Tasmanian designers are invited to apply for the 2010 Vitra Design Museum Fellowship. The fellowship recipient will attend a week long design workshop held by an international artist, designer or architect at the Domaine de Boisbuchet, an idyllic country estate in rural south-west France.

The workshop will be part of the annual international summer seminar program held at Boisbuchet by CIRECA in co-operation with Vitra Design Museum and the Centre Georges Pompidou. The fellowship recipient will also be given a personal tour of the Vitra Design Museum and collection in Basel with curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss.

Due 4 June 2010.

For more information and to apply download the application form here.

Tags: Opportunity - Tasmania - International

Comments Off

FORM is currently accepting registrations for a series of four professional and skills development workshops to be held at the Midland Atelier complex in Perth, Western Australia with award-winning designer/maker Malcolm Harris. The workshops will enable participants to experience Midland Atelier and engage in the new home of Western Australian design development and entrepreneurship.

The workshop program aims to provide participants with core knowledge about the design and making process, whilst working in the Pattern Shop of the Railway Workshops – a site with a rich industrial heritage. Equipped with the knowledge from these workshops, participants will be ready to implement their new skills in the class room and inspire future design.

The workshops will be led by Malcolm Harris, Technical Manager at Midland Atelier’s Pattern Shop and an award-winning designer/maker specialising in custom hand crafted furniture. Malcolm began in the traditional woodworking trade, and for over twenty years has refined his craft, creating distinguished works with timeless appeal. Malcolm’s specialisation in bespoke commissions of fine furniture for the domestic and corporate sectors has seen the popularity of his work swell; more recently his practice has evolved to encompass directional sculptural and public art pieces.

Places are limited with a maximum of 8 participants included in each workshop. Previous workshop experience is required. Enrolment details available upon workshop payment.

WORKSHOP 1: Creative veneering
Explore the intricate art of wood veneering in this two day workshop with Western Australian maker Malcolm Harris. The veneering process enables the maker to achieve stunning results with thin timber veneers that are not achievable using solid timbers. Malcolm will guide participants through the process of using the correct tools, selecting timbers, applying the veneer and creating patterns through to surface finishes. Materials included.

Held 8 to 9 May 2010

Cost: $300 + GST includes materials, equipment, tools with lunch included

WORKSHOP 2: Navigating the Torsion Box
The practical applications of the Torsion Box technique enable the maker to produce lightweight beams suitable for a range of applications including wings, furniture and structural supports. Malcolm will conduct a two day workshop that will explore the production of the Torsion Box technique from creating outer skins to applying skins to a grid framework. This workshop will explore further applications of this process. Materials included.

Held 31 July to 1 August 2010.

Cost: $325 + GST includes materials, equipment, tools with lunch included

WORKSHOP 3: Laminating the options
Currently at the forefront of contemporary design, the laminating process allows timber to be used creatively for much longer spans, heavier loads and complex shapes. Join Malcolm as he explores the possibilities of this process from selecting materials through to the finishing process. Participants will be guided through the engineering behind the final product and applying this practical knowledge to contemporary design. Materials included.

Cost: $350 + GST includes materials, equipment, tools with lunch included

Held 18 to 19 September 2010.

WORKSHOP 4: Steam bending excellence
Steam bending is a time-honoured wood working technique where strips of wood are steamed to make them pliable and bent around
a mould to create a final object. During this two day workshop Malcolm will teach the method of steam bending combining traditional techniques with a range of contemporary applications. Participants will learn how to construct a simple steam box, selecting timbers, preparing moulds and finishing. Materials included.

Cost: $350 + GST includes materials, equipment, tools with lunch included

Held 20 to 21 November 2010.

For more information and to enroll in any of these workshops visit here.

Tags: Workshop - Perth - Western Australia

Comments Off

Over the past ten years Australian plastics manufacturer Palamont has undergone a gradual yet total transformation; from a made-to-order, purely functional mindset, to a highly entrepreneurial position where the business, in partnership with a team of leading Australian designers, is poised to launch its own branded products directly to market.

Palamont is the type of business the ADU identifies as a ‘Creative Enabler’, a business with production capabilities that takes a long-term view in their dealings with designers. In Palamont’s interview with us this issue, their Managing Director Norman Johnson speaks about valuing the commercial potential of a designer’s intellectual property as much as he does their own production capabilities. They are willing to meet entrepreneurial designers half way – providing access to valuable tooling and production facilities for a joint return on the product.

It is this approach to business building that sets a path for other Australian makers. Palamont represents a growing group of eager entrepreneurs within the manufacturing sector, who understand the value in the crossover between design and industry, the unquestionable need for product sector diversity, and the benefits for those who embrace the opportunity.

This issue of ADU begins an ongoing series of interviews with a broad range of creative enablers including local manufacturers who are fast dispelling the myth that nothing comes of designers collaborating with manufacturers in Australia. We explore the many not so obvious benefits that can be gained from design integration, and propose that once Australian manufactures and designers start speaking the same language, working together may well assure one another’s survival.

