Latest News from O.S Initiative
How We Create
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 12:30.
Simone LeAmon contributes to a new conversation hub for Australian designers and manufacturers.
http://HOWWECREATE.com How We Create is an inspiration and content website that showcases the step by step process of designing and manufacturing products for the Design and Architectural industries in Australia. With the goal of creating connections and growing the Australian design industry, and to increase our global awareness and export opportunities of Australian made products.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..
Visit the How We Create website to read Simone's contributions and regular Q&A's with leading Australian designers and manufacturers . www.howwecreate.com.auRAKUMBA Lighting Australia
Submitted by admin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 11:15.
Rakumba participating at Lightsource, State of Design
Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 July, 2010 Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Featuring leading Australian and international brands and lighting designers, Lightsource is the State of Design's event to discover new lighting ideas and technologies for commercial, retail, industrial and outdoor space.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.
Rakumba has been producing custom-made feature lighting for the Australian design industry since 1968. Collaborating with designers across a wide range of sectors from commercial to residential. www.rakumba.com.auA Brand New Look
Submitted by admin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 11:14.
Branding re-design
Over the past months Simone has been working with the talented Ty Bukewitsch, founding member of the Envelope Group on the rebranding of Simone LeAmon P/L. Rolling O.S INITIATIVE into the Simone LeAmon identity is a key objective for 2010. Look out for the new look website in the months to come!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.
www.envelopegroup.com.auSPACE + EDRA 2010 Design Residency
Submitted by admin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 11:13.
Short list announced
To assist the careers of Australian designers via its network of leading international design manufacturers, Space Furniture has joined forces with Italian manufacturer Edra, to launch the Space+Edra 2010 Design Residency, a two month programme that places an Australian designer inside the Edra headquarters in Perignano, near Pisa and in Milan, Italy, during September and October 2010, under the guidance of one of the world’s leading design thinkers, Edra’s Art Director Massimo Morozzi.Simone LeAmon is one of ten designers from around Australia who has made the SPACE + EDRA shortlist. Stay tuned to hear of developments in late July.
www.edra.comINPRIVATE
Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 14:32.
The magazine for ANZ Private Bank clients
In the Autumn issue of INPRIVATE magazine ANZ Private Bank speaks with Simone LeAmon on creativity and design thinking in the corporate and investment sectors. The recipient of the 2009 Cicely and Colin Rigg Award Simone suggests that philanthropic investment in Australian design will unleash creative thinking and solutions from which the cultural and commercial environments will benefit.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.
www.anz.comDesign Droplets
Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/02/2009 - 05:29.
Designer Q&A with Simone LeAmon
Read Raph Goldsworthy's interview with Simone LeAmon in the December issue of the popular online magazine Design Droplets. Founder & Editor in Chief Raph asks Simone to share her thoughts on a range of subjects including the Lepidoptera chair, design writing, design education and the current state of the Australian design scene.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!
www.designdroplets.comSpread a little Joy and feel the love this Christmas
Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 07:51.
Now into its 10th year Bowling Arm® is the perfect eco-design gift for 2009
Made with the leather waste from Australian cricket balls Bowling Arm® continues to be a clear winner adorning the arms of fashionable people around the globe. A ripper little gift idea from the O.S Initiative studio. Bowling Arm® is industrious fashion and we love it!. www.bowlingarm.com2009 Melbourne Design Guide
Submitted by admin on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 14:24.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.
www.melbournedesignguide.comSimone LeAmon wins the 2009 Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award
Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:08.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
The work of Michael Trudgeon and Crowd Productions 1985-2008
Submitted by admin on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 00:32.
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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.
Who’s Who
Submitted by admin on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 00:26.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.
Freestyle: New Australian Design for Living
Submitted by admin on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 19:50.
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
Oluce
Submitted by admin on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 19:46.
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.
Kjell Grant: Australian Design Luminary
Submitted by admin on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 19:56.
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.
Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award 2007
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/27/2007 - 18:50.
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.
Smart 100 Australia’s Best and Brightest
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/27/2007 - 18:48.
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.
Good Weekend, The Age Newspaper - 16 June 2007
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/27/2007 - 18:40.
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.

&Fork published by Phaidon Press 2007
Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/27/2007 - 18:34.
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.
Planex
Submitted by admin on Sun, 07/01/2007 - 21:48.
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.
www.planex.com.auCurve, issue fourteen 2006 published by Beesting Publishing Australia
Submitted by admin on Sun, 07/01/2007 - 21:46.
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.



