Some selected images of a few things we came across during this year's Milan fair (12th-17th April 2011). Walking the streets, product launches, installations, lighting launches, fair attractions, interesting conversations, parties and simple down time with an espresso & a croissant were all things we enjoyed again this year.

'Scoop' Egg Cup with Spoon designed for Alessi. Released Spring/Summer 2011. 18/10 stainless steel. 4.25" x 3.5" x 1.25"h
www.alessi.com

'41' Limited edition solid copper sculptures were designed and created for TLC for Kids Charity and sold to raise money at their Gala Ball in 2010. www.tlcforkids.org.au

Zoie Utopia: How We Create Installation at Saturday In Design, Melbourne, 2010 www.howwecreate.com Zoie Utopia: An installation for How We Create by Helen Kontouris Finished photography by Renee Stamatis

Zoie 'Sophia' (2 canopy) and 'Anouk' (3 canopy). Named after the Greek word for "living thing", Zoie is a planter for indoor & outdoor (requires shelter if outdoors) use that offers sanctuary by receiving the sacredness of life's seeds and shoots deep within its internal housing. Available from http://www.zoieplanter.com.au/  

Schiavello launched a range of new products during Saturday In Design in Sydney including the Chubby Sofa and the Vene chair. The day was very casual with a barn theme & plenty of great food + fantastic beverages as always.  Available from www.schiavello.com

Breathe Sofa collection was exhibited in the Gin Garden at the Establishment Hotel, Sydney for one month during the 2009 Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards. People dining at the Gin Garden were treated to a visual backdrop of the top 10 selected designs suspended from the overhead structure as well as fixed to the walls in perspex boxes. Breathe outdoor collection available from www.sunweave.com

Schiavello commisioned Helen Kontouris to create the centerpieces for their Christmas Dinner held for 900 people at the Docklands in Melbourne. Positioned differently on each table, the porcelain centerpieces offered the ability to be used as vases to hold flowers as well as provide a visually interesting element to each table. Each guest was invited to take the porcelain centerpiece home as a gift at the end of the evening.

It was a fantastic night at the Ivy in Sydney where 550 guests gathered to celebrate the best in Australian contemporary design for this years prestigious IDEA awards .  Helen Kontouris won the Designer Of The Year Award which is voted throughout the year by design industry professionals

www.idea-awards.com

Helen also won another award for her Breathe outdoor collection in the Product category at the IDEA awards.  It was a fantastic evening in Sydney!!!
Manufactured by Sun Weave (Hong Kong) www.sunweave.com

I came across Stephen Klein's work around 18 months ago.  Since then I have been following his work closely.  He has a raw + unexpected composition to his photography that I really admire & am inspired by.  I also think his colour palette is really very contemporary & borders on the look of oil on canvas at times. Have a look for yourself http://www.stevenkleinstudio.com.

Helen Kontouris gave a talk at the National Gallery of Victoria on her 101 chair which is part of the Cicely & Colin Rigg Design Award http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/rigg2009/ The exhibition runs until the end of August 2009.

I was curious to see what the Milan Furniture Fair 2009 was going to be like this year.  Many friends & colleagues had decided to sit this year out.  Their thinking was that Milan was going to be a sober affair compared with previous years & that manufacturers were looking to be present just to show solidarity & long standing tradition.  In some ways most of this was true yet I felt that it was just as exciting as other years & that there was a clear shift towar

This is a big year for outdoor furniture with the launch of 4 collections for SunWeave in Hong Kong. Helen Kontouris has designed a diverse range of outdoor products ranging from day beds to deep lounge collections.  These designs are all about lifestyle & getting back to lazy days + nights.  They will be launched with Sun Weave’s Italian agent Talenti at the Salone del Mobile.

The Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is a generous legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895–1982), a former Secretary of the National Gallery of Victoria Felton Bequests’ Committee. This ‘Award of Excellence’ focuses on contemporary design practice in the state of Victoria. This award is arguably the most prestigious offered to a contemporary designer in Australia, with a prize of $30,000.

The La La Lamp manufactured by Kundalini has been selected to be part of a permanent collection for the 'Fondazione Cosmit Eventi' (Italy).  This exhibition will continue to travel, showing the collections of the selected designers products to prestigious museums & galleries.

In September 2008 Helen Kontouris was appointed a Strategic Product Development role by Schiavello relating to the seating area of their business.  It is a huge honor to be working with such a progressive & innovation driven company.

This year the Chubby sofa collection was launched with Schiavello, in a showroom inspired by the children’s book 'Where The Wild Things Are'.  A forest of vines hanging from the ceiling, massive plywood monsters & a fantastic colour palette all brought the theme for the showroom alive.  Seeing peoples amused faces as they walked in the door was worth all the effort for Schiavello I am sure.

Conversations of Things New was an exhibition of Australian designers who manufacture with Italian design companies. Getting a break with one of the Italian businesses can help establish a designer’s career.
The exhibition, curated by Heidi Dokulil of The Parcel Group, and organised with the help of the Italian Trade Commission and Object Gallery, looked at the process taken to achieve this success.

Part of the St Margaret’s Design and Architecture Festival in September, Conversations of Things New was an exhibition of Australian designers who manufacture with Italian design companies. Getting a break with one of the Italian businesses can help establish a young designer’s career.
The exhibition, curated by Heidi Dokulil and organised with the help of the Italian Trade Commission and Object Gallery.  The second exhibition was held in Sydney.

Saturday In Design in Sydney.  Each year Sydney & Melbourne fight over who won the title of the best day in design.....showrooms compete to out do previous years standouts for the best design, best place to grab a few design prizes, catch up with colleagues & old friends....and of course the after parties.  It all fun & a great way to get all the Australian design community together.  This year the La La Stools were launched with Schiavello.

Saturday in Design.  Always big on the design calendar.  Loads of new design from the showrooms that open their door to the industry & public.  It's a mini Milan in many ways.  Exhausting, inspirational & fun.  The 101 chair was launched with Schiavello & it was really well received.

Finally after a lot of blood, sweat, laughs and tears, the new HKD website is live!! WOOOHOOO. We hope you enjoy it, please feel free to subscribe via RSS feed to this blog or post comments, we'd love to hear from you. We will update you with our, ideas, travels, inspiration and random thoughts. Looking forward to having you all on the journey.
all the best :)
The HKD team.

Happy 7th Birthday to HKD!...we realised that we were yet to celebrate the ideas, the triumphs, the lost projects, the late nights, new projects, travels, dreams, process, midnight international client phone calls, parties, great debates that makes our studio what it is.

Thanks to everyone who has seen us on our journey so far......