Ewan McEoin and Heidi Dokulil

You can read the interview with Palamont’s Managing Director Norman Johnson here.

Comments (0)

The Island6 Arts Center supports young and emerging artists from all over the world and encourages collaboration between local and foreign artists. Their residency program provides an opportunity for artists, musicians, writers, architects, curators, art critics, performers and designers to live and create work in Shanghai, China.

Island6 Arts Center is located inside the m50 factories complex on Moganshan Road, home to many of Shanghai’s contemporary arts spaces. Established in 2006, Island6 is an artist-founded, artist-run, not-for-profit organisation governed by voluntary staff, and independently funded. Covering 930 sqm, the gallery space is one of the biggest in the m50 area and provides artists with more than 500 sqm of exhibition space. It is opened daily to the public and is suitable to display artwork of all type of medium, including video projections, life performances and large installations.

Since May 2006, Island6 has exhibited 198 artists from 21 different countries, sponsored 119 resident artists, organised 39 exhibitions and assisted in the creation of 1900 art projects.
In addition to its function as a gallery, Island6 is also a production studio.

Artist residency applications are accepted throughout the year with the Island6 Arts Center studio providing successful applicants with the following conveniences:

- A self-contained 200 sq/m studio with phone, heating, Internet connection, furnishings and kitchen.
- Accommodation within a fully furnished service apartment with Internet access. Each self-contained apartment has a lounge room, kitchen and small bathroom, including washing machine, air conditioner/heating, fridge and Internet connection.
- Access to the common workshop (for the permanent resident artists only) is equipped with computers, CNC engraving and cutting machines, photo mounting facilities, video
room, photo lighting equipment, silk screen tools, stainless steel welding facilities, wood work tools, electronics circuitry plus access to local factories.
- Technical consultancy to help with the creation of the work.
- Assistance with translation, research and communication.
- Access to Island6’s strong ties with local newspapers, magazines, TV channels and various creative associations.

In return, Island6 Arts Center from participants of residence program expects residents to:

- Maintain a professional attitude towards the space, facilities and people involved.
- Work hard for the duration of the residency.
- Be involved in Island6 gallery and studio space promotion and orderly maintenance.
- Collaborate with one or more local artist(s).
- Complete at least one new artwork (of any media).

Island6 still doesn’t receive any support so all participants of the residence program are required to cover the costs of living, accommodation, specific assistance, studio, materials and all traveling. Most artists in residence have been supported by their home countries.

This is an ongoing opportunity.

For more information and to apply visit here.

Tags: Residency - International, Residency - International - China - Shanghai

Comments Off

The Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) is holding a free half day clinic in Canberra that will provide practical advice and tips on copyright.

Topics include:

- Overview of legislation for visual artists on moral rights and duration.
- Tips on protecting your copyright if working in Australia or overseas.
- Artists’ rights and responsibilities in relation to creative commons.
- Tips for dealing with possible infringements
- Protecting your artwork on the web (flickr, myspace and youtube)

The workshop will be presented by Ian McDonald, a senior legal officer with the Australian Copyright Council.

It will be held 2 June 2010 from 9:30am to 12:00pm.

For more information and to book visit here. Places are limited.

Tags: Workshop - Canberra - Australian Capital Territory, Workshop - Canberra - Australian Capital Territory - Copyright

Comments Off

Gaffa Gallery is looking for jewellers, ceramicists, glass artists and object makers to be featured in their new dedicated jewellery and object retail store.

Since its inception in 2006, Gaffa Gallery has provided a creative space for emerging and established artists and designers. As an integral part of its move to Sydney’s CBD, Gaffa will open the doors to a new retail store dedicated to showcasing remarkable and exciting work, with a strong emphasis placed on quality craftsmanship, innovation and interesting design.

If you are interested in having your wares showcased in the retail store please contact Gaffa with some information about yourself including:

- A brief biography (200 words)
- A CV (1 page only)
- Images of your work (maximum 5 images)
- A word document of captions details (title, materials and retail prices).

Please make sure the size of your attachments does not exceed a total of 1MB.

This is an ongoing opportunity.

For more information or if you have any questions about Gaffa and their retail store you can visit their website www.gaffa.com.au or contact Retail Manager Zoe Brand on zoe@gaffa.com.au or (02) 9283 4273 or Gaffa’s director, Kelly Robson on kelly@gaffa.com.au.

Tags: Opportunities - Sydney - New South Wales, Opportunities - Sydney - New South Wales - Craft and design retail

Comments Off

Sydney contemporary jewellery and object gallery Studio 20/17 is calling for submissions for their 2011 exhibition program. Exhibition proposals are encouraged from artists, and curators working in the area of contemporary jewellery, object and small scale sculpture.

Studio 20/17 is a combined workshop and gallery within the Danks Street Art Complex in Waterloo, Sydney. The initiative aims to increase the profile of the applied arts within the contemporary art arena and offers emerging and established artists the opportunity to exhibit their work within the context of an established contemporary arts environment.

