Saturday 11 December
11am-4pm. City Library (253 Flinders Lane, Level 1 gallery)

Image: Cat Rabbit, Christmas Card, $5 at December Craft Hatch.

The Craft Hatch market is the perfect place to pick up a unique Christmas card, gift or stocking filler, like one of these screen printed Christmas cards by local label CatRabbit.

A market veteran with a practice encompassing soft toys and jewellery, CatRabbit has developed a dedicated following over the last five years. Every

Christmas the label produces a limited edition set of cards printed with the Japanese Gocco Screen Printing machine.

The Happy Christmas Bear card sells for $5 and is printed on recycled paper using the Gocco screen printing inks. The cards are sold in a limited edition of 100, so you can rest assured they are as rare as that special someone in your life.

The Craft Hatch market is a one stop shop for locally designed homewares, jewellery, clothing and accessories. Every market presents a newly curated selection of the best emerging craft and design.

Also exhibiting at Craft Hatch in December are: Ellka Design, Erica Bramham, FUNKYWOMBAT textiles & The Curious Girl, Genna Campton, Goldenink, Gwendoline Page, Handmade Life, Jaylene Falkner, Rose Megirian, Rebecca Martin & Aldis Kossdottir and Urthly Organics.

Craft Hatch markets are presented by Craft Victoria in collaboration with the City Library on the second Saturday of every month, 11am-4pm. Please note there will be no Craft Hatch market in January.

See more at Craft Victoria

Images R-L: Karim Rashid designs at the RG Madden stand, Modula fir treet at the Büro North stand, Glow in the dark Zip Zips at the Zip Zips stand.

Melbourne’s original pop up design market continues to be the place for style hunters to gather, be inspired and shop.

Since 2005 the Melbourne Design Market has been popping up twice a year for ONE DAY ONLY and transforming Fed Square’s underground car park into designland.

On Sunday December 5, 2010 there’ll again be a diverse collection of over 50 exhibitors from small design brands just launching to well-known and much-loved brands all showcasing their latest and greatest. Plus the cool sounds of DJ Madee River, fine fair-trade barista coffee from Bean Ground and Drunk and fantastic paella from the Beer de Luxe on-site kitchen all add to the party atmosphere.

So come along, experience Melbourne’s best design market and you can even knock over your Christmas gift buying in just one day.

MELBOURNE DESIGN MARKET 10am-5pm, Sunday December 5 at Federation Square undercover car park.

Enter via Russell Street extension or Riverside Walk.
Disabled parking and facilities nearby.
Entry is free.

More info here

Widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in Melbourne, Cumulus Inc. is nestled next door to Craft Victoria at the top end of Flinders Lane. The close relationship between the two organisations (founded over regular morning coffee runs) has been formalised with a commission for a takeaway porcelain coffee cup by Craft Victoria member Ingrid Tufts.

“At Cumulus Inc. we pay particular attention to the aesthetic details of the restaurant experience. This is demonstrated through the selection of our tableware, flowers and the artworks in the space. We are also concerned with minimising waste, so started looking around for a takeaway coffee cup concept that met our high standards. We sell 150 takeaway coffees a day, and within a week one in ten of our regular customers had purchased the porcelain cup. It’s been a great success.” -Leeroy Kirk-Walker, Cumulus Inc.

The porcelain cup, featuring the restaurant’s iconic cloud design, was commissioned through New Craft Made in Victoria – a product development service that matches Craft Victoria members with commercial opportunities.
Ingrid Tufts is a Melbourne-based practitioner who works exclusively in hand thrown porcelain. Her work is sold in retailers around the country, including the Donna Hay General Store in Woollahra, Sydney.
Individually hand-thrown and glazed and sized 90mm high x 80mm in diameter, each Cumulus Inc. Porcelain Coffee Cup is unique. The cups retail for $20, and are sold with the first coffee free. Cumulus Inc. is supporting sales of the cup by offering 30 cents off the price of every takeaway coffee sold in a re-usable alternative.

Find out more here

Distinguishing the Melbourne Design Market from all others is a rigorous selection procedure for prospective stallholders to ensure the quality and diversity of the products on offer. Given that it’s such a successful forum to launch new products, the market receives many more applications than can possibly be accepted. Successful businesses will need to prepare themselves for a big day of sales, orders, and most of all, meeting new clients and receiving valuable feedback on their business.

Sunday, 11 July 2010
10:00am – 5:00pm
Federation Square
Level 3
Federation Square Carpark
Cnr Flinders Street & Swanston Street
Melbourne

More info here

Alex Naghavi

Alex is a talented Designer, Photographer and Illustrator, who entered the competition to not only gain attention for her work, but to make a difference in the lives of thousands of Australian youth. “The intention behind the design was to appeal to both men and women – responsibility goes both ways; so I hope my design helps lessen the embarrassment of carrying around condoms as well as lessen the risks associated with unprotected sex,” said Alex.

