Video: Discovering Design Through Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - The thrill of designing a piece of custom furniture is almost indescribable. When I'm creating a custom piece for a client, I'm looking at many elements, including scale, materials, period, detailing, sculptural quality, and utility. I recognized this familiar (to me) process in today's featured video from the University of Tasmania (Australia); UTAS faculty and students in their furniture program put together an exhibition entitled Discovering Design Through Furniture. I enjoyed hearing each designer talking briefly about their discoveries, their process, how they chose materials, what inspired them, and what they learned in the process. One of these students just may be producing a piece for your home in the future! (Pictured above, program director of furniture design at UTAS and exhibit curator Simon Ancher's Clipped Wing bench.)

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Thomas Hamel and His Sydney Penthouse Challenge

Irwin Weiner ASID - The joy of being a top-flight, in-demand interior designer like Thomas Hamel is being able to work with a variety of projects that express your personal creativity. Working with a core design team, Mr. Hamel's Australian operation (he was born in the U.S.) runs like a beautifully oiled machine, turning out custom interiors and architectural designs that please his international clientele. The following video is from his World of Design TV show pilot, and it shows his team's response to a new penthouse styling project in Sydney - the task is creating a turnkey environment that wealthy buyers will want to purchase, space and furnishings and accessories in one luxe package. We're staying tuned to see if and when it becomes a regular series as this designer is well worth watching.

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It's Only Art; We Can Make More

Matt Newton for The Australian

Irwin Weiner ASID - Frank Stella famously said, "Architecture can't fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn't real." Australian math-and-gambling tycoon David Walsh put together MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, and it's filled with Walsh's personality, to spectacular effect. 

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