The Studio 20/17 exhibition space is available for limited periods (a minimum of two and maximum of four weeks per exhibition) to enable artists to exhibit contemporary wearables, objects (both functional and non-functional), small scale sculpture and installation work.

To submit an application to exhibit at Studio 20/17 in 2011 please submit the following:

- A current CV
- An exhibition proposal of one page only and between 3 to 10 good quality images or drawings of proposed work/installation.
- Samples of existing work in a similar genre (if applicable)
- Your preferred dates and length for the exhibition
- Contact details

Please send applications to Studio 20/17, Unit 6b, 2 Danks St, Waterloo NSW 2017 or email studio2017@optusnet.com.au.

Find attached a floor plan of the gallery here.

For more information on Studio 20/17 visit here.

Tags: Opportunities - Australia - National - Sydney exhibition opportunity

Comments Off

Expressions of interest are currently are being accepted from emerging artists and established practitioners working in different disciplines who are interested in participating in the 1st Tamworth Textile Triennial. The Triennial will provide a forum to explore current issues and trends in textile practice in Australia.

The Tamworth Textile Triennial will be held in September 2011 and build on the tradition of the Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennials, showcasing the work of contemporary textile artists. There are few events in Australia that can demonstrate such a strong tradition of promoting and sustaining the unique cultural heritage associated with both the history and technology of textile practice.

Expressions of interest will be accepted from artists living and working in Australia. They are encouraged from artists working across a variety of disciplines and at various stages in their careers.

EOIs will be assess according to the following criteria:

- Innovation: This can include individual and/or collaborative projects (with other individuals or industry or technology-based, educational or community organisations).
- Demonstrated skills in realising concepts: This can include drawing, visual diary and collage book of ideas.
- Use of traditional and/or contemporary technologies.
- Demonstrated appreciation of craft traditions: Textile specific, but can include another craft discipline.
- Use of materials: Can include sustainable practice and processes.
- Use of colour and pattern.

The closing date for expressions of interest is Friday 30 July 2010.

Submissions will be assessed by a panel in August 2010 who will make an initial selection of artists and projects. Artists selected at this stage will then be invited to submit a detailed proposal in response to a theme to be determined by the curator.

Artists selected for the first Tamworth Textile Triennial will be advised by the end of November 2010.

For more information and to submit an expression of interest visit here.

Tags: Opportunities - Australia - National - Craft and design festival

Comments Off

The QUT School of Law is holding a free intellectual property and technology law clinic for members of the arts and technology sectors who cannot otherwise afford to see a lawyer. The service provides 45 minute appointments for clients to talk to a lawyer one-on-one about any legal questions or issues they may have. This service is ideal for members of the creative and arts communities, including writers, artists, musicians, designers, programmers, and other creators

The event is led by Professor Brian Fitzgerald of the QUT School of Law, in conjunction with the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House (QPILCH). The clinic brings together qualified legal practitioners who volunteer their time one evening per month to provide free legal advice.

 Lawyers will be able to assist with copyright advice, recording agreements, publishing agreements, contracts, media rights, digital distribution, business models, and much more.

Advice is by appointment only. Appointments are held in Brisbane City, or by telephone for clients located in rural and regional Queensland.

The next clinic will take place from 5:30pm on Thursday 25 March 2010.

To make an appointment, contact Cheryl Foong at cheryl.foong@qut.edu.au or (07) 3138 2046.

Tags: Workshop - Brisbane - Queensland, Workshop - Brisbane - Queensland - Intellectual property

Comments Off

Palamont Rotor, a small rotational moulding manufacturer with facilities in Queensland and Victoria, is a leader in their sector – adaptable, technically capable and driven by quality and innovation. Over the past ten years Palamont has undergone a gradual yet total transformation; from a made-to-order, purely functional mindset to a highly entrepreneurial position where the business, in partnership with a team of leading Australian designers, is poised to launch its own branded products directly to market.

Palamont Managing Director Norman Johnson spoke to the ADU about Palamont’s journey, revealing the many not so obvious benefits that can be gained from design integration. Here he explains why he feels that Australian manufactures and designers need to start talking the same language, and how they must step between the sectors, working together to assure one another’s survival.

Business: Palamont Rotor
Type of business: Rotational moulding manufacturer.
Location: Facilities in Brendale, Brisbane, Queensland and Dandenong, Victoria.
Founder: Peter Wakelam
Contact: Palamont Rotor, 32 Duntroon St Brendale QLD 4500. T: (07) 3205  1297.

ADU: Can you please describe Palamont?
Norman Johnson: Palamont is a rotational moulding business and a small enterprise. Today the core turnover is about 11 to 12 million dollars a year, and we employ about 70 people over two plants, one in Dandenong, Victoria, and one in Brendale, Brisbane. The Dandenong business has been going for over twenty years and the Brisbane business was established about seven years ago. The main turnover at this stage is in Victoria, which is a manufacturing state and has a lot more opportunities, although the Brisbane business has shown considerable growth over the last five years.

