Past Programs
Fashion - 2008
The look of the decade
30/12/2008
All decades have their iconic objects and metaphors that describe the times. Adrian Franklin suggests that today's objects include LCD flat-screeen TVs, BlackBerries, the Toyota Prius, exuberant, loud large women's handbags, patio gas heaters and the iPod. We had the swinging 60s, the decadent 20s and the austere 30s. How will we describe the noughties?
Part of the By Design Summer Season this was first aired on July 12, 2008.
Barbie turns 50
19/11/2008
For half a century, the Barbie doll has endured bad press. Her pointy-breasted, teeny-waisted body has even been linked to eating disorders in young women. But Barbie turns 50 next year, and this significant milestone raises the question, how has Barbie remained an international cultural icon for 50 years?
Masako Fukui investigated the legendary doll's life and times for By Design.
Trends and Products: jewellery and medicine
05/11/2008
By Design's Trends guest this week is Leah Heiss, who is developing jewellery that has a therapeutic purpose. She has designed pieces that help the diabetic, and pieces that you might need in an out of the way place - practical and discreet way of taking arsenic and bacteria out of water. These pieces form her show Liminal, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.
Swatch watches with Adrian Franklin
29/10/2008
Adrian Franklin joins By Design -- as he does every now and then -- to spin us a yarn and give us some insight into the world of design and collecting.
Today Adrian talks about the Swatch watch...and how it transformed the world of watches. Along the way, according to Adrian Franklin, Swatches have become one of the most viable collectables from the late 20th century.
Sandra Kaji O'Grady: conversation 2
01/10/2008
Today we tackle the topic of how today's buildings have forged their way in the world by looking dramatically different to anything that has come before and, as a result, have been very focused on image. Running parallel is a societal concern about the future of the environment and our concern with sustainability. A building's performance -- its technical function -- has had to find different ways of being assessed.
Design against crime
17/09/2008
The prevention of crime through good design has been around for a long time. Iron Age forts in Southern England are surrounded by complicated tracks and ridges. These are not an accident of landscape, but design—pure design. Their purpose was to deter cattle thieves. And it worked. Find out what kind of thinking and work is being done in design today to help eradicate crime.
Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and the Bauhaus in Australia
10/09/2008
The Bauhaus was the school - the name means "House of Building" or "Building School" - founded in Weimar by Walter Gropius in 1919. It combined arts and crafts and had an enormous influence on Modernist art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography. The Bauhaus closed with the coming of the Nazis in 1933.
And this is where Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack comes into the story. He was a student and later a master at the Bauhaus, and taught their first seminar on colour. But, being partly Jewish, he fled Germany for England, where, when war came, he was first interned as an enemy alien but was eventually deported to Australia in the famous Dunera. He became art teacher at Geelong Grammar School, where one of his pupils was Daniel Thomas.
Now a distinguished art historian, Daniel Thomas talks to us about the influence of the Bauhaus on Hirschfeld-Mack and the influence of Hirschfeld-Mack on Australia.
Small moments in design - Oki Sato
26/07/2008
Oki Sato his way into design through architecture. It was a trip to Milan's Salone Mobile in 2002 that turned his thoughts to how much was possible in the world of design. He acted on his positive emotional response and founded Nendo, based in Tokyo. His success was immediate. He has been picked up by a number of manufacturers, and was a keynote speaker this month at Melbourne's Design Capital event, part of the State of Design Festival.
Trends - Contemporary Jewellery
12/07/2008
Trends and Products is the part of the show where each week we focus on developments in a particular part of the designed world. Today our focus is on Australian contemporary jewellery.
No longer just about precious metals, such as gold or silver, modern jewellery is just as likely to be made of cloth or recycled plastic.
What identifies the look of 2008?
12/07/2008
All decades have their iconic objects and metaphors that describe the times. Adrian Franklin suggests that today's objects include LCD flat-screeen TVs, BlackBerries, the Toyota Prius, exuberant/loud large women's handbags, patio gas heaters and the iPod. We had the swinging 60s, the decadent 20s and the austere 30s. How will we describe the noughties?
Avant gardeners: what no plants?
21/06/2008
UK author and journalist Tim Richardson is equally at home in an 18th century garden, he says, as in a very contemporary 'conceptual' garden. In his latest book, Avant Gardeners, Tim profiles the work of 50 contemporary landscapes worldwide, and takes us behind the thinking of these gardens. Why make a garden from blue sticks, or a garden full of glass shards? Whatever happened to plants?
What makes a good opening sequence?
03/05/2008
Danny Yount has an interesting job in the world of design. He says of himself that his 'primary focus is main title design'. Today on By Design we look at the magic of designing the 'look' of a film, the power of the opening sequences, for example, the way a trailer is designed to hit the mark. Danny Yount is the man who designed the powerful opening sequence of Six Feet Under, and his work on this cult TV show earned him an Emmy.
Trends: Milan International Furniture Fair
19/04/2008
Now trends and products, and this morning we go to Milan where the most important event on the global design calendar, the Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile (as well as the SaloneSatellite), is underway.
