Latest News from Simone LeAmon

A London Design Museum Touring Exhibition

It seems fitting that ten years on Bowling Arm is finally making its official debut in the U.K at the London Design Museum as part of the anticipated exhibition Unexpected Pleasures.

Curated by Dr Susan Cohn Unexpected Pleasures explore’s the interconnected relationship between art, craft, design and fashion.

Presented to Melbourne audiences first, Unexpected Pleasures will be the second exhibition in the Contemporary Exhibitions gallery at the National Gallery of Victoria, International.

One of the few exhibits you can proudly sport on your wrist for under $50.00! Bowling Arm is industrious fashion - and we love it!

Available now from simoneleamon.com

A New Comment For 2012
Rethinking Australian-Made.INDESIGN Vol.48

Starting the year with a new look Comment, opinion has never looked so good! Appointed resident columnist for Indesign magazine in 2007 Simone LeAmon's quarterly design column draws on her experiences as a designer, artist, creative director and design educator to lead conversations on design culture and enterprise. In volume 48 out now Simone reflects on recent working trips to both Malaysia and Adelaide to call for a 'rethink' on what it means to be 'Australian Made.

http://www.indesignlive.com/magazine#axzz1nMtpoFXo

In appreciation of conversations shared with the community of the New York Creative Social Concern

Simone LeAmon artist-designer in residence, 2011 Australia Council, Greene Street New York Studio, presents:

ROCK-A-BY

A New York thank you gift

Wednesday, December 14th, 6.00pm - 8.00pm

Cappellini NYC Showroom 152 Wooster Street #1 New York, NY

Rock-a-by is a miniature plant-pot designed by Simone LeAmon for Palamont, Australia - donated by How We Create an inspiration and content website with a goal to connect, support and grow awareness of the Australian design industry. For one night only the Cappellini NYC showroom plays host to an installation and give-away of Rock-a-by's to friends and members of the New York Creative Social Concern.

Limited Edition Bangles

Limited Over marks the tenth anniversary of Bowling Arm (2000-2010).

Preserving the image of the leather remnants from Australian cricket balls Limited Over is available in bronze and stainless steel.

Both a celebration of Bowling Arm's enduring appeal, and a little reminder of how place and traditions give shape to products and things.

Limited Over. Lost wax castings.
Available in two versions: Cuff & Round.
Each bangle is stamped with an edition number.

Limited Over is made to order in small, medium and large.
Available in 2012 through www.simoneleamon.com

JamFactory Craft and Design Centre

Curated by Margaret Hancock Davis, Prototyping: Making Ideas is an exhibition that highlights the exceptional prototyping skills developed by Australian designers, demonstrating the journey of some of their most successful products from idea, to sketch, to prototype, to final product. Through the development of prototypes, the hands-on skills of designer/makers and the relationships between designers and artisans are highlighted. The exhibition illustrates how important the prototyping process is to testing and refining a successful product.

Amongst the numerous prototypes on display Ricotta and La Prima Ballerina by Simone LeAmon for Rakumba make a striking contribution. The second project to evolve from the Rakumba Design Collaborations La Prima Ballerina stands over two metres tall and is a reworking of the traditional Ballerina lampshade. Due for release in 2012 La Prima Ballerina is ‘haute couture’ for lighting. Hand sewn and executed, the feature shade requires a team of Rakumba’s most experienced craftswomen to construct. La Prima Ballerina is made to order.

Prototyping: Making Ideas features projects by DANIEL EMMA (SA), Adam Goodrum (NSW), Illumni (SA), Trent Jansesn (NSW), Koskela (NSW), Simone LeAmon (VIC), Rohan Nicol (NSW), John Quan (SA), Elliat Rich (NT), Bjorn Rust (QLD), Andrew Simpson (NSW) and Oliver Smith (NSW).

A creative masterclass for design practitioners presented by Simone LeAmon

A series of creative masterclasses organised by the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia offers design professionals a range of intensive full-day design sessions with master practitioners. Designer and artist Simone LeAmon lead the first masterclass "The designer as storyteller" on 9 September.

Exploring how narrative and storytelling can enhance creativity and the design process,The designer as storyteller provided design practitioners with a chance to step out of the office and into the unknown, prompting designers to stop and think about the way they design. Presenting some useful design methodologies and frameworks, Simone illustrated how designers who knowingly use narrative in their design process have the capacity to uncover and embed meaning in the planning, production and delivery of design. Providing examples where narrative has been used to develop design for products, architecture, landscape and curatorial programs, the role of the designer is extended to that of storyteller - and design and design process is spoken of as an adventure.

www.unisa.edu.au/artarchitecturedesign

Simone LeAmon Designer in Residence

Located in the heart of Adelaide the JamFactory Craft and Design Centre is a national treasure. Supporting the culture of Australian design and production the JamFactory is a centre with a special charter – to support in equal measure the production, promotion and sale of outstanding design and craftsmanship.

Housing ceramic, glass, furniture and metal design studios the JamFactory is an impressive facility. Specialising in limited and serial production, high-quality products are designed and made onsite, successfully combining tradition and innovation.