Can you describe your overall business offering?
Palamont makes proprietary products, or products that we own and manage ourselves. In Victoria those products make up between 40 and 50 percent of the turnover, and in Queensland it is more likely to be 70 percent. The reason for the higher bias in Brisbane is that the turnover is lower and the necessity to develop products in Queensland is greater because there are not a lot of manufacturers in the area of custom moulding. We also like to have a mix because custom moulding is volatile. If we have a proprietary product, or a joint venture product, we are more involved and get to add a much higher degree of the intellect.

Do you feel that Palamont has developed specialist skills and capabilities that are both nationally and internationally competitive?
We export substantial quantities of products now so we are internationally competitive, and nationally we are competitive because we are very dominant in a few market segments and in some we almost have a monopoly. This has all come about because of a passion. Peter Wakelam started the business from very humble beginnings in a little tin shed making a product called the Aussie Rocker that was an innovative compost bin. He wasn’t satisfied with the limit of the process and started travelling to America and Europe and bringing back technology that we would never have developed ourselves in this small market. With his innovative approach, Peter started attracting customers who needed creative solutions and often they were people who were trying to get into the finishes market, rather than the truck or agricultural component market. That momentum has grown over the years and now the company is almost totally driven by finding difficult projects and making the process work to its limits. One of our more recent projects at the top-end of the market is designer Alex Loterztein’s Twig for Derlot (pictured). It needs incredible strength and durability to be able to sit out in the sun, and we have been running a huge number of trials getting the laminate structure for that to work so that he gets not only the look that he wanted to create, but also the structural strength which is not normally achieved in polyethylene under those circumstances.

Palamont is a manufacturing company that aligns itself with the Australian design scene – what was the trigger for that?
It wasn’t long before we realised that while we had good ideas about product we wanted to develop and technical skills, we weren’t able to create the art that was necessary to give the products the right look and feel. So we started with what I call ‘translators’, design people who would take our ideas and translate them for us. So they were technical designers and we realised then that whilst we would do something in a pretty boxy kind of way, they would add compound curves and features that we wouldn’t have. So we started to produce products that would have that kind of design element – in other words our technology, our concept, with someone actually interpreting our idea.

About five years ago I decided to leave Palamont for the world to understand what true designers did – in other words to become more aware of the design process. I have now been cultivating that process and I am now looking for people who are true creators because we can actually engage with them and bring new ideas to reality because we have the skill set.

Can you talk a little bit about the entrepreneurial edge that is emerging out of the design integration at Palamont and the relationships you are cultivating with designers?
We want to encourage a more enduring relationship over a long time because we think designers have a lot to give. It takes time to understand our process and the limitations and advantages of it. So what we are trying to do is to blend those two cultures so there’s an excellent benefit for both of us. I have noticed that in the design world when a manufacturer links up with a designer, the designer often gets only a small royalty. I am not working on that principle. I am actually making designers an equity partner so that if it is very successful they will do incredibly well out of it, if it is not that successful they will get the same results as us, not very much. By engaging them in the business the relationship is a much stronger one, they have an opportunity not only to produce great design, but also to work with a manufacturer who believes in what they are doing. I want the designer to be absolutely engaged and to feel free and unencumbered by the financial relationship because then they will really go for it.

Certainly there is a shift within the world of design, where designers are starting to recognise that they need a much more collaborative business relationship with their manufacturer, in other words co-development beyond royalty alone. Have you found that working closely with designers this has become a natural process?
I think it has been a natural process. Designers are becoming aware that they need to be more than just designers because of the limited future in that. I think designers love the collaborative approach, and they also like to be engaged in the process. They can learn a lot from us, and we can actually learn a lot from them. So it is not just about the design or the product, but the whole blending of cultures and minds that makes it successful and you end up with the ultimate solution. We are pretty transparent about the business and how it is operating and what we are doing, even from a financial point of view because we feel an obligation to give something back. It is an intellectual swap I would say. We want them to give us their full degree of intellect and we are going to give them as much of our intellect as we have, and we are probably both going to end up in a pretty good position.

So if you were talking to other manufacturers of a similar scale to Palamont, what would you describe as the key opportunities within the collaborative design model – is it shifting towards the idea of being a manufacturing brand that looks at wholesaling or retailing their own products?
Yes. We have spent the last couple of years working out our brand and formalising it in collaboration with the creative people we work with and they will be the beneficiaries. They all have their own brand. I believe in brand.

I also believe in participating in a boutique marketplace, China and America can churn out the grist that’s necessary, but we need to be very boutique in our manufacturing and very focused on our product. You have to have a much longer-term view and put your money up a bit earlier than you would like to. We know from the last time we did that we got an enormous growth benefit from having incredibly well-designed product released at the right time, backed by the right names and branding and we just accelerated. So we think we will accelerate even more as a small company.

