22 Mar 2010
Article - 08.10.2009
More than an just an exhibition, WORKSHOPPED has become an important organisation that launches careers and assists designers with moving from prototype to production.
WORKSHOPPED identifies and showcases great Australian design and brings it to local and international attention. From humble beginnings as a simple exhibition of a group of designer friends, WORKSHOPPED has evolved into an internationally recognised design organisation, involved in the exhibition, manufacture, management, distribution and retail of Australian product design.
Leanne Gibson, Dean Ormston and long-time friend and Danish design aficionado, Jytte Laulund, started WORKSHOPPED in 2001. The first exhibition, WORKSHOPPED 01, was held during Sydney Design Week and included the work of just five designers.
‘The idea was to put on a simple exhibition - helping out a group of designer friends to get exposure for their work,’ says WORKSHOPPED organiser Dean Ormston.
The exhibition was widely acclaimed and since then WORKSHOPPED has outgrown many exhibition venues including the Strand Arcade and the Queen Victoria Building.
At the same time, the breadth of WORKSHOPPED as an organisation developed significantly, while the needs of Australian designers remained constant: they wanted to network, discuss their ideas and plans, get help with their business plan and how to get their product manufactured and to market. Its role has evolved from just listening to wanting to get involved in helping. ‘WORKSHOPPED had found its niche as an incubator for resolving work, a platform for promotion and in some cases a partnership opportunity to get the product to market,’ says Ormston.
Their aim in 2009 and going forward is to find 'solutions' to the problems faced by local designers moving from prototype to production.
It is the connecting of designers with industry that makes WORKSHOPPED unique. Significant achievements have included assisting in bringing the work of three Australian designers to market: Danny Cheung’s 1984 Fishbowl, Erics Siu’s AERO perspex low table, and most recently Ben McCarthy’s Pi watch. All are available through WORKSHOPPED and a number of key design retailers, with more in the pipeline. WORKSHOPPED also recently launched an online retail shop, representing the products of a growing list of Australian designers.
In addition to designers and manufacturers, the team at WORKSHOPPED has developed strong relationships with design aware sponsors, media and institutions. In 2006, WORKSHOPPED formed a partnership with the Powerhouse Museum.
For the Museum, the fit is logical. ‘It’s another platform (along with many other initiatives and partnerships such as Sydney Design Festival, Young Blood: Designers Market, The NSW Traveling Scholarship, DesignTech and various design exhibitions) which support and foster the work of emerging Australian designers,’ says Lily Katakouzinos, the Powerhouse Museum’s Manager of Exhibitions & Festivals.
For WORKSHOPPED and the participants it means building a strong connection with a collecting institution committed to the work of contemporary designers. ‘Not only in the finished product, but in the stories, the processes, journeys, problem-solving and community engagement that designers absorb themselves in on a day to day basis,’ says Katakouzinos.
The museum intends to build on some of the educational and interpretive elements of the WORKSHOPPED exhibition - to provide even deeper and richer understandings about the importance of design- and make that information accessible and useful for a range of audiences including students of design.
Katakouzinos also hopes that in the future, the work of many of the WORKSHOPPED designers will be reflected in the Museum’s collection.
This seems likely given the calibre of WORKSHOPPED designers in its relatively short history. A number of WORKSHOPPED designers have now become finalists and won the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards, been the subject of local and international acclaim and had their work put into production. WORKSHOPPED exhibitor Adam Goodrum, for example, has found commercial success with his ‘Stitch’ chair, which was launched in Milan by Cappellini, but first exhibited at WORKSHOPPED.
In less than a decade, WORKSHOPPED has exhibited the work of over 100 designers which has been viewed by more 500,000 people. Plans are afoot to tour an exhibition nationally and internationally.
WORKSHOPPED
Sydney Design
Powerhouse Museum
TAGS
+ Australian design
+ Design business
+ Design exhibition
+ Product design
+
Leanne Gibson, Dean Ormston and long-time friend and Danish design aficionado, Jytte Laulund, started WORKSHOPPED in 2001. The first exhibition, WORKSHOPPED 01, was held during Sydney Design Week and included the work of just five designers.
‘The idea was to put on a simple exhibition - helping out a group of designer friends to get exposure for their work,’ says WORKSHOPPED organiser Dean Ormston.
The exhibition was widely acclaimed and since then WORKSHOPPED has outgrown many exhibition venues including the Strand Arcade and the Queen Victoria Building.
At the same time, the breadth of WORKSHOPPED as an organisation developed significantly, while the needs of Australian designers remained constant: they wanted to network, discuss their ideas and plans, get help with their business plan and how to get their product manufactured and to market. Its role has evolved from just listening to wanting to get involved in helping. ‘WORKSHOPPED had found its niche as an incubator for resolving work, a platform for promotion and in some cases a partnership opportunity to get the product to market,’ says Ormston.
Their aim in 2009 and going forward is to find 'solutions' to the problems faced by local designers moving from prototype to production.
It is the connecting of designers with industry that makes WORKSHOPPED unique. Significant achievements have included assisting in bringing the work of three Australian designers to market: Danny Cheung’s 1984 Fishbowl, Erics Siu’s AERO perspex low table, and most recently Ben McCarthy’s Pi watch. All are available through WORKSHOPPED and a number of key design retailers, with more in the pipeline. WORKSHOPPED also recently launched an online retail shop, representing the products of a growing list of Australian designers.
In addition to designers and manufacturers, the team at WORKSHOPPED has developed strong relationships with design aware sponsors, media and institutions. In 2006, WORKSHOPPED formed a partnership with the Powerhouse Museum.
For the Museum, the fit is logical. ‘It’s another platform (along with many other initiatives and partnerships such as Sydney Design Festival, Young Blood: Designers Market, The NSW Traveling Scholarship, DesignTech and various design exhibitions) which support and foster the work of emerging Australian designers,’ says Lily Katakouzinos, the Powerhouse Museum’s Manager of Exhibitions & Festivals.
For WORKSHOPPED and the participants it means building a strong connection with a collecting institution committed to the work of contemporary designers. ‘Not only in the finished product, but in the stories, the processes, journeys, problem-solving and community engagement that designers absorb themselves in on a day to day basis,’ says Katakouzinos.
The museum intends to build on some of the educational and interpretive elements of the WORKSHOPPED exhibition - to provide even deeper and richer understandings about the importance of design- and make that information accessible and useful for a range of audiences including students of design.
Katakouzinos also hopes that in the future, the work of many of the WORKSHOPPED designers will be reflected in the Museum’s collection.
This seems likely given the calibre of WORKSHOPPED designers in its relatively short history. A number of WORKSHOPPED designers have now become finalists and won the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards, been the subject of local and international acclaim and had their work put into production. WORKSHOPPED exhibitor Adam Goodrum, for example, has found commercial success with his ‘Stitch’ chair, which was launched in Milan by Cappellini, but first exhibited at WORKSHOPPED.
In less than a decade, WORKSHOPPED has exhibited the work of over 100 designers which has been viewed by more 500,000 people. Plans are afoot to tour an exhibition nationally and internationally.
WORKSHOPPEDSydney DesignPowerhouse MuseumTAGS
+ Australian design
+ Design business
+ Design exhibition
+ Product design
+