Limited Edition Bangles

Limited Over is available as two different bangles: Cuff & Round.

Limited Over marks the tenth anniversary of Bowling Arm (2000-2010).

Limited Over pays homage to craft traditions embedded in the Australian manufacturing sector since the early 1900’s. Preserving the ‘image’ of the leather by-product from Australian cricket balls in bronze and stainless steel is a reminder of how ‘place’ and traditions give shape to products and things.

JamFactory Craft and Design Centre

Curated by Margaret Hancock Davis, Prototyping: Making Ideas is an exhibition that highlights the exceptional prototyping skills developed by Australian designers, demonstrating the journey of some of their most successful products from idea, to sketch, to prototype, to final product. Through the development of prototypes, the hands-on skills of designer/makers and the relationships between designers and artisans are highlighted. The exhibition illustrates how important the prototyping process is to testing and refining a successful product.

Amongst the numerous prototypes on display Ricotta and La Prima Ballerina by Simone LeAmon for Rakumba make a striking contribution. The second project to evolve from the Rakumba Design Collaborations La Prima Ballerina stands over two metres tall and is a reworking of the traditional Ballerina lampshade. Due for release in 2012 La Prima Ballerina is ‘haute couture’ for lighting. Hand sewn and executed, the feature shade requires a team of Rakumba’s most experienced craftswomen to construct. La Prima Ballerina is made to order.

Prototyping: Making Ideas features projects by DANIEL EMMA (SA), Adam Goodrum (NSW), Illumni (SA), Trent Jansesn (NSW), Koskela (NSW), Simone LeAmon (VIC), Rohan Nicol (NSW), John Quan (SA), Elliat Rich (NT), Bjorn Rust (QLD), Andrew Simpson (NSW) and Oliver Smith (NSW).

Exhibition Dates 3 September – 23 October 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzAdktSkXA

www.jamfactory.com.au

A creative masterclass for design practitioners presented by Simone LeAmon

A series of creative masterclasses organised by the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia offers design professionals a range of intensive full-day design sessions with master practitioners. Designer and artist Simone LeAmon lead the first masterclass "The designer as storyteller" on 9 September.

Exploring how narrative and storytelling can enhance creativity and the design process,The designer as storyteller provided design practitioners with a chance to step out of the office and into the unknown, prompting designers to stop and think about the way they design. Presenting some useful design methodologies and frameworks, Simone illustrated how designers who knowingly use narrative in their design process have the capacity to uncover and embed meaning in the planning, production and delivery of design. Providing examples where narrative has been used to develop design for products, architecture, landscape and curatorial programs, the role of the designer is extended to that of storyteller - and design and design process is spoken of as an adventure.

www.unisa.edu.au/artarchitecturedesign

Simone LeAmon Designer in Residence

Located in the heart of Adelaide the JamFactory Craft and Design Centre is a national treasure. Supporting the culture of Australian design and production the JamFactory is a centre with a special charter – to support in equal measure the production, promotion and sale of outstanding design and craftsmanship.

Housing ceramic, glass, furniture and metal design studios the JamFactory is an impressive facility. Specialising in limited and serial production, high-quality products are designed and made onsite, successfully combining tradition and innovation.

Attracting national and international designer-makers to a coveted two-year Associate Training Program the JamFactory invites notable designers and makers from around Australia to contribute to the learning activities through a Designer in Residence Program. Conducting a 3-5 day intensive workshop, the designer coaches a select group of associates in an area of their expertise. From the 30th August to 10th September, Simone LeAmon lead associates from glass, furniture, ceramics and metal design through an ideation and concept creation workshop focused on storytelling and narrative.

www.jamfactory.com.au

Featuring live manufacturing by Palamont Rota

A highlight of the Saturday Indesign program, District 01 was home to the How We Create initiative featuring the live manufacture of miniature planters designed by Helen Kontouris, Brian Steendyk, Andrew Berry and Simone LeAmon. In charge of the LED accessorised rotational moulding machine aka ‘The Spaceship’ were Palamont’s ‘Polyethylene Chefs’, Jason Brown and Matthew Griffith. Giving away over 1500 planters throughout the day, guests sought the designer’s signature of their chosen mini.

Saturday Indesign – What’s it all about?

Yes, Saturday In Design is now officially part of our landscape; whether in Melbourne or Sydney, including the city fringes, this event attracts a level of patronage other Australian design events long for.

Saturday In Design is part of an expanding culture industry. Business is conducted and fuelled via an interplay of needs, desires, beliefs and practices – and all these things are packaged and presented back to us as legible ‘culture’. Social groups form, sentiment is sparked. People meet, drink, laugh, swap stories and accumulate a bevy of experiences in the company of business. Certainly, amidst this swirl of ideas and agendas, products and services are consumed – but so is culture itself.