Now that design is fully integrated within your business, do you find you do more market and technical research – looking internationally at what is going on, what you can put into the market?
In each market segment that we work in we have a design group made up of people within the marketplace, including a manufacturing representative, marketer, and designer. Those focus groups meet regularly, perhaps every quarter, and develop multiple products to concept stage. When we think we are satisfied we then go to foam modelling and we then take the models to the marketplace to see what they think. We actually follow a practical approach and let people touch, feel and become involved, because often we know the customer base, we have got customers and we want to test it directly.

We would then make a few prototypes, and if it works and we get good feedback we go to tooling stage, often with orders in hand. Not necessarily enough to make it a whole financial success but enough to give us inspiration that we should proceed. Then we would go into production and it might take another twelve months to establish full market reputation for that product and market acceptance and then eighteen months before we will be producing successfully at the right price for everybody.

Have the external designers you have collaborated with given you a much more global horizon through their experiences – and do you feel that that feeds back into the business?
They are certainly bringing their international expertise and we have been encouraged to start taking our products to an international marketplace and to build an international reputation. Though we are very much in the infancy of that because we have only just broken down the mindset that we are not going to have to sit in Australia, that we are actually making world-class product. This year we intend to launch a range of products at InDesign and we have a soft launch at DesignEx, and then next year it is our intention to take our products to Milan. There is no doubt about it, we have some wonderful things evolving and some excellent products and we want to take on that opportunity because it is just a fantastic thing.

You have dealt with many designers over the years, do you think designers are commercially astute in the way they approach or understand the needs of a manufacturer – and is there anything they need to shift for it to be a more instantly productive relationship?
I think that it is very difficult for them because often they are not well funded. So they go cap in hand, and to be honest, most manufacturers have the opportunity to take advantage of that and I think that has been the way. It is a bit of an indictment on us, but we have all the resources and sometimes more money. Unless of course they are of the few that have built a reputation – if they have reputation they have something to bargain with because they have a brand. I think that that should change because I think manufacturers should be assessing each opportunity on its merits and therefore making sure that if somebody actually has a great idea, you sponsor them, and you give them the opportunity to get their product created, and you cut them a fair deal.

Palamont obviously invests in designers’ work, assisting with tooling or prototyping for the sake of the eventual product – how do you view that deal in a simple format?
We currently have a substantial number of products under prototyping and construction where we have put up all the cash and that’s OK because the designers have put up their intellect, their ideas and concepts, which have a value. So I see that relationship as being relatively equal at this stage. When the product becomes commercialised, and we are really backing projects that they agree and we agree can be successful. You are going to back some things and they are not going to work out but you have got to take a few risks in life if you are going to continually say you are an entrepreneur. But we probably think we are pretty safe with what we are doing and we have got no hesitation in backing the people we are working with because they genuinely believe in what they are doing and I think that is all I can ask of them. If it becomes successful we don’t need all the money, they should get their fair share of it because then they’ll go on and be productive for a long time. I really want to cultivate that garden, I just want to… it wouldn’t be good long term for Palamont to just take everything and not reinvest in those people who have actually been the genesis of the idea.

If you look at the different manufacturing sectors within Australia, do you think it is still too geared to being a service industry, making to order in comparison to other nations like Spain or Italy – where do you feel the Australian mindset is within manufacturing?
I think the mindset is still really about ‘lets make an order and basically we have got the order in our hands and the money in the bank and we don’t want to build our inventories, we don’t want to risk our tooling money…’ There is a bit of fear and I think they are driven by fear so they don’t want to change. I don’t know that they are all like that but I think a large percentage of them are still like that because that is the way conventional manufacturing has been run in Australia.

However as I sort of venture out a bit further I’m meeting some incredibly talented and creative manufacturers. I was only talking to one this morning who does etching on tooling. They are a creative business and they want to partner with designers because they know their business is about art and not just manufacturing and they have exactly the same views as us.

What is interesting in the ‘making to order’ mindset is that much of the government design policy in Australia is really focused on the idea of getting manufacturers to use more design, so that is working on the assumption that manufacturers are making things and selling them and they should use design to sell more. But it seems that there is another layer that is being missed which is that government policy should be assisting manufacturers to cross that bridge which you have described, which is not only using more design but becoming more integrated and more entrepreneurial in the way they approach the market.
Well you get around, you think about it. How many functions would you go to that are design related that actually engage with manufacturers?

Very few!
Exactly, and if there is a manufacturing function it is usually a more conventional exhibition of goods. When I made the personal decision to try and bridge the gap between designers and manufacturers myself, I went to many design functions and found out that there was an incredible power in that group and so I think what the government should be doing is actually trying to expose that. The Australian industry group that I use very often for a whole range of technical reasons never talks about using design. They talk about ‘lean manufacturing’ and all of the processes to make your manufacturing more efficient. In fact industry organisations are all encumbered to return some percentage of what they do back into industry so in my view, putting up a bit of tooling money for some struggling designer who has got some fantastic idea, that could be my bit of philanthropy as a manufacturer. But that won’t happen because the design industry and the manufacturing industry are actually not very good at talking to each other and probably to some extent I see that as my benefit because we have crossed that bridge already. We actually see it as a bit incumbent on ourselves to say we have found something that everyone else should know about and get involved in because it is actually very rewarding.

