ENGAGEMENTS
Engaged by organisations, companies and brands, Simone develops design and creative strategies in the areas of product and manufacturing, property development, events, exhibitions and publishing. The creative strategies she develops help her clients to engage enthusiastically with their audiences and aspire to elevate the importance of design and creativity – and the work of the creative communities we operate in.
Collaborating with architect Edmund Carter since 2008, Simone is engaged by private and public clients to deliver interior, site specific and architectural design. The designs that Simone and Edmund develop are embedded with narrative – drawing on the sense of place, cultural values and wit.
National Gallery of Victoria – Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture
In March 2015 Simone joined the curatorial team at the National Gallery of Victoria, appointed the Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture. The first curatorial department of its kind in Australia the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture is charged with delivering exhibitions and programming that enhance design and architecture’s place in our cultural life.
For information on past and present programming at the NGV visit www.ngv.vic.gov.au
National Gallery of Victoria – Guest Curator Design
Simone is currently working with the NGV curatorial team to deliver the design component of the NGV’s major exhibition for 2013 – ‘Melbourne Now‘ opening on the 22 November and running through to 23 March 2014.
The Melbourne Now exhibition represents a new direction for the NGV in its collaborative curatorial approach with artists and audiences, through ground breaking artists projects, commissions for kids and families, architecture and design initiatives, and curatorial engagement with dance, performance, music and sound.
The design component of Melbourne Now looks at who are the design thinkers in Melbourne. Who is contributing, who is designing, and who is thinking about ‘what now’ and ‘what next’ in design in Melbourne. The exhibition aims to present design projects that are telling interesting stories – demonstrating and/or displaying difference in thinking, doing or applying design.
The exhibition will deliver a contemporary landscape of localised creative intelligence in the field of design and present design projects in the form of: models and prototypes, finished products, video and digital documentation.
Arts Centre Melbourne – Arts Walk
The Arts Centre Melbourne is a Victorian landmark at the heart of Melbourne’s entertainment and leisure precinct. The Arts Centre building, Hamer Hall and the Sydney Myer Music Bowl bring people together to experience and participate in the performing and visual arts. The Arts Centre Melbourne is Victoria’s premier arts venue and a leading Australian arts destination.
In 2012 Simone LeAmon in collaboration with Edmund Carter were awarded the Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Walk Commission. Developing the curatorial strategy, concept and design for the Walk, Simone and Edmund’s scheme links the much loved venues of the Arts Centre Melbourne and celebrates the people and organisations – past and present whose creativity, passion and commitment to the performing and visual arts have contributed to the Arts Centre Melbourne’s reputation as a preeminent arts venue.
First stage of Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Walk is due for completion in 2013.
VIEW ARTS WALK PROJECT PAGE
Juilliard Group
Juilliard Corporation Pty Ltd is an Australian company in the business of commercial property. Juilliard Corporation is the largest private investor in the Melbourne commercial property market. Juilliard Group invests in the commercial property market in Australia, specialising in CBD office space.
Engaged to design lift car fit-outs for Juilliard Group properties, Simone LeAmon in collaboration with Edmund Carter have created distinguishable interiors for six lift cars located at St James, 555 Bourke Street Melbourne (Dayorama / built 2012-13) and two lift cars at Iloura, 424 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (Time and Money).
VIEW DAYORAMA PROJECT PAGE VIEW TIME AND MONEY PROJECT PAGE
ANZ Private Bank
ANZ is Australia’s third largest bank. The premium ANZ Private service caters to the needs of high-net-worth individuals across the greater Asian region specialising in tailor-made financial management services. In 2010 ANZ Private undertook a project to bring their new brand to life engaging Simone LeAmon to produce an art/design work for permanent display in their new client suites in Melbourne. Embracing ANZ Private Bank’s theme Unique Mastery Simone worked with the craftswomen at Rakumba to produce a collection of bespoke lighting.
Mr Buckingham
Robert Buckingham established his exclusive marketing, networking and project management consultancy, Mr Buckingham, in 2006. In 2012 Simone LeAmon assisted Robert Buckingham on the curatorial selection of Australian furniture and product design for the Lexus Design Pavilion at Flemington Racecourse. Celebrating 10 years at the Melbourne Cup Carnival the Lexus Design Pavilion presented production, limited edition and unique one-off designs from twenty four leading Australian designers.
With the goal of connecting and growing the Australian design industry How We Create was an inspiration and content website presenting case studies and stories on designers, architects and manufacturers from around Australia between 2010-12. Simone LeAmon inaugural contributor and editor-at-large at How We Create gave comment on the events shaping design and manufacturing in the Australia, culminating in sixty plus articles.