And here lies the success of Saturday In Design. Attending the event stirred up the distinct sensation you were part of something more esoteric – as if vicariously, you were connecting with every interior and architectural practice in the region. Studying the showroom floors we see the products and professionals who will design, detail and furnish spaces in which ‘other’ people will live their lives. The phrase “anthropology of consumption” (another ‘it’ term in academic circles) speaks poignantly of the contemporary process where goods talk – not of themselves, but of us. Saturday In Design is an example of our shared understandings of commercial design made manifest in an event.

Where to from here? Now a leading event, Saturday In Design has the capacity to evolve and deliver greater benefits, lending valuable support to Australian product designers. This need plays on the hearts and minds of a less visible design community, whose activities remain all-too-often untapped – but which, if supported, will bear witness to a mature Australian design culture.

Yes, Australian interior designers, architects and retailers still pursue love affairs with Italian, French, Spanish, German and Swedish imports – and why not? These are the products that most efficiently translate our desires, and enable us to see ourselves as the discerning, stylish, sophisticated individuals we aspire to be. But buying European products does not make us a progressive design culture – it creates an advanced consumer culture. To truly thrive, I suggest we need both. S.LeAmon

www.howwecreate.com.au

http://saturdayindesign.com.au

RICOTTA design Simone LeAmon

Two years on and RICOTTA, the first of the distinctive lighting designs by LeAmon for Rakumba was revealed at Lightsource 21-14 July and Saturday Indesign 19-20 August in a dedicated presentation of Australian design and manufacturing at District 01: Darlinghurst.

About Ricotta

“Inspired by the people who have dedicated their working lives to making lampshades, my role was to conceptualise and develop designs that could speak of the Rakumba culture”.

Ricotta is feature lamp inspired by the extraordinary talents and abilities of the Rakumba staff. Making the wire frames for all lampshades by hand, LeAmon was inspired to design a lamp that celebrated the skill of the Rakumba wire fabricators.

“With a spot-welder and collection of old school jigs he could whip up a beautiful wire frame in no time but frames are the under carriage of a lamp shade and rarely seen. I suggested we design a shade that showed-off his talent for making by expressing the wire on the outside. He thought I was joking but I could tell he liked the idea.”

The name Ricotta stems from the grid pattern created by the vertical pleats and horizontal wires on the shade. Resembling the pattern on a ricotta cheese mould, this delightful reference was pointed out by the craftswomen at Rakumba who work as a team to pleat the delicate cotton shade.

sales@rakumba.com

www.rakumba.com

Simone LeAmon on iSaloni for howwecreate.com

http://www.howwecreate.com

Miniatures and Multiples at Spiro Grace Art Rooms

http://www.sgar.com.au

Simone LeAmon. I Wish No. 5, Limited Edition candle holder in bronze.

not-yet-junk by Simone LeAmon

Simone LeAmon. not-yet-junk. Compressed cardboard bale, Corian, nylon, 24 carat gold leaf.

Simone would like to thank Cleanevent Australia and Classic Solid Surfaces for their assistance on not-yet-junk.

Celebrating 20 years of Platform Artists Group

The original cricket ball bangles Bowling Arm® is a great gift idea from the O.S Initiative studio.

GLOBAL ARTISAN Q&A

Speakers included

Exploring the role of the one-off work in contemporary design practice

Simone LeAmon. A Box Of Hope 2010. Bronze, carrara marble, wax, W140 x H270 x L350

Exhibition dates: October 7-22, 2010

Simone LeAmon contributes to a new conversation hub for Australian designers and manufacturers.

Manufacturers, Designers and Architects that previously did not have a vehicle to collaborate and communicate inspired ideas, technologies and processes now have an opportunity for industry growth and innovation.

How We Create's philosophy is to provide a content driven website that bridges the gap between Australian designers, architects and manufacturers. To promote conversation, collaboration, and innovation, while at the same time, promoting the services and opportunities of designers, manufacturers and architects. To Inspire the design community to push for local innovation..

Rakumba participating at Lightsource, State of Design.

Big Sky by Simone LeAmon for Rakumba Lighting 2010

Inspired by colours found in the natural light displays of the southern skies Big Sky is a giant shade featuring 34 shades of different sizes and shapes suspended within. Big Sky is one of many distinctive lighting concepts By Simone in development for Rakumba. Initiating the Rakumba Design Residency in February 2010 designer and manufacturer are committed to developing new product ideas for the Australian design industry.

Branding re-design

Ty Bukewitsch has worked in brand design for twenty years he has worked on several iconic Australian projects including the design of our currency for the Reserve Bank as well as being involved in the development of a custom alphabet for the signage program for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Short list announced

Simone LeAmon is one of ten designers from around Australia who has made the SPACE + EDRA shortlist.