Vladimir Zokic

Vladimir is an inspired Multimedia and Graphic Designer, who found the competition an exciting challenge creatively and a chance to become involved in a relevant initiative for all Australian youth. “I designed this tin with the intention of people keeping the tin and using it.  I hope my tin will show young people that carrying a condom is ok – in fact it is cool,” said Vladimir.

The two winning designs were selected from an enormous pool of entries by the industry and celebrity judging panel:  dating, sex and relationships commentator Samantha Brett; pop, rock and music sensation Bluejuice; and visual and performing artist Ben Frost.

These two unique, winning designs will now feature on the next set of condom tins that will be distributed around the country.

The competition was part of the National Sexually Transmissible Infections Prevention Program: Sexual Health Campaign to address a significant rise in sexually transmissible infections (STIs). The campaign promotes condoms as one of the best ways to protect against STIs and encourages those who have had unprotected sex to see a doctor about getting tested.

More info here

Become a subscriber to Lost & Found, an online insider’s guide to Melbourne, and you have the chance to enjoy up to four nights free accommodation at the bespoke Lost & Found hotel room in Melbourne’s CBD.

Located in the top corner of the Little Collins Hotel, the hotel room will bring the Lost & Found guide to life by showcasing Melbourne’s design highlights from Aesop products to linen, furniture, music, books and artwork. Every aspect of the room will tell a story about the types of people and products that exemplify the city, providing guests with the ultimate Melbourne experience.

Part hotel, part gallery, part cultural therapist, the Lost & Found hotel room is a unique and creative gesture designed to offer something special to its subscribers. To ensure guests get the most out of their trip to Melbourne, the Lost & Found room even has its own concierge who can make bookings and provide insider tips on Melbourne’s hidden secrets.

Once inside the room, guests can sit at the Arte Veneta work desk built just a few suburbs away or relax on the Pierre and Charlotte couch and listen to the new Darren Sylvester album on the vintage turntable. After enjoying a bite to eat next door at Bar Lourinha, guests can pamper themselves with Aesop products, read a few pages of Melbourne ex-pat Amanda Maxwell’s novel Nobody Told Me There’d be Days Like These and then fall asleep on linen provided by local artisans Third Drawer Down.

Any subscriber to Lost & Found can apply to stay at the hotel room free of charge. All they need to do is register their interest at www.wearelostandfound.com.au. The room is available for up to three nights on weekends (Friday to Sunday) and up to four nights during the week (Monday to Thursday) from 1 June to 31 August 2010. Terms and conditions apply.

Lost & Found is a free online guide produced for Tourism Victoria by creative studio Right Angle. For the past four years, Lost & Found has been the insider guide for culturally conscious people living outside of Melbourne, revealing its discreet cultural joys and the creative people who make the city hum.

Lost & Found hotel room at Little Collins Hotel
Free for Lost & Found subscribers (conditions apply)
27 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
The room is available for stays during June, July and August 2010
Find out more here

Semi-Permanent Melbourne 2009 Montage from Semi Permanent on Vimeo.

Missed Semi-Permanent this year? See the video montage from Melbourne above, and click here for Sydney.

Via Semi-Permanent

Meat Monster, Nicky Gibson, Monster-Munch

Nicky Gibson is a digital designer by day, as art-director at Poke, and has been running her blog Monster-Munch for the past two years in her spare time. Her blog showcases, “SockMonsters, graphics, illustration, typography, product design, making things, mulling over ideas, collecting snippets of nice design ideas, and hunting out inspiring work from around the web”. The monster designs are the result of her interest in character design which explores the “infinite possibilities” within a “simple format”. The use of different textures and materials in these characters shows her love of experimenting and her ‘hands-on’ approach to design.

See the blog here, her art-direction at Poke here, and her monsters on Flickr here.

Marni, Coca-Cola: Tribute to Fashion

In support of the victims from the earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy of April 2009, Italian fashion designers Donatella Versace, Alberta Ferretti, Anna Molinari for Blumarine, Veronica Etro, Silvia Venturini for Fendi, Consuelo Castiglioni for Marni, Angela Missoni and Rossella Jardini for Moschino, have joined with Coca Cola to produce a fund raising campaign. This campaign uses work from fashion designers to create packaging that ‘dresses’ the Coca-Cola bottles.

Via Luxuo

Held in a former glass factory in Sydney, Cloud Formation: a forecast of dream shapes featured multimedia work by artists Morgan Veness (Japan), Haruka Kokubu (Japan) and Malou Dunkley (Australia), architects German Perez Tavio (Spain) and Didier Ryan (UK) and designers Patrick Santamaria, Sam Painter and Billy Ryan (Australia).