-based firm that specialises in assisting fashion businesses to instill the most effective management structures to support their creative operations. They have worked with industry leaders such as Sass & Bide and The Oroton Group and assist their clients to build a structure that will their companies to be viable participants at both a domestic and international level.

At the Getting that Government Grant Information Session session the team at AFP will share their expertise and knowledge about the grants process to interested parties.

The session will be held at 6:00pm on Thursday 10 November 2009 at Australian Fashion Partners, Suite 202, 20 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross, Sydney.

For more information and to RSVP contact info@fashionpartners.com.au.

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“In its infancy, most business owners will reinvest all their cash back into their own enterprise to maintain control of their own destiny. But diversification is the key to any great entrepreneur and it is important to avoid putting all your eggs in the one basket in case it goes belly-up.” Read on

Alex Tilbury News.com.au

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Part 1 duration: 32m 51s

Part 2 duration: 30m 51s

During the Deakins 09 lecture, renowned international design thinker, Ezio Manzini explored the growing global wave of social innovation. Above is a video recording of the lecture including the accompanying slide presentation. In it Manzini describes social innovation as a fundamental shift towards a new paradigm of business and lifestyle underpinned by sustainable values. Manzini will describe how institutions, enterprises, non-profit organisations, and individuals, driven by creativity and entrepeneurship, can be made capable of moving outside mainstream models of living and producing, in an effort to invent new and far more sustainable ones.

Alfred Deakin Eco-Innovation lectures, BMW Edge, October 2009

Source: Deakins 09 

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The UNESCO-Ashberg Bursary program offers two month residencies to young artists and designers at the Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre (CAMAC) in France. The program includes return tickets, board and lodging and aims to promote the mobility of young artists and travel’s role in enriching personal perspectives, intercultural dialogue and exposure to cultural diversity.

CAMAC is located 75 minutes away from Paris in the village of Marnay-sur-Seine in the scenic Champagne-Ardenne region. This multidisciplinary creative centre offers a unique environment for international residency programmes for artists, scientists and technologists working with new media.

Residents are provided with quiet self-contained living and working quarters in a seventeenth century priory. Mac computers with word processing software and internet connections are available. 

To be eligible for this opportunity, applicants must be aged between 25 and 35. Candidates from all over the world are invited to apply.

Applicants must be professional visual artists or designers of demonstrated ability, be motivated and open to discussion on contemporary art practice and the challenges of visual arts/design. They must be willing to conduct workshops or make a presentation of his/her work to the public.

Working knowledge of French, English or Spanish is required.

Applications are due 31 October 2009.

For more information and to apply visit here.

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The Queensland College of Art is holding a two day masterclass that will provide participants with the information they need to green their jewellery or object studio and to source ethical materials.

The masterclass will include visual inspiration, lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on projects is designed for jewellers and metalsmiths who have an interest in greening their practice.

The class will be presented by Christine Dhein, educator, author, jeweller, founder of Green Jewelry News, and assistant Director of the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco.

Christine will explain and share the techniques she employs and has developed during her research into Green Jewellery Practices.

The course will include:

– Information on where gold comes from, green suppliers and what you can do to promote healthy mining practices.
– How to respond to customers’ questions about the sourcing and sustainability of your materials.
– Step-by-step demonstrations of metalworking techniques that allow you to combine alternative materials and found objects with precious metals. Instruction includes basic, ball and tube riveting, as well as making jigs and spacers, accurate layout, drilling and counter-sinking, as well as using rivets to capture objects.
– Gold testing, ingot making, safe and eco-friendly studio practices, and eco-trends.
– The design and production of your own ‘green’ pendant or brooch.
– The creation of an action plan to green your own studio.

Participants should bring their own hand tools, pencil and paper and must have a sound level of basic jewellery making skills.

The course is limited to 14 participants. Five of these places
are reserved for QCA students.

The class costs $110.00 for QCA students, $165.00 for JMGQ members and $190.00 for non-QCA and non-JMGQ members. All prices include GST.

The masterclass will be held Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2009 from 10:00am to 4:00pm each day.

It will take place at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith
University, 226 Grey Street,South Bank Brisbane.

For further information and to register download the information sheet here.

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The Queensland College of Art in Brisbane is holding a half day symposium focussed on how jewellery and object design makers can introduce ecological, environmental, ethical and green practices in their own studios.

The event will look at how green concerns are affecting contemporary design practice.

The environmental impacts of the jewellers, metalsmiths, silversmiths and goldsmiths may currently be easy to over look from the isolation of a studio, but this can’t and won’t remain the case for long.

It is intended that this symposium will be the first of a series to contribute to the growing discussion about matters of ecological, environmental, ethical and green practice.