The magazine for ANZ Private Bank clients

Exclusive to ANZ Private Clients INPRIVATE magazine is published four times a year on behalf of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited. As a professional charitable trustee ANZ Trustees links philanthropists with the arts, design and innovation sectors.The Rigg Award is funded by a perpetual bequest established by a former employee of ANZ Trustees.

Designer Q&A with Simone LeAmon

Design Droplets is an online Industrial Design and Product Design Magazine that is focused on the Asia Pacific Design community. If you haven't visited Design Droplets check it out now!

Melbourne Design Guide, 2009 Edition out now!

Simone LeAmon is featured in the new Melbourne Design Guide. This book is an entire city carried in the pocket (though at 450 full-colour pages, it mightn't fit into your jacket). Edited by Viviane Stappmanns of Alphabet Press and designed by Chase & Galley , the book is the product of Melbourne's entire design community.

NGV Announces Simone LeAmon as the 2009 Cicely & Colin Rigg Award recipient

Simone LeAmon
born Australia 1971
Lepidoptera, chair 2008
stainless steel, polyurethane, polyester
110.0 x 85.0 x 70.0 cm
Collection of the artist, Melbourne
© Simone LeAmon

The National Gallery of Victoria today announced that the recipient of the 2009 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is Simone LeAmon.

The prize of $30,000 was awarded to Ms LeAmon for her chair titled Lepidoptera.  The multi-disciplinary designer said: “I am thrilled to accept this award and to be a part of this exhibition which draws attention to the work of outstanding Victorian designers. I can think of less than a handful of cities in the world where an exhibition of this standard could take place.”

A generous legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895–1982), a former Secretary of the Felton Bequests’ Committee for the NGV, the award focuses on contemporary design practice in Victoria. This year it is dedicated to contemporary seat furniture design.

Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director, NGV said: “In 2009 this award brings together works by fourteen designers of contemporary seat furniture, and reflects the NGV’s continuing support for, and commitment to, contemporary design. We warmly congratulate Simone on this outstanding achievement.”

These innovative and diverse contemporary seat furniture designs from Victoria were judged by Dr Kees Dorst, Professor of Design at the faculty of Design, Architecture and Building of the University of Technology, Sydney and senior researcher at the department of Industrial Design of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

“This exhibition is very diverse with a range of qualities and themes. Simone’s chair combines sustainability with new and intriguing aesthetics making it a courageous and exciting design. The idea of using textile scraps from the automotive industry in a chair gives the work style and attitude. This design has a great future on an international podium,” said Professor Dorst.

The other participating artists are Adam Cornish, Lambie Chan, Lucas Chirnside, Matthew Harding, Cathy Jankowsky, Joseph Keenan, Jacqueline Ying Jun Lin, Chris Connell, Stuart McFarlane, Ross McLeod, Drew Martin & Dale Rock (Rock Martin), Oliver Field, and Helen Kontouris.

Matthew Martin and Amy Barclay, Coordinating Curators of the exhibition, said that the designers in this year’s exhibition are informed by a broad spectrum of social, environmental, material and aesthetic concerns with every work having the potential to become a ‘design classic’ of the future.

Unrestricted by any predetermined theme, the resulting works are stylistically and conceptually disparate, using a variety of materials and techniques.

The award and exhibition are supported by the Cicely & Colin Rigg Bequest, managed by ANZ Trustees.

2009 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square from Thursday 12 March to Sunday 30 August.

For further information visit ngv.vic.gov.au

Principal Sponsor: Myer

Media enquiries:
Alison Murray, Media & Public Affairs Officer
0439 348 357 / 03 8620 2347
alison.murray@ngv.vic.gov.au

19 February to 8 May 2009

Planex 2A Kipling Street, Richmond, Victoria

For the first time in Australia Planex presents the design work of Michael Trudgeon and Crowd Productions. Celebrated in a survey exhibition curated by Planex creative director Simone LeAmon the Planex showroom plays host to a unique collection of prototypes, architectural and graphic design projects, uncovering the breadth of work achieved by one of Australia’s foremost trans-disciplinary practices between 1983 to 2008.

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. They began by publishing a design and culture magazine titled Crowd building up a network of thinkers, designers and suppliers across Australia, the U.K and U.S.A. Crowd then focused on design projects for private clients in the areas of architecture, strategic design and planning, multi media and interface design. In 1987 Crowd set up its second office in London. In recent years Crowd has focused on digitally enhanced environments and prototyping methodologies for commercial architectural projects.

