Welcome to Simone LeAmon
Simone LeAmon is an Australian artist and design practitioner.
Recognised for her inter-disciplinary approach to practice, Simone develops conceptually rich perimeters for product designs, interiors, hand-crafted editions and artworks. Simone LeAmon’s projects are wonderfully evocative; embracing the role of story telling through process and material.
Simone holds a Masters in Design (Industrial) from RMIT University, Melbourne (2004) and Bachelor of Fine Art from Victorian College of Arts (Sculpture) Melbourne University (1993). Between 1996-9 Simone worked for acclaimed designer and jeweller Susan Cohn at Workshop 3000 before founding n+1 equals interdisciplinary studio in Melbourne (1999-2003), executing pubic art, landscape architecture, fashion and design projects. Following a coveted studio residency in Milan at ViaFarini (2001) Simone’s art and design projects have been exhibited internationally.
Established in 2005 Simone LeAmon Design and Creative Strategy formerly O.S INITIATIVE is a company that reflects the full diversity of her artistic and commercial practice. Collaborating with leading Australian and international brands Simone is asked to develop designs and creative strategies in the areas of product design, interior design, events and publishing. Past and present clients include: Rakumba (Aust), Palamont (Aust), the Julliard Group (Aust), ANZ Banking Group (Aust) and Indesign Publishing (Aust). Between 2007-2010 Simone was the creative director for PLANEX (Aust) and from 2007-2009 held the position of Australasian design ambassador for Oluce (Ita). Recent appointments include designer in residence at the JamFactory, Adelaide and resident artist, Australia Council for the Arts, Greene Street Studio, New York (Sept 2011-Jan 2012).
Simone LeAmon’s designs and artworks are exhibited in leading galleries, showrooms and museums around the world, past exhibitions include; Prototyping: Making ideas, Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide (2011), Freestyle: New Australian Design for Living, Milan Triennale (2008) and Anytime Soon, 100 Eventi gallery, Salone del Mobile Milan (2006). In 2009 Simone was the recipient of one of the most coveted accolades in Australian design; the Cecily and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award presented by the National Gallery of Victoria. Widely published Simone’s designs for lighting, furniture, interiors, jewellery and motorcycle gear have appeared in international titles; SurfaceAsia, Interni, Intramuros, L’Arca, Mood, Indesign, Vogue, Inside, Desktop, Artichoke and Monument . Simone’s inclusion in the 2OO7 publication &fork by Phaidon Press U.K, identified her as one of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming designers.
Writing for notable design and architecture titles Simone is the resident opinion columnist for Indesign (Aust) and editor-at-large for howwecreate.com sharing news of the Australian design and manufacturing sector. Lecturing across the disciplines of fine-art, craft and design Simone has contributed to the industrial design program at RMIT University, Melbourne since 2004.
This website will provide you with an overview of the recent activities of Simone LeAmon. For further information, inquiries, purchases or to discuss a project contact simone@simoneleamon.com
For press and media news visit http://simoneleamon.com/press
Latest News from Simone LeAmon
Limited Over is a special edition of 100 handmade bangles by artist-designer Simone LeAmon.
Individually crafted in two variations: Grubber and Popper Limited Over marks the tenth anniversary of Simone LeAmon’s acclaimed Bowling Arm bangles made from the leather waste of cricket balls.
Available in bronze and 316 stainless steel each Limited Over bangle is a lost-wax casting prepared from an artisan mould of a leather Bowling Arm. Available in small, medium and large every Limited Over is engraved with an edition number and supplied with a signed certificate of authenticity.
A lecture presented by Simone LeAmon to the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society.
Presenting a collection of 22 items designed between 1985-2012 across the production modes of the one-off collectible, prototype, limited edition and mass production, Simone set the stage for a cultural investigation of contemporary Australian design. Sharing the stories, meaning and messages embedded in the selected works, Simone proposed that contemporary Australian design displays five distinct characteristics: Openness, informality, inventiveness, seriousness, and irony culminating in a celebration of freedom, diversity and quality of life.
Organised by the Design Museum London Unexpected Pleasures is an exhibition of 200 works by Australian and international contemporary jewellers, curated by Susan Cohn, acclaimed Australian jeweller and designer.