Visiting educator, author, jeweller, founder of Green Jewelry News, and assistant Director of the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco, Christine Dhein (USA), will be joined by local speakers to present research, investigations and progress towards sustainable practice for the Green Jewellery and
Objects Symposium.

The symposium is about sharing ideas. Participants will gain insight into
how others are thinking about practice and the environmental and cultural impacts of studios.

It will be held 13 November 2009 at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane.

For more information and to register download the information kit here.

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Sydney artist run initiative Gaffa is inviting applications from contemporary jewellery and object makes interested in leasing a studio space in their new CBD gallery space. Leases can begin early February 2010.

Gaffa is relocating from their Surry Hills premises at the end of the year to a beautiful, four story heritage listed building near Town Hall station. Gaffa will be located on the third level in an expanded studio and workshop space.

The size of the new space enables Gaffa to house more emerging jewellery and object practitioners and also to run bespoke classes.

Tenants will be provided with an:

– Empty space with basic lighting, a power outlet and all outgoings including electricity paid for. Designers must bring their own bench.
– Access to the facilities in the main communal workshop. which includes
an extraction system, soldering area, polishing wheel, rolling mill, drill press, enamelling kiln, grinder, tumbler, ring mandrels, bezel mandrels, doming blocks and punctures, bench cutter, communal torch and more.
– Access to bathroom and shower facilities
– Back to base security system
– Access and reduced rates in the hiring of a meeting room

Individual studio spaces are approximately 2×2 metres. Studios are lockable from the main thoroughfare.

Rent begins from $110 (incl. gst) per week.

Tenants will be given the opportunity to display work in Gaffa’s retail section for emerging practitioners.

Interested applicants should direct enquiries to info@gaffa.com.au. Alternatively call 0415 446 886 or (02) 9281 1103.

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Gray Area Symposium will be held in Mexico in 2010. This five day symposium aims to promote understanding and appreciation of the diverse ways to view, experience, and create jewellery, to encourage cultural exchange among jewellery makers.

At the inaugural event, the dialogue will be focused on practice in two continents – Latin America and Europe. However, participants from all over the world are welcomed to attend.

The symposium will focus on artistic and scholastic encounters between Europe and Latin America, as well as on intra-Latin American exchanges, addressing and reformulating the ideological and practical construction of contemporary jewellery, examining its current state of development in both continents, and respectively exploring and proposing the present and future exchange between Latin American and European individuals and networks.

The symposium is calling for registrations from emerging and established jewellery makers and artists, students from the design, art and jewellery academies, art historians and critics, scholars from the arts, craft and design disciplines, museum and gallery members, art and jewellery collectors, public interested in the subject. Panel and audience will interact through a series of lectures, dialogues and round tables.

The event aims to create a platform that will stimulate friendly, creative, and engaging discussions, to be able to create an interdisciplinary frame of reference for contemporary jewellery and its practices within a truly multinational discourse.

Gray Area will be held 12 to 16 April 2010, and will take place in Mexico City’s Historic Center. Registrations are due 31 December 2009.

For more information and to register your attendance visit here.

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Hand Held Gallery in Melbourne’s CBD is calling for exhibition proposals from artists and designers for 2010 exhibitions.

Exhibitions should be predominantly object based and may include hand held objects, jewellery, metals, ceramics, glass, minature sculpture, installation, textiles, books, paper arts or found objects. The work may also reflect object as image or text.

Hand Held is available to student, emerging and established artists. Proposals for solo or small group shows are welcome. Proposals should be in the form of a short description of the proposed work with a few accompanying images delivered by post, email or by hand.

The gallery fee is $500.00 for a one month show. This fee includes a minimum three week exhibition, opening night and mid exhibition afternoon tea with the artist session (if artist is available), invitation design and 250 printed invitations, line listing in Art Almanac, listing on crawl ARI update, Only Melbourne, That’s Melbourne, inclusion in our Imprint magazine advertisement if appropriate and email invites to the Hand Held mailing list.

Unlike most ARI’s Hand Held does not require the artist/s to sit the gallery as it is manned during gallery hours, 12:00pm to 5:00pm Monday to Saturday. Credit card and Eftpos facilities are available. The gallery will take a 25% commission on works sold through the gallery.

Hand Held is located in the Paramount shopping arcade in the city centre, work can be viewed (through the window) after hours until approximately 11:00pm seven days even when the gallery is not open.

Hand Held is also available for book/zine/magazine launches. Launches will be held on Sundays from 3:00pm to 5:00pm between exhibitions.

For more information and to apply visit here.

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The inaugural Re:Vision Design Awards challenges emerging designers of all types to revisit, rethink and reimagine how we live in our homes.