If we were talking about your experience working with the designers, what are some of the key steps designers should make to ensure they get their products into manufacture in Australia? What advice would you give to a designer out there who has a good idea?
I think the thing they should be aware of is that they better be damn consistent. They also need to be realistic about their expectations from the process because sometimes those expectations can’t be translated into reality. When you go into full-scale manufacturing it is easy to make one perfect one, but to make a hundred perfect ones? Well sometimes you can make 100 that are 99% perfect but not 100%. I don’t want them to lose their expectations because it drives the process to its limits but there still needs to be some commercial tweaking. So sometimes their perception of commercial realities is not quite clear and that’s when I have arguments about what can and can’t happen and they need to be prepared for that debate because they are going to ask us to do things that are often quite difficult. They also need to realise that while they believe in the product maybe the marketplace doesn’t believe in it and that transition from getting it into the marketplace and actually becoming fully commercialised can be very time consuming and draining and they have to be prepared for that.

And it could be two years until you actually get a really good return on what you are doing, or in their case for their labour and putting their intellect up, it is a long time until they get the return. Some of them aren’t prepared for that.

But I love designers because they are so idealistic and have such high expectations. It is almost like raising the bar so you can’t jump over it but that’s what I want because that attitude actually filters down. I’ve got to say, when you are a manufacturer and you are involved at that level it does trickles through the rest of your business. So I don’t want them to lose that.

Do designers bring other work to you – are they helping you to build your business within their networks?
Absolutely. If I have a relationship with them and they have developed a respect for us, there are two things that happen. One, they actually start designing for the process and encouraging others too, and the other thing is within the network they will give me a high recommendation. That is actually the kind of business we are trying to build – built on reputation, built on quality and built on actually doing what we say we are going to do. It is not all about dollars when you are adding up the books.

Interview by Ewan McEoin. Images by Florian Groehn and George Dedic (www.derlot.com)

© Australian Design Unit. Commissioned and first published by the Creative Industries Innovation Centre.

To read more ADU creative entrepreneur profiles visit here.

Comments (2)

Rohan Nicol is a Wagga Wagga based designer with a craft background and a new design enterprise, Lucelux, which launched in 2009. Bridging the gap between manufacturing and design in Australia, Rohan has established an alliance with local manufacturer Precision Signs and is developing a range of commercial lighting firmly founded on the belief that designers need to build bridges and partnerships with local manufacturers, who on the flip side, have a real opportunity to diversify their business offering through design.

Business: Lucelux (2009)
Type of business: Design and manufacture of commercial lighting products
Location: Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Founder: Rohan Nicol
Contact: www.lucelux.com.au

ADU: How long you have been practicing as a designer for?
Rohan Nicol: That’s an interesting question really because I supposed I have only thought of myself as a designer in the last couple of years. Prior to that I have always referred to myself as a craftsperson.

What kind of craft did you initially make and what kind of design do you now make?
In 1996 graduated as a gold and silversmith and I made works that were in the tradition of gold and silversmithing – jewellery and vessels, using a wide variety of non-precious materials. In the last couple of years I have been concentrating on designing commercial lighting for restaurants, bars and hotels.

Can you describe Lucelux for us?
Lucelux is a business that I have set up to utilise manufacturing capacities in regional Australia and specifically the city of Wagga Wagga where I live. I have found that a great opportunity exists in regional Australia and in my case I identified a local manufacturer, Precision Signs, who had expertise that was being under utilised. It wasn’t that they were lying idle, it was more that they had expertise that I could see had potential to develop. I was able to marry my skills, with their capacity as a manufacturer, to develop a high-end product. Their main business is illuminated signage for gaming lounges in casinos which in itself is a high-end product and highly technical. However, it is a very different market segment of lighting to what I am now targeting in collaboration with them.

Would you describe Lucelux as a new Australian lighting brand?
Yes. I am working as a design entrepreneur, I am the owner and operator of Lucelux and at this point I am its sole designer. But in the future I am looking to bring in other designers as I know that the more diversity you get in a product range, the more likely the business will have a solid financial footing.

Is the business a joint venture between yourself and Precision Signs, how deep is the collaboration?
In the initial phase I am operating independently. I am my own business and essentially they supply product to me that is produced to my specifications. However, in order to get my business off the ground I was lucky enough to develop an arrangement with them where they invested in the development of the initial products and that has enabled me to develop the first two products, Stretch Light and Peppered Sunlight, and including packaging for them as well.

The investment that they have put in is purely on a goodwill basis, and in the future when I start to generate sales they will recoup their investment.

Can you tell us what your motivation was for starting this business?
Initially I was heavily focused on being a craftsperson, and as a craftsperson I have never really looked at my practice as having any real commercial interest at all. I have purely focused on developing works for exhibition and those works I have often exhibited and never had them for sale. I keep them in my own collection with a view to building that collection over time. I suppose Lucelux is a shift in my craft practice to use the design skills I have to develop a product range and a design brand. About two years ago I started thinking how I might achieve that, and it has been an interesting process that has basically seen me looking for avenues to commercialise my craft practice.