VIEW WRITING FROM HOW WE CREATE
With a heritage in hand crafted lampshades Rakumba is a leading Australian manufacturer of custom-made lighting. Founded in 1969, the Company is renown for its on-site manufacturing and bespoke production. In 2009 Simone LeAmon and Rakumba joined forces to collaborate on a collection of feature lighting for the Rakumba brand; launching Ricotta in 2011 and La Prima Ballerina in 2013.
VIEW RICOTTA PROJECT PAGE VIEW LA PRIMA BALLERINA PROJECT PAGE
Indesign Magazine – Comment
Appointed resident columnist for Indesign magazine in 2007 Simone LeAmon’s quarterly column ‘Comment’ draws on her experience as a designer, artist, creative director and design educator to lead conversations on design culture and enterprise in the region.
READ STORIES FROM INDESIGN MAGAZINE
Indesign Publishing – Launch Pad: From Prototype to production
Launch Pad promotes the development of market ready prototypes by emerging Australian and New Zealand product designers. Presented by Indesign publishing (Aust) the program consists of a competition, exhibition, mentoring and networking event, designed to connect emerging designers with industry. In 2008 Simone LeAmon was engaged by Indesign to over-haul the strategic vision of the Launch Pad program and reinvigorate it as the region’s premier event for emerging designers.
Established in 1945 by the master 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 Vico Magistretti, Joe Colombo and Marco Romanelli.
Antonio Verderi president of Oluce and Simone LeAmon have been talking about design, creativity and developing products since 2004. For the Oluce Company and Simone LeAmon the ability to produce products of enduring meaning and significance is relative to the passion and commitment to design, which underpins the commercial enterprise. From 2008-2010 Simone LeAmon was appointed the Oluce design ambassador for Australasia working with Milan HQ and Euroluce (Aust) to deliver a special program of talks and events for the Oluce Company.
Established in 1971 by the Jardel family Planex is a leading Australian design manufacturer producing high quality commercial storage products and accessories in steel. From 2007 to 2010 Simone LeAmon held the position of Planex Creative Director co-designing the Planex showroom with Inarc Architects and devising, curating the Planex Design Season.
Planex Design Season
The Planex Design Season aimed to foster Australian designers, craftspeople and visual artists through the presentation, promotion and discussion of their work. Promoting the exhibitions through Planex’s extensive network, comprising of specifiers, interior designers, architects, media groups and government agencies nationally, the Planex Design Season was a highly regarded and critically acclaimed program.
Highlights
Kjell Grant: Australian Design Luminary
28 November 2007 – January 2008
Kjell Grant: Australian Design Luminary was a rare opportunity to view over 20 prototypes, production items and sketches, hand picked by Simone LeAmon from the Grant family archive and various private collections.
An industrial designer, architect, founder of the ‘Melbourne Movement’ design collective and Professor at RMIT University in the School of Architecture and Design, Kjell Grant (b.1927) is one of Australia’s most eminent design practitioners. Commencing his career at the Royal Academy of Arts London, Grant studied under sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and completing his training at the Illinois Institute of Technology under Mies van der Rohe. Working at Raymond Loewy N.Y and moving to Australian in 1957, Grant established an illustrious career designing furniture and interiors for architects Robyn Boyd and Sir Roy Grounds.
More Art than Design
20 March – 27 June 2008
Featuring signature works from Fiona Abicare, Abi Alice, Charles Anderson, Sean Hogan, Ronnie Lacham and Bianca Looney, More Art than Design brought together artists and designers who’s multidisciplinary practices are transforming the conventional places and spaces of art and design practice. Work of this nature emerges from the rigorous pursuit of ideas up and above the categories of the marketplace, it is an intermediary space where only the entrepreneur and experimenters in the non-commercial fields feel comfortable.
Michael Trudgeon and the work of Crowd Productions 1985-2008
19 February to 8 May 2009
Celebrated in a survey exhibition the Planex showroom played host to a unique collection of prototypes, architectural and graphic design projects by architect and designer Michael Trudgeon and Crowd Productions – uncovering the breadth of work achieved by one of Australia’s foremost trans-disciplinary practitices between 1983 to 2008
Born in New Zealand in 1955, Michael Trudgeon’s formal architectural education began at RMIT University in Melbourne in the mid 1970’s. He later turned to magazine publishing, theatre production, electronic music practice, graphic design, advertising design, multi-media and website production, industrial design and teaching. Michael co-founded Crowd Productions with Jane Joyce and Andrew Maine in 1983 as a trans-disciplinary design and communication practice. In 1998 Crowd Productions was selected for the Seppelt Contemporary Arts Awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney for their project HyperHouse. Other projects include HyperKitchen a flexible kitchen module and digital cinema capsules for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square in Melbourne.
