A Touching Story

Sydney's Powerhouse Museum began collecting artefacts relating to industrial design in the late 1980s. Since then a number of designers and consultancies have been represented in the collection. The author, curator of Industrial Design, Innovation and Marketing at the Powerhouse tells the story of these unsung heros and heroines of the everyday.

More from this Issue

Petals on a Wet Black Bough

Exhibition review In Remembrance of Things Past... Angela Valamanesh Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide SA 18 October - 1 December 1996

Brenda Goggs

Magabala Books: The Politics of Design

Magabala Books, Australia's first indigenous publishing house takes its name from an indigenous vine that flourishes on the pindan soil of north western Australia. Sam Cook is the publisher's first indigenous designer. She talks with Mara Mann.

Mara Mann

Space Defined

Exhibition review Jewellery by Brenda Ridgewell, New Collectibles Gallery, East Fremantle WA 20 November - 1 December 1996

Gillian Rainer

Seeing a Plant: Being a Plant

Exhibition review Stephanie Radok Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide SA 11 September - 6 October 1996

Cath Kenneally

Indigenous Australian Dyed and Printed Textiles

Textile traditions of indigenous Australians have provided an impressive basis for their current divergent development within the framework of introduced technologies. Looks at various textile producing centres around Australia Tiwi, Ernabella, Kaltjiti, Injalak, Keringke, Ngunga Designs, Warta kutju, Kaen design, Djookan design....

Doreen Mellor

Exhibiting Furniture

The exhibiting and collecting of contemporary Australian furniture design is a telling indicator of how we as a society regard design. Australian furniture has been seen at SOFA (Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art - Gallery Trade Fair Chicago USA) since 1993.

Kathy Fox

The New Ecodesign: Sceptics Beware!

Whilst on a global scale Australia still dawdles on ecodesign, pockets of cutting-edge research and design are moving ahead with international recognition. Overview of events. In 1991 RMIT in Melbourne hosted the EcoDesign 1 Conference 1989-1992 Designers for the Planet, Perth WA Society for Responsible Design (1990 - ) NSW Re-Design Group Melbourne, Victoria (1991-93).

John Gertsakis

Australian Fine China: Artists and Industry

Perth based Australian Fine China, the only maker of porcelain in Australia and New Zealand, is currently using a number of artist-designers to move from being a stolid china manufacturer for railways and cafes to one whose products are seen in top flight restaurants in the big hotels, in classy tourist venues and now on the dining tables of the nation. They have some way to go to entice Australians to purchase the 'local product' for their homes but they are making steady progress.

Dorothy Erickson

The Domestic Companion: Taking Stock of Furniture Futures

In 1990/91 the author was commissioned to research and develop a national furniture industry strategy. Examines domestic furniture futures, the concept of home, flexibility, transverse use, product families, trends and future furniture companions.

Craig Bremner

Furniture Design in Western Australia

The present era of contemporary Western Australian furniture design can be thought of as beginning under the influence of David Foulkes-Taylor (1956 until his death in 1966).

Helen Ross

The Nature of Perception

Exhibition review Howard Taylor: Paintings and Drawings Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth WA 1- 22 September 1996

Clarissa Ball

Desert Designs

Based in Fremantle, Western Australia, Desert Designs (begun in 1984) is a concept marketing company that deals with authentic Aboriginal art works and acts as a nexus with manufacturing industries to facilitate their transition into products and their entry into retail markets.

Paul Counsel

View all articles in this issue