So you founded Lucelux as the container for that commercial practice, as the brand or umbrella under which you can run this project?
Exactly. I suppose early on when I was doing the Springboard entrepreneurship program it encouraged me to think. I began looking at a design practice that was going to be commercial as something that is its own entity and could be sold on at a later point. Early on in the program we were talking about exit strategies that enable you have an entity in itself that is a commercial enterprise that you can cut and run from if your priorities change with time.

How long has it taken to get the Lucelux plan rolling?
It has really been about eighteen months and that really started to roll once I secured the collaborative support of Precision Signs in Wagga Wagga. That meant I could get two products made and the initial investment I required, I couldn’t have afforded it on my own terms.

Did you design the product in response to their process? Or did you design the product and then have to find someone nationally who could make that product?
The first of the two products I designed independently, without knowing the actual process that was available, I then worked with the manufacturer to make my ideas fit with their technology, it was a real collaboration. It was just luck that I found a manufacturer in Wagga Wagga. Precision Signs was only three kilometers from my home office where I designed the product. While I did find Sydney and Melbourne manufacturers that were capable of manufacturing the pieces, none of them were willing to support me in the manner that Precision Signs was. That was key, I needed someone to invest in it because like most designers I couldn’t afford the tooling costs.

How much business experience did you have before setting up Lucelux?
Realistically none, and I was really conscious of that. The main step I took to overcome my lack of skills in that area was to participate in the Springboard entrepreneurship program. It provided me with a lot of material to think about and really allowed me to consolidate what I was trying to achieve with commercialising my creative practice. After that I also set about doing another program through the Business Enterprise Centre in Wagga Wagga called the Commercialising Emerging Technologies program. That helped me consolidate my ideas as well, particularly my whole business model and the relationships that I had with my manufacturers. It also made me consolidate my marketing plans and relationships with retailers.

You mentioned retailers as well, how did you decide who you were going to target in the market? Did you do market research or assess the marketplace prior to designing the products? How did this work?
Through the business training in both Springboard and the Business Enterprise Centre programs I was encouraged to get in contact with retailers and to undertake market analysis. I found that retailers obviously are on the frontline and have an attuned knowledge of what the market is, how it exists, what opportunities exist, and how that might suit the kind of products that I was in the process of developing. So I began to target certain areas that responded to what the retailers shared with me. In my case, they were saying that there was a need for Australian designed and made product that was well supported with effective branding, packaging, and made in Australia as an equivalent offering to overseas brands.

Were retailers telling you the categories of product that were needed?
Yes. There weren’t many big lighting pieces in the market at a particular price point. I was provided with information on those price points, where the products might be well placed or positioned. I then assembled that information and the design was calibrated to the manufacturing potentials of my manufacturer. As the designer I sat in the middle and was the conduit between the retailers brief and the potentials of the manufacturer, and somehow kind of distilled the product out of the knowledge and constraints and information inputs of both of those sources.

Do you see that being a model that is particularly suited to this kind of business in Australia, outside of your own personal experience?
Yes, I think it is the way we need to work in Australia as designers. We need to be highly flexible and attuned to the opportunities that are around us in the retail environment, designing products that are responsive to the opportunities out there and the only way to do that is to access information as broadly and as effectively as you can. Also make a genuine effort to scope for manufacturing opportunities in Australia, of which there are many across all sorts of industries. There are many firms out there that are small, responsive, adaptable and willing and looking for opportunities to diversify their own product bases and product lines. I think in many cases it is a myth that Australia doesn’t have any manufacturing, I think there is a great amount of manufacturing in Australia, I think designers just need to be entrepreneurial and I suppose open-minded and also resourceful with the kind of manufacturing technologies and potentials that are out there.

You touched on this but can we recap, how did you finance the start-up of the business and what were the foundations that you laid?
I brought to the whole exercise very little of my own capital, really all I had to offer was my expertise as a designer, as you say I needed some sort of source of funding or capital. And for me, really the only way I was going to get a product made was to get the support of the manufacturer because they obviously had the materials at hand, the staff and other resources essential to getting a product off the ground.

When you are talking about developing a design product, quite often you are talking about not just the materials and the use of staff and labour but you are also talking about the development of expensive tooling which in itself often would require sophisticated technologies and expertise, they are often very time consuming to put together. So in my case, getting a product off the ground, I did it by simply approaching the manufacturer and securing their confidence in the product I had and asking them to be partner with me in development of it.

In doing that, I found it was really important to indicate to the manufacturer that you had a market for the product as well, that you had thought through those types of scenarios, the discussions that I had with Precision Signs highlighted the commercial potential.

So talking about the business proposition rather than ‘will you help me prototype this idea that I have had?’
Exactly. That in part was about having a really tight story in order to hook the manufacturer into the frame and see their position within the team and seeing their role in it in terms of getting a design enterprise up and running, and for them to support it.

And also illustrating that there is a commercial return available?