In 1998 Crowd Productions was selected for the Seppelt Contemporary Arts Awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney for their project HyperHouse a vision of a dwelling which can be adjusted to cope with the fluidity of domestic living and social life. In 2007 Crowd was a finalist in the Japan Architect ‘Planless House’ competition. Other projects include HyperKitchen a flexible kitchen module, digital cinema capsules for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square Melbourne and flagship cinema complexes for Hoyts at Melbourne Central and Blacktown in Sydney.

www.crowd.com.au/crowd.html

www.planex.com.au

Simone LeAmon has been included in the inaugural edition of Crown Content’s Who’s Who in Victoria.

Who's Who pays tribute to 6,200 outstanding Victorians. The inaugural edition of Who's Who in Victoria celebrates the lives and achievements of significant Victorians. It honours outstanding people from all walks of life including the arts, community, business, finance, trade, property development, sports, entertainment, rural, community, environment, medicine, science, media and politics.

www.crowncontent.com.au/shop

10 May – 29 June 2008
Triennale di Milano

Freestyle brings together the work and stories of 40 outstanding Australian designers including Simone LeAmon, Nick Rennie, Susan Cohn and Brian Steendyk. Designers from the fields of furniture, lighting, textiles, homewares, fashion, jewellery and accessories exhibit handmade one-off and limited edition design objects alongside industrially manufactured items and prototypes. Curated by Object galleries’ Associate Director Brian Parkes. www.freestyledesign.info/index.html

Simone LeAmon is appointed Oluce Design Ambassador for Australasia.

Established in 1945 by 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 Joe Colombo, Vico Magistretti, Marco Romanelli, Sebastian Bergne Francesco Rota and Nendo.

www.oluce.com

28 November 2007 – 31 January 2008
Planex . Richmond, Victoria

For the first time in Australia Planex presents the design and artwork of Kjell Grant. Celebrated in a survey exhibition curated by Planex creative director Simone LeAmon the Planex showroom plays host to furniture, ceramics, textiles and painting, spanning a career of 50-years.

An industrial designer and architect Kjell Grant commenced his career in 1947 studying under the notable sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth at the RCA in London and Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. With an illustrious career in product design Kjell Grant has developed products for Cartier, Orrefors, Knoll, Rosenthal and Raymond Loewy N.Y, most notable are his furniture commissions for renowned Australian architects Robyn Boyd, Sir Roy Grounds and Harry Seidler. In 1967 Kjell Grant designed the furniture for the Australian Pavilion at the Montreal Exposition in Canada. The Montreal Chairs resulting from this project are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Kjell Grant is a dedicated teacher and design educator having mentored and inspired hundreds of young Australian designers through the ‘Melbourne Movement’ initiative. Kjell Grant is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University.

Simone LeAmon has been announced as one of 10 finalists in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award 2007.

Presented at Object Gallery, Sydney the Design Discovery Award Exhibition opens on September 11 and tours nationally through to October 2008.

The Bulletin, Special 2007 Edition, June 26, ACP Magazines Australia

A finalist in the Design category of the Bulletin magazines Smart 100 Simone LeAmon is one of ten Australians nominated for her contributions to the Australian design sector. Alongside architect Cassandra Fahey (2007 winner), Chris Bosse, Zahava Elenberg, Adam Goodrum, Alexander Lotersztain, Marc Schamburg, Michael Alvisse, Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd, Simone LeAmon is applauded for her innovative approach to the market combining the fields of contemporary art with product design.

Featured in the Good Weekend Design and Technology issue Simone LeAmon is profiled in Dani Valent’s article Ready Set Go in the company of Adam Goodrum, Alexander Lotersztain, Steven Blaess, Steven Mieszelewicz and Nimrod Weis. Singled out as one of Australia’s leading emerging designers, Simone LeAmon offers an entertaining account of pursuing the design road.

Simone LeAmon is featured in the bold new survey of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming designers by leading publishing house Phaidon Press. 100 designers from 24 countries were selected by 10 international curators; from Seoul to Paris, Melbourne to New York, Lisbon to London, the designers featured in &Fork challenge the status quo and present fresh, dynamic ideas at the forefront of design.

Australian manufacturer Planex has appointed celebrated artist and designer Simone LeAmon to the position of Creative Director. The appointment marks an exciting time at Planex and promises an inspired approach to design programming. With degrees in the fine arts and industrial design Simone has conducted a freelance career in Australia and abroad for the past 12 years. She currently heads her own interdisciplinary studio O.S initiative based in Melbourne.

Appearing on the front cover of Australia’s foremost industrial design magazine the work of artist and designer Simone LeAmon is brought to the fore in a conversation with editor Belinda Stening. Discussing her rigorous approach to her work the article reveals some of the abiding themes in LeAmon’s practice.