The state of design?

Sydney Design 07
11th International Design festival
Powerhouse Museum and other venues Sydney-wide
from August 4
Full program: www.sydneydesign.com.au

Sydney Design kicked off on rainy Friday evening, and the black-clad ones were out in force to hear the often acerbic (unpierced)-tongued architecture writer Elizabeth Farrelly deliver that rare thing – a genuinely funny and interesting launch speech. Praise the Lord. The exhibitions and events program is extensive and Sydney-wide, but it’s a great opportunity to revisit the often-underrated Powerhouse, whose permanent exhibitions are constantly evolving and which has a strong emphasis on interactivity and engagement. Take the kids, they won’t be bored.

The PH deserves credit for driving Sydney Design, working between the major disciplines, and fostering links with other galleries and design orgs, and its distinctive event communications are beginning to achieve the media critical mass needed to penetrate public lethargy and create a sense of excitement and ownership among Sydneysiders, many of whom have discovered design in a big way in the last decade.

This process has a way to go of course. Think of Milan’s Salon del Mobile. While some Milanese probably groan and leave for their coastal villas, it is an event that has come to almost define and envelop the city, spawns an immense fringe, brings billions into the economy, and does much to reinforce not just Italian design, but design in general, with Milan as the centre of the universe. Venice has done it with art. For several centuries in fact.

For a city of 4.5 million Sydney Design ain’t bad, but Melbourne is doing better, having established the National Design Centre at Fed Square, and Victoria even has a Minister for Design. The results were manifested in the Melbourne Design Festival last month. Obviously Melbourne’s city centre (and laneways), with its concentration of galleries, showrooms and ateliers, lends itself better to generating a sense of involvement and excitement, and the NDC’s position in Fed Square situates it at the heart of Melbourne life. It’s also interesting that while the Labour state government is an enthusiastic advocate for design, the original vision (including Fed Square itself) we must grudgingly admit, was Jeff Kennett’s. No equivalent bipartisan vision is evident in NSW.

If Sydney is ever to move into the big league as a ‘design city’ the State Government needs to better support the City Of Sydney’s efforts and to put some substantial resources behind this. Forever putting out transport fires (not literally I hope), constantly on the defensive over planning and infrastructure, obsessively focussed on bringing in the big events we probably DON’T need (eg APEC), our government seems to have no conception of how to harness the existing ingenuity and vitality of its creative and design communities, and leverage this into economic benefit for the city and the state. In fact I'm not sure they even see the opportunity.

Perhaps there’s a case for umbrella-ing even more design events into a Design Month in August? It’s a time of year when people are paying attention and resigned to being indoors. Last Saturday’s Saturday Indesign, (a biannual initiative supported by Raj Nandan's Indesign publishing group since the demise of Designers Saturday) is an industry day focussed on commercial showroom visits, and effectively already part of it. The biannual (?) Sydney Esquisse, which has never managed to achieve its own critical mass, the Object Gallery sponsored St Margarets Architecture and Design Festival (September again?), and various initiatives by Marrickville Council (where many artists and designers actually live and work because of more affordable rents) could be too. Then there are the various design awards run by the DIA, AGDA, and Inside magazine. Individual organisations can’t do it all alone. It need an overarching organization, to say nothing of policy vision and funding at state government level.

Shoot me down if you think this is a naïve and utopian vision. Perhaps spreading disparate events across the year is better? But while I'm making rash suggestions, what about Elizabeth Farrelly in the NSW upper house as Minsiter for Design? Her meetings with Frank Sartor would certainly be interesting.

A toute a l'heure.