Sydney Design - 2010

Iron Designer

Iron Chef goes to design school at this tongue-in-cheek panel discussion. Local designers are pitted against each other, given a 'key ingredient' and 20 minutes to execute their concept. The competition will be divided into two rounds, with the winner of each going head-to-head in the hope of being crowned the 'Iron Designer'.
Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo 2007. (02 9217 0111). Fri 6 Aug, 6.30–9.30pm. $26–$30.

Creating the Look: Benini and Fashion Photography

The leading Sydney Design 2010 exhibition is a retrospective of the work of photographer Bruno Benini and his stylist wife, Hazel. Through Benini's lens, the exhibition explores the creative process involved in fashion design, styling, photography and modelling.
Powerhouse Museum until Feb 2011, 10am–5pm. Free with museum entry.

Frock Stars: Inside Australian Fashion Week

From Kristy Hinze's Tigerlilly strut draped in a diamond python to Ksubi's ripped-denim rat plague, RAFW has sure had some doozeys in its 15-year history. Powerhouse celebrates them with their inside look at Sydney's key fashion event.
Powerhouse Museum until Sun 29 Aug, 10am–5pm. Free with museum entry.

Young Blood: Designers Market & Designboom Mart

These annual markets (happening simultaneously) offer the trendiest stalls in town. Grab garb from local up-and-comers at Young Blood and international innovations at Designboom.
Powerhouse Museum, Fri 13 Aug 10am–9pm & 14–15 Aug 10am–5pm. $5 Museum entry includes entry to both markets.

International Speaker: Giovanna Castiglioni

The Mezzadro chair, the Arco lamp and the Splugen Brau ceiling light. You've probably seen them in glossy design mags and they all have one thing in common. They were all designed by Achille Castiglioni, a world-renowned architect, urban planner, designer and inventor. In this lecture, Giovanna Castiglioni, the daughter of the late designer, discusses her father's whimsical furniture, lighting and object design.
Powerhouse Museum until Thu 12 Aug, 6pm. $16–$20.

Design Underground: Curator Tours

Now's your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the Powerhouse's most prized design gems. Museum curators will take small groups (max 12ppl) on intimate, fashion-focused tours of the Powerhouse storage collection.
Powerhouse Museum, 31 Jul–15 Aug, 2–3pm, $16.

Third Drawer Dawn

If you often spend more time in the gift shops of contemporary art galleries than the gallery itself then boy do we have something that you're going to love. Melbourne's Third Drawer Down store is hitting the road and popping up at Sydney's Blank_Space Gallery for three whole weeks. You won't want to miss their nifty designs, cute contemporary art objects and witty gifts.
Blank_Space, 374 Crown St, Surry Hills 2010. Until 18 Aug, 11am–6pm. Free.

Designer Disco

This arty party merges Future Classic's Adult Disco with a laneway exhibition featuring cutting edge local designers. Have a boogie with We Buy Your Kids, Like Minded Studio, Miricro/Maricar, Sensory and Sopp Collective amongst others.
The Civic Hotel, 388 Pitt St, Sydney 2000. Sat 14 Aug, 10pm. $15.

Workshopped 10: A Design Decade

The country's hottest emerging funiture, lighting and product designers will be on display during the 10th incarnation of Workshopped.
Chifley Plaza, Sydney 2000. 5–14 Aug, 8.30am–6.30pm. Free.

Straight Up: On the Streets of Sydney

Fancy yourself the next Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) or Yvan Rodic (Face Hunter)? Well now's your chance to get published. SD10 are calling for street style snappers to contribute to their Straight Up blog and selected images will appear in an anthology published by Blurb. Hit the streets and start scouting!
Around Sydney. Until April 2011. Free.

Free Design Tours

Realising that they could never exhibit everything they wanted to show about design in Sydney within the walls of their exhibition space, the team at Object have put together downloadable audio tours and maps of design hot spots all over this great city. Alternatively, cycle your way around the Surry Hills design landscape and capture your findings on film as you go with Small Stories Big Pictures. You'll be taken to key design addresses and a selection of snaps will be used in a Sydney Design photographic exhibition.
Live Design: Audio Design Museum, 31 Jul–15 Aug, Free. Small Stories Big Pictures, departs from Cloth, 1/35 Buckingham St, Surry Hills 2010. 31 Jul, 7 & 14 Aug, 10am–4pm. Free.

Big: Sydney's Small Studios

Designer Stephen Goddard and photographer Keith Saunders bring Sydney's independent design studios together in one room. Creative, innovative, quirky and exciting, the pair have caught on film the city's next big things to come out of a small spaces.
Project Space at Object Gallery, 417 Bourke St, Surry Hills 2010. 31 Jul–29 Aug, 11am–5pm. Free.

FutureStory

Keep your eyes peeled for a series of future-focused documentaries. The team at LiveFutures are infiltrating your urban environment with short video works that profile progressive designers, scientists, futurists, artists, architects and community leaders. Catch the docos online and around Sydney from 3 Aug in the lead up to the Live Futures 2020 Festival.
College of Fine Arts, 14 Aug, 11am-6pm. Free.

Sydney Design 2010 is on at the Powerhouse Museum and various venues Around Sydney. 31 Jul–15 Aug. Unlimited Sydney Design pass $20. All events are listed on the Time Out Sydney website.


Still not satisfied? Bombay Sapphire continue the creative frenzy with the Design Discovery Awards. Entries close at the end of the month so be sure to get inspired during Sydney Design and vie for the $30,000 first prize.