Designers and design students are encouraged to think broadly and imaginatively when submitting entries that respond to the central question of the competition which is – how can design make the way we live in our homes more efficient, sustainable, enjoyable and/or beautiful?

Submissions from across the design spectrum are welcome including furniture, lighting, product, interior or environmental design. Entries must thoughtfully explore new ways to live, work, play and interact in the domestic environment.

An international jury, comprised of leading designers, design curators, entrepreneurs and thinkers, will evaluate entries based on material and design innovation, performance and visual appeal, among other criteria.

Limited-production, prototype and concept designs are the focus of this competition. Products already in mass production are ineligible for submission. New designs created specifically for the competition are particularly encouraged.

The first prize winner will receive US$10,000 and two runners up will receive US$2,500 each.

All three will be featured in Modern Painters’ May 2010 issue and on ARTINFO.com.

A select number of finalists will also have their work presented on ARTINFO.com

Entries are due 17 November 2009.

For more information and to enter visit here.

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The Australian Institute of Export is holding a one day course in Sydney that will provide participants with the essential skills to prepare their business for export and help them choose the right partners.

Course participants will learn practical information on pricing, packaging and payment procedures. They will also learn how to select a freight forwarder, tips on financial transactions for exporting and other relevant issues led by an industry expert.
 
This course is for anyone starting out in the export industry or looking to improve or update existing skills in international trade.
 
Course topics include:

– Introduction to exports
– Export cycle
– Banking and finance
– Marine insurance
– Government information and assistance
– Export procedures


Course participants will receive a course manual, certificate of attendance and morning and afternoon tea.

Introduction to exports will be held 29 November 2009 from 9:00am to 5:00pm in Sydney’s CBD.

The course is $337.00 for AIEx members and $400.00 for non-members.

For more information and bookings visit here.

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The School of Visual and Performing Arts, Academy of the Arts in Launceston Tasmania offers an artist‐in‐residence program for visual artists, designers and theatre and curatorial/arts management practitioners. Standard residencies are for seven weeks, however shorter residencies can be negotiated.

Residents carry on their practice in addition to participating in a variety of activities at the Academy. Housing, studio space and access to workshops and laboratories on a 24 hour basis, use of the University library and other general amenities is provided.

Applications are welcome throughout the year.

This is an ongoing opportunity.

For further information on applying visit here.

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“With a trade relationship with Australia stretching back more than half a century, Japan shouldn’t be dismissed as an export market, despite economic woes and the rise of its neighbour China. Read the headlines about Japan’s economy over the past year and you’d be forgiven for believing it was the land of the setting sun. If you think Japan is entering its twilight years as one of the world’s great economies, however, you’d be underestimating its intrinsic power.” Read on

Adeline Teoh Dynamic Export

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The International Committee of Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS) is calling for papers for their Design and Craft: A History of Convergences and Divergences conference. The event will be held in Brussels Belgium in September 2010 and will focus on the relationship between design and craft.

This theme offers an excellent opportunity to gather new design historical and theoretical research from over the world in a focused discussion on regional specificities as well as the impact of global processes of industrialisation. If, until now, design history has been largely dominated by the Western narratives of industrialisation, then moving the focus towards non-industrial design practice might bring non-Western scholars to the forefront. Moreover, previously marginalised design histories in industrialised countries can finally get a voice.

The Brussels’ ICDHS conference program will have on emphasis on presentations of about 20 minutes each and workshops with an emphasis on debate and discussion.

Original papers are invited to consider subject areas including the following themes or strands:

1. The Impact of International Organisations
2. Craft and Tourism
3. Towards an Aesthetic of Objects
4. The Design Critic, a Lost Profession?
5. Revival of Traditional Techniques
6. Craft, Design and Postmodernity
7. Fashion and Craft
8. Ruptures and Continuities: The Historiographic Understanding of Craft and Design
9. Craft and Technological Innovation

Alongside these strands, there will be two workshops with an emphasis on debate and discussion. The workshop themes are Design Centres and Design Exhibitions and Craft and Gender.

Submissions are due 31 December 2009. Extracts of papers should be no more than 300 words.

For more information and to submit an entry visit here.

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Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design is calling for applicants for their Visual Communications Internship. This highly regarded position provides the opportunity for a committed and passionate intern to join one of Australia’s leading design organisations.

Object is a not-for-profit organisation based in Sydney that creates opportunities for people to engage with design and creativity through dynamic and high-quality exhibitions, publishing, retail and educational activities.

The Visual Communications Internship is suitable for those seeking work experience within the design, visual culture and exhibition sectors. The focus of the internship is around the design and implementation of communications collateral for Object, as well as graphic design for the exhibition components of the Object program.

Applicants will need to have a working knowledge of Adobe CS3 as a minimum, and be available for a minimum three month commitment to the organisation, subject to a satisfactory three week review. The position is a voluntary position for three to four days per week.