Attracting national and international designer-makers to a coveted two-year Associate Training Program the JamFactory invites notable designers and makers from around Australia to contribute to the learning activities through a Designer in Residence Program. Conducting a 3-5 day intensive workshop, the designer coaches a select group of associates in an area of their expertise. From the 30th August to 10th September, Simone LeAmon lead associates from glass, furniture, ceramics and metal design through an ideation and concept creation workshop focused on storytelling and narrative.

www.jamfactory.com.au

Live manufacturing by Palamont Rota

A Saturday InDesign hot-spot for home-grown innovation in manufacturing District 01 hosted a spirited display of new products from Palamont, Ambius, The Container Connection and Rakumba.

A highlight of the Saturday InDesign program, District 01 was home to the How We Create initiative featuring the live manufacture of miniature planters designed by Simone LeAmon, Helen Kontouris, Brian Steendyk and Andrew Berry. In charge of the LED accessorised rotational moulding machine aka ‘The Spaceship’ were Palamont’s ‘Polyethylene Chefs’, Jason Brown and Matthew Griffith. Giving away over 1500 planters throughout the day, guests sought the designer’s signature of their chosen mini.

Saturday InDesign – What’s it all about?

Yes, Saturday InDesign is now officially part of our landscape; whether in Melbourne or Sydney, including the city fringes, this event attracts a level of patronage other Australian design events long for.




Saturday InDesign is part of an expanding culture industry. Business is conducted and fuelled via an interplay of needs, desires, beliefs and practices – and all these things are packaged and presented back to us as legible ‘culture’. Social groups form, sentiment is sparked. People meet, drink, laugh, swap stories and accumulate a bevy of experiences in the company of business. Certainly, amidst this swirl of ideas and agendas, products and services are consumed – but so is culture itself.

And here lies the success of Saturday InDesign. Attending the event stirred up the distinct sensation you were part of something more esoteric – as if vicariously, you were connecting with every interior and architectural practice in the region. Studying the showroom floors we see the products and professionals who will design, detail and furnish spaces in which ‘other’ people will live their lives. The phrase “anthropology of consumption” (another ‘it’ term in academic circles) speaks poignantly of the contemporary process where goods talk – not of themselves, but of us. Saturday InDesign is an example of our shared understandings of commercial design made manifest in an event.

Where to from here? Now a leading event, Saturday InDesign has the capacity to evolve and deliver greater benefits, lending valuable support to Australian product designers. This need plays on the hearts and minds of a less visible design community, whose activities remain all-too-often untapped – but which, if supported, will bear witness to a mature Australian design culture.

Yes, Australian interior designers, architects and retailers still pursue love affairs with Italian, French, Spanish, German and Swedish imports – and why not? These are the products that most efficiently translate our desires, and enable us to see ourselves as the discerning, stylish, sophisticated individuals we aspire to be. But buying European products does not make us a progressive design culture – it creates an advanced consumer culture. To truly thrive, I suggest we need both. S.LeAmon

www.howwecreate.com.au

http://saturdayindesign.com.au

Rakumba Design Collaborations launches designs by Simone LeAmon

Launched over two premier design and trade events in Melbourne and Sydney, the Rakumba Design Collaborations releases Project 01: Ricotta by Simone Leamon 2011.

When Simone LeAmon and the managing director of Rakumba Lighting Michael Murray met in 2009 they hatched a unique idea for a design residency. With a view to developing a collection of feature lighting for the Rakumba brand they devised an immersive program for the exchange of manufacturing know-how and design ideas.

With a heritage in hand crafted lampshades Rakumba is a leading Australian manufacturer of custom-made lighting. Founded in 1968, the Company is renown for their bespoke production and ability to prototype and manufacture on-site.

Two years on and RICOTTA, the first of the distinctive lighting designs by LeAmon for Rakumba was revealed at Lightsource 21-14 July and Saturday Indesign 19-20 August in a dedicated presentation of Australian design and manufacturing at District 01: Darlinghurst.




About Ricotta

“Inspired by the people who have dedicated their working lives to making lampshades, my role was to conceptualise and develop designs that could speak of the Rakumba culture."

Ricotta is feature lamp inspired by the extraordinary talents and abilities of the Rakumba staff. Making the wire frames for all lampshades by hand, LeAmon was inspired to design a lamp that celebrated the skill of the Rakumba wire fabricators.

“With a spot-welder and collection of old school jigs he could whip up a beautiful wire frame in no time but frames are the under carriage of a lamp shade and rarely seen. I suggested we design a shade that showed-off his talent for making by expressing the wire on the outside. He thought I was joking but I could tell he liked the idea.”

The name Ricotta stems from the grid pattern created by the vertical pleats and horizontal wires on the shade. Resembling the pattern on a ricotta cheese mould, this delightful reference was pointed out by the craftswomen at Rakumba who work as a team to pleat the delicate cotton shade.

sales@rakumba.com

www.rakumba.com

Download product release sheet. Product Release Ricotta.pdf

Simone LeAmon on iSaloni for howwecreate.com

Simone LeAmon, editor-at-large at How We Create was recently in Milan blogging and spreading the news of the Australian contingency at Saloni for all to read and follow. Celebrating the capacity within the Australian community – HWC recognises that as designers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, media and design devotees - together we create the design landscape at home. And, that travelling can bring a vital perspective.

Reporting on RhoFiera, SalonSatelitte, Fuorisalone, Euroluce, La Triennale de Milano and more, Simone LeAmon gives comment on the events shaping the largest design show in the World.

http://www.howwecreate.com