#MelbourneDesignWeek is hitting its stride. Each year, more momentum. More ambition. More work that cuts through. Yesterday’s day of previews made it clear — the bar has been raised again.
Friends & Associates’ 100 Chairs at Abbotsford Convent is the single strongest reason to make the trip. One hundred creatives, one hundred chairs, an extraordinary spread of voices given a platform purely on the strength of their ideas. As Kirsten Stanisich of
@richards_stanisich said to me — it’s work selected on talent, not on marketing. Love that!
Many of the designers showing here have spent time in Milan, at 3 Days of Design, at the events shaping the global conversation. You can feel it. That learning is now being translated into something distinctly local and worth your attention.
What’s easy to forget: most of this exists because designers and collectives back themselves. Yes, Creative Victoria and the NGV underpin the program, but the bulk of what you’ll see is fuelled by goodwill — curators self-funding, designers covering their own production and freight, sponsors chipping in offcuts and materials. People making things happen because they believe creativity deserves a stage.
This is where progress lives. Out beyond the comfort zone, in the work that risks failing. That’s how the bar moves.
If you can get to Melbourne in the next 11 days — go. If you can’t — tune in, share, specify, support. This isn’t just Melbourne’s moment. Designers from Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and beyond are part of this. It belongs to all of us.
This is a small slice of what I saw in one very full day. With thanks to
@ngvmelbourne @articulate.advisory , my personal concierge and driver extraordinaire
@adrianahannaoffice , and all the peeps who made my day spectacular 💫
@tom_skeehan @jared_webb_ @kelvygram @lukeybabysales @suzyannetta @aliceblackwood @christopherboots @emmaelizabethdesigns @dale.hardiman @marlo__lyda @richardmunao (ok, I officially ran out of brain space and tags, but you know who you are cause fuck we had some LOLs and good chats, no matter how brief!) 🫶🏼
#AustralianDesign
