Brisbane certainly put on a good show for Brisbane Indesign on Saturday 26 May.
After a long four year wait for the event to return to our city, it kicked off in style on Thursday night with Up Late where James Street’s fashion and homewares stores opened their doors to welcome customers with great promotions and lots of genuine Brisbane warmth. Friday focused on interstate and regional visitors spending quality time in design showrooms across the Fortitude Valley precinct and then came Saturday, the big day on the calendar where design enthused crowds wandered in the sunshine between venues viewing new products, installations as part of The Project, meeting old friends and making new ones.
It was this element that resonated with me the most. The genuine interest that people have in learning about each other – what they do, where they’re from and what gets them fired up in the design conversation. This event is known for bringing the design community together, but I have to say that I’m really quite proud of the fact that Brisbane maintains strong connections and support within the sector all year round.
I spent most of the day with Christina Waterson, in her pop-up space on James Street where she is showing a wonderful exhibition of her installation pieces and prototypes. I have known Christina for years and have followed her journey from practicing architect to artist/designer/maker. Her commitment to her studio practice is undeniable and inspirational. After returning from her Winston Churchill Fellowship late last year, where she travelled to Japan, China and Turkey to explore the origins of patterns and their connection to traditional craft, design and architecture, she developed a series of new works recently shown in Melbourne that have now been brought back to Brisbane. Sponsored by How we Create and Palamont: Art in Manufacturing, TRACE is a special show in a temporary site until 18 June. If you’re in Brisbane you must stop in and see it.
Many thanks to the Indesign team for again putting on a great event, (which culminated with a fabulous after party in true Indesign style), to all the exhibitors without whom it wouldn’t be possible and to everyone who came out on the day and participated. Many new relationships and friendships have been formed and lots of old ones reconnected. For me, this is what these events are all about…