Currently on show at the National Gallery of Victoria the exhibition examines the conceptual and material boundaries of contemporary jewellery practice.
Sitting in the company of works by Gijs Bakker, Bless and Ted Noten Bowling Arm by Simone LeAmon is a part of a conversation on design, industrial production and contemporary jewellery.
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!
A New Comment For 2012
Rethinking Australian-Made.INDESIGN Vol.48Starting 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Miniatures and Multiples at Spiro Grace Art Rooms
Exhibition dates: Friday 1st April – Sunday 1st May 2011. Responding to the global trend for one-off and limited edition design collectibles Spiro Grace Art Rooms are performing a critical role in showcasing the design production of leading creatives from Australia and the Asia Pacific. Opening on the 1st of April Miniatures and Multiples will launch SGAR's miniatures line - an exclusive collection of small one-of-a kind and limited production artifacts by 18 invited artists/designers.
not-yet-junk by Simone LeAmon
PinUp Architecture and Design Project Space Exhibition dates: 10 March - 30th April 2011 A Work made specifically for inaugural exhibition at PinUp Architecture and Design Gallery in Collingwood not-yet-junk incorporates cardboard waste retrieved from the South Melbourne produce market. The mechanism of compressing cardboard is practiced in the waste management and recycling industry. not-yet-junk is an experimental art/design work that asks us to consider the stock of matter accumulating on Earth and our processing of it. The Work draws our attention to the value residing in discarded materials and implores us to reconsider our relationship to waste.
GLOBAL ARTISAN Q&A
A design event set to reaffirm the value of design in the Asia Pacific region Queensland hosted Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific from 4-10 October 2010. A week of public talks, workshops, master classes, events and exhibitions: Unlimited placed significance on how design and design thinking can address real world issues across the region. Moderated by Lee Lin Chin of SBS Television and Unlimited Ambassador, Global Artisan Q&A aimed to explore how the forces of globalisation will impact upon creative practitioners and how these forces may shape the future
Exploring the role of the one-off work in contemporary design practice
Presented as part of Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific and curated by Jenni Baxter and Renai Grace One - Part II presented one-of-a-kind-design artefacts by some of the Asia Pacific’s most exciting design talents including: Simone LeAmon (Vic), Grace Tan (Singapore), Booÿ & Haw (Qld), Korban Flaubert (NSW) Christina Waterson (QLD) and Nicole Voevodin-Cash (Qld).Simone LeAmon. A Box Of Hope 2010. Bronze, carrara marble, wax, W140 x H270 x L350
Rakumba participating at Lightsource, State of Design
Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 July, 2010 Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Featuring leading Australian and international brands and lighting designers, Lightsource is the State of Design's event to discover new lighting ideas and technologies for commercial, retail, industrial and outdoor space.Big Sky by Simone LeAmon for Rakumba Lighting 2010
Inspired by colours found in the natural light displays of the southern skies Big Sky is a giant shade featuring 34 shades of different sizes and shapes suspended within. Big Sky is one of many distinctive lighting concepts By Simone in development for Rakumba. Initiating the Rakumba Design Residency in February 2010 designer and manufacturer are committed to developing new product ideas for the Australian design industry.
Brand re-design
Over the past months Simone has been working with the talented Ty Bukewitsch, founding member of the Envelope Group on the rebranding of Simone LeAmon P/L. Rolling O.S INITIATIVE into the Simone LeAmon identity is a key objective for 2010. Look out for the new look website in the months to come!Ty Bukewitsch has worked in brand design for twenty years he has worked on several iconic Australian projects including the design of our currency for the Reserve Bank as well as being involved in the development of a custom alphabet for the signage program for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Short list announced
To assist the careers of Australian designers via its network of leading international design manufacturers, Space Furniture has joined forces with Italian manufacturer Edra, to launch the Space+Edra 2010 Design Residency, a two month programme that places an Australian designer inside the Edra headquarters in Perignano, near Pisa and in Milan, Italy, during September and October 2010, under the guidance of one of the world’s leading design thinkers, Edra’s Art Director Massimo Morozzi.