Object is currently looking for candidates interested in being part of the program between either November 2009 and January 2010 or February and April 2010.

Applicants need to submit an up to date folio in PDF form (maximum 5mb) or via and nominate the preferred dates of their internship placement.

Applications due 31 October 2009.

Please forward applications to Kate Ford, Exhibitions Coordinator, k.ford@object.com.au, and also Danielle Hairs, Media and Communications Officer, d.hairs@object.com.au.

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Design Victoria is holding a workshop that will benefit owners and managers of small to medium businesses interested in gaining a better understanding of ways to incorporate sustainable practices into everyday business.

Sustainability is a term receiving unprecedented attention – but what is it and how can you implement sustainable practices into your day-to-day business practices? How can you move away from the rhetoric surrounding sustainability to reach an informed position that facilitates sustainable action?

Drawing on 20 years of extensive experience advancing the field of sustainability, presenters will demonstrate how businesses can explore ways to incorporate sustainable practices with integrity.

Through examining best-practice case studies the workshop will introduce concepts and strategies that enable informed decisions making the move towards sustainability in both product development and business operations.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

– How to define and demystify sustainability in a meaningful way.
– Identifying where to invest time and money to achieve the greatest reduction for sustainable outcomes.
– Understanding the various tools and strategies to assist in the move towards more sustainable outcomes.

The program will be facilitated by presenters from the Centre for Design at RMIT University – Andrew Carr, Program Director; Stephen Clune, Research Officer; and Simon Lockrey, Research Fellow.

The integrating sustainability workshop will be held Wednesday 28 October 2009, 9:00am to 1:00pm (registration is at 8:45am).

It will take place at the Bong Su Room, Melbourne Zoo, Elliot Avenue, Parkville.

The workshop includes coffee and tea on arrival, lunch and networking opportunities.

Bookings are free but are essential for catering. RSVP by Monday 26 October 2009. Please book early as places are limited.

For more information and to register attendance visit here.

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Through the Connections Residency program, the Australia Council for the Arts supports artists and designers with seed-funding to link with non-arts enterprises, fostering ongoing connections that are productive and profitable for both parties. Artists from all artforms are currently being invited to propose a residency with a non-arts business or industry partner of their choice.

The Connections Residency program supports a range of residency and placement opportunities for artists with non-arts businesses and industries providing up to $30,000.

The program aims to:

– Expand the potential for artists to undertake residencies in non-arts businesses.
– Foster new connections between artists and non-arts business and industry partners
– Support creative residencies that lead to long-term, mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships between artists and non-arts business and industry partners.

Applicants to the program must demonstrate that their residency project is well planned and beneficial to their practice and their non-arts business or industry partner.

Participating non-arts business and industry partners must bring significant cash or in-kind resources to the project, and demonstrate their capacity to provide access to staff, equipment or other facilities necessary to make the residency a success.

Residency placements should be at least six months in duration, although longer-term residencies are eligible provided there is adequate resourcing and support from partners.

If applicants do not have an industry partner already in place and would like assistance in developing a relationship with a non-arts business and industry, the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) is offering to facilitate artist/business partnerships as part of the Connections Residencies program. If you would like more information about this service, please contact your nearest AbaF representative.

Applications are due 7 December 2009. Decisions will be advised March 2010 and residencies may start 1 April 2010.

For more information and to apply visit here.

Details of past participants of grants in this category are available here.

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The City of Copenhagen is inviting submissions from international designers of concepts and designs for an attractive and modern new bike share system. The competition winners will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their design concepts put into development. 

Entries should highlight both design and functionality communicating what the new bicycle and the system look like; how it will work and how it will be integrated into the city. They must also outline how the collective concept works – from booking and locating the bicycles to paying for them and delivering them back. 

Entries are due by 18 November 2009.

For a full list of criteria and to apply visit here.

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“Design Victoria has launched Transform Your Design Business, an online guide that equips Victorian designers with the know-how to successfully navigate the grants space and write strong grant applications. It seeks to ensure designers can take full advantage of grants and assistance available to them, to help fund new design initiatives for local and international markets and kick-start growth and success.” Read on

Design Victoria

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Due to popular demand Craft Victoria is hosting another Craft to Consumer information session. The event is focused on retailing basics for designers and craftspeople.

The session explores the basics of selling your work whether its at a market, through a retailer or online.

Speakers include:

— Adam Ferrante, project director, Rose Street Artists Market
— Carmel McKie, acting retail manager, Craft Victoria
— Sally Morrigan, director, Georgie Love

The session will be held 9 November 2009, 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

For bookings and tickets call (03) 9650 7775.

For more information visit here.

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