The 2013 VIVID competition for new Australian design talent has been judged at Furnitex, at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Finalists and winning designs will be on display until 21 July. Winners across the Student, Commercial, Concept and Green categories are as follows.
Commercial Award
Commercial Award: Flash Light Pendant by Hugh Altschwager.
Hugh Altschwager (Inkster Maken) – Flash light Pendant.
Melbourne-based Altschwager is originally from rural South Australia, and very much a country boy at heart. He works both as a construction project manager and designer/maker of handcrafted lighting under the name Inkster Maken. His winning piece, Flash Light Pendant, is from a lighting range, handmade from South Australian limestone and reclaimed Australian hardwood. Emitting a warm earthy glow, the light embodies Altschwager’s ethos of developing unknown or under-utilized materials.
Green Award
Green Award: Mr Dowel Jones by Dale Hardiman and Adam Lynch.
Dale Hardiman and Adam Lynch (Lab De Stu) – Mr Dowel Jones.
Student Award: The Journey Light by Ali Sattarpanah.
Co-founders of the independent Melbourne design collective Lab De Stu, Dale Hardiman and Adam Lynch are graduates of the furniture design course at RMIT (2011), and currently studying industrial design, also at RMIT. Their Mr. Dowel Jones lamp is a flat-pack product, simply assembled made from rubber and Tasmanian oak. The piece was developed using fused deposition modelling, allowing for various concept iterations before the final design was developed. The rubber components allow for flexibility in all dimensions, as different sized dowel can be used to change the overall proportions. They are previous winners of the VIVID Student Award.
Student Award
Ali Sattarpanah – The Journey Light.
Ali Sattarpanah is a student at Western Australia’s Central Institute of Tafe. His Journey Light is an abstract piece made from plywood, aluminium, corian tubes and LED lights. Judges commented that the student category was particularly strong this year, and that a number of pieces could have been shown in the concept category due to their design innovation and professional construction.
Concept Award
Concept Award: Manifest Side Table by Chris Vincent.
Chris Vincent – Manifest Side Table.
Perth-based designer Chris Vincent produced what the 2013 judges described as “a clever and original piece” to win the Concept Award. His Manifest Side Table is not only a sleek piece of design, with a solid oak top and tubular steel legs, it also incorporates charging docks for up to three mobile devices, courtesy of three USB ports, a 240V converter with wall plug and cord management. Vincent exhibited at the 2012 London Design Festival and is a previous winner of the VIVID Student Award.
Judging the entries were: Suzanne Trocmé (curator, London Design Festival); Ross Gardam (Spaceleft); Alice Blackwood (design editor); designer Ross Didier and VIVID curator Scott Lewis.