The magazine for ANZ Private Bank clients
In the Autumn issue of INPRIVATE magazine ANZ Private Bank speaks with Simone LeAmon on creativity and design thinking in the corporate and investment sectors. The recipient of the 2009 Cicely and Colin Rigg Award Simone suggests that philanthropic investment in Australian design will unleash creative thinking and solutions from which the cultural and commercial environments will benefit.Exclusive to ANZ Private Clients INPRIVATE magazine is published four times a year on behalf of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited. As a professional charitable trustee ANZ Trustees links philanthropists with the arts, design and innovation sectors.The Rigg Award is funded by a perpetual bequest established by a former employee of ANZ Trustees.
The National Gallery of Victoria today announced that the recipient of the 2009 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is Simone LeAmon.
The prize of $30,000 was awarded to Ms LeAmon for her chair titled Lepidoptera. The multi-disciplinary designer said: “I am thrilled to accept this award and to be a part of this exhibition which draws attention to the work of outstanding Victorian designers. I can think of less than a handful of cities in the world where an exhibition of this standard could take place.”
10 May – 29 June 2008
Triennale di MilanoFreestyle brings together the work and stories of 40 outstanding Australian designers including Simone LeAmon, Nick Rennie, Susan Cohn and Brian Steendyk. Designers from the fields of furniture, lighting, textiles, homewares, fashion, jewellery and accessories exhibit handmade one-off and limited edition design objects alongside industrially manufactured items and prototypes . Curated by Object galleries’ Associate Director Brian Parkes. www.freestyledesign.info/index.html
Simone LeAmon is appointed Oluce Design Ambassador for Australasia.
Established in 1945 by Giuseppe Ostuni Oluce is an historic name in Italian lighting design. Working with the most celebrated names in product design from the 1950’s to present day the Oluce Company is renowned for their collaborations with esteemed designers such as Joe Colombo, Vico Magistretti, Marco Romanelli, Sebastian Bergne Francesco Rota and Nendo.
Kjell Grant: Australian Design Luminary Curated by Simone LeAmon
For the first time in Australia Planex presents the design and artwork of Kjell Grant. Celebrated in a survey exhibition curated by Planex creative director Simone LeAmon the Planex showroom plays host to furniture, ceramics, textiles and painting, spanning a career of 50-years.
An industrial designer and architect Kjell Grant commenced his career in 1947 studying under the notable sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth at the RCA in London and Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. With an illustrious career in product design Kjell Grant has developed products for Cartier, Orrefors, Knoll, Rosenthal and Raymond Loewy N.Y, most notable are his furniture commissions for renowned Australian architects Robyn Boyd, Sir Roy Grounds and Harry Seidler. In 1967 Kjell Grant designed the furniture for the Australian Pavilion at the Montreal Exposition in Canada. The Montreal Chairs resulting from this project are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Simone LeAmon has been announced as one of 10 finalists in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award 2007.
Presented at Object Gallery, Sydney the Design Discovery Award Exhibition opens on September 11 and tours nationally through to October 2008.
The Bulletin, Special 2007 Edition, June 26, ACP Magazines Australia
A finalist in the Design category of the Bulletin magazines Smart 100 Simone LeAmon is one of ten Australians nominated for her contributions to the Australian design sector. Alongside architect Cassandra Fahey (2007 winner), Chris Bosse, Zahava Elenberg, Adam Goodrum, Alexander Lotersztain, Marc Schamburg, Michael Alvisse, Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd, Simone LeAmon is applauded for her innovative approach to the market combining the fields of contemporary art with product design.
Featured in the Good Weekend Design and Technology issue Simone LeAmon is profiled in Dani Valent’s article Ready Set Go in the company of Adam Goodrum, Alexander Lotersztain, Steven Blaess, Steven Mieszelewicz and Nimrod Weis. Singled out as one of Australia’s leading emerging designers, Simone LeAmon offers an entertaining account of pursuing the design road.
Simone LeAmon is featured in the bold new survey of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming designers by leading publishing house Phaidon Press. 100 designers from 24 countries were selected by 10 international curators; from Seoul to Paris, Melbourne to New York, Lisbon to London, the designers featured in &Fork challenge the status quo and present fresh, dynamic ideas at the forefront of design.
Appearing on the front cover of Australia’s foremost industrial design magazine the work of artist and designer Simone LeAmon is brought to the fore in a conversation with editor Belinda Stening. Discussing her rigorous approach to her work the article reveals some of the abiding themes in LeAmon’s practice.