Absolutely. When it comes into it, large manufacturers have bigger overheads and they need to pay the bills and keep product rolling out of the factory – so of course that is essential.

There is a traditional view in Australia that there are two key channels of production for a designer – one is that you make it yourself and you manage that process of production, and the other is you do a deal with a manufacturer and they have the path to market. What you have described is quite a different paradigm.
I don’t see a lot of evidence of the royalty model operating effectively for designers in Australia. There has to be another approach if you are working as a designer here and I think the way forward for us is to play a role in orchestrating the process. That is the model that I have developed with Lucelux. The manufacturer has made an initial investment to support me as the designer to get the product off the ground. As that product begins to gain market presence, I will develop a suite of five products that I will have in production by the middle of this year and that will provide Precision Signs with ongoing income.

Then perhaps the best scenario is for manufacturing companies with capital and capability to look at other similar opportunities with designers – so we gradually have new channels between the designer, the manufacturer and the market.
It really is about the designer playing a leadership role if they want to operate in the design industry in Australia. Designers need to be orchestrating the process, and to use the term – they need to be a design entrepreneur – you need to design content, yes but you also need to be entrepreneurial about the means through which you get it to market. That’s about relationships with manufacturers, relationships with your retailer and distribution and how you are going to achieve that. Each model will be different to the next but essentially, if the industry is to grow it needs to be led by designers first and foremost. To do this we need support from other stakeholders in the industry and that goes right through from government support to design industry advocacy bodies, funding and cultural institutions.

Do you think there may need to be some adjustment at a university level for designers to be better prepared for the reality of what they will need to do to work with industry?
I think so, but it’s difficult to kind of nail down one factor or approach and how it needs to change from one position to another. However, a lot of the programs out there have moved so far towards the digital sort of approaches to manufacture that very few of the students or graduates actually have any manual techniques and it is the manual techniques that provide you with the on-the-floor experience. So unless you have been on the tools or handled a product, handled materials and know how they respond to a tool under the process of manufacture you really aren’t well placed to make an innovative product. So if they were to overcome that, that could mean more industry placement and industry involvement with tertiary education through internships or just closer collaborations between industry and tertiary education.

If you were to highlight two or three key steps that a designer should take as the foundation steps to ensure their design ends up being produced, what would you say those steps need to be?
Develop connections with manufacturers that are Australian-based ideally, and design products that are calibrated to their particular potentials. Ensure that those products are based upon market research, that you have negotiated how you are going to finance the operation and whether you do that through support of the manufacturer or by securing capital through loans or grants, or by winning awards. These are all valid channels for funding the operation and funding is an essential ingredient because otherwise you won’t get things off the ground.

Can you tell us what have been some of the major highs and lows in terms of developing Lucelux as a major design brand in Australia?
In terms of the highs, it is getting a product off the ground that is manufactured and production ready and going out to market and selling, and essentially achieving that without any risk to myself. In a sense I think the design of the enterprise has been as important as the design of the product. So that’s been one of the highlights.

However, there are also the hurdles and I think the biggest one so far has been to establish retail distribution. It is probably the one area in the Australian industry that is probably not on message with where everybody else is moving, some of the retailers are a bit slow in identifying the potential of an Australian made product.

In terms of the development of your business, what are the next steps?
I have secured Australia Council funding for the next three products and I have also just finished some studying, so I am now in a position where I can just concentrate on the marketing plan for the business and getting the product to market. Because of the investment of the manufacturer it is time that I fund that relationship and their ongoing support.

Interview by Ewan McEoin. Video: Filming and production by video artist Sam James.

© Australian Design Unit. Commissioned and first published by the Creative Industries Innovation Centre.

To read more ADU creative entrepreneur profiles visit here.

Comments (0)

Open Agenda is a new annual competition aimed at supporting a new generation of experimental Australian architecture. Open to recent architecture graduates, Open Agenda will award seed funding to three exceptional design research proposals that explore new positions in architecture for critical consideration.

An initiative of the School of Architecture at UTS, this national competition is intentionally broad in its scope and is focused on developing the possibilities of design research in architecture and the built environment and fostering new discussions on architecture in the public realm.

Organisers are looking for text and graphic based proposals that seek to develop research through architectural design. Proposals will be evaluated on the strength of their research topic, their innovative approach to design as research, design quality and their potential for development as a public exhibition, lecture and publication. Proposals that explore new forms of media and communication in this context are welcome.

Graduates from a professional degree in architecture in the last ten years (including and after 2000) are invited to submit a proposal.

Three proposals will be awarded seed funding of $2000 for development towards a publication and a public exhibition at Customs House in Sydney in 2010. The three teams or individuals will also have the opportunity to present a public lecture on their work at UTS in Sydney and at RMIT in Melbourne in Spring 2010 as part of their public lecture series. The winners will be featured in an edition of Architectural Review Australia in early 2011.

Entries due 10 May 2010.

For more information and to register visit here.

Tags: Competition - National, Competition - National - Architecture

Comments Off