Yellowtrace Spotlight // July 2014.

Once again the first week of the month rolls around so from us here at Yellowtrace HQ we bring you the Yellowtrace Spotlight! What’s happening in the world of design this month you ask? In our July edition you can read about a selection of the best submissions we have received in the past month, we’re talking – exhibitions, restaurants, products, art projects, office and shop interiors, etc.

Ok, so let’s get to it already!

Mr Big Stuff Restaurant by Techne Architecture + Interior Design.

“Mr Big Stuff, who do you think you are? You wear all those fancy clothes and have a big fine car,” sang Jean Knight. This new restaurant and bar located in Meyers Place, Melbourne shares its name with the iconic song ‘Mr Big Stuff’ from the 1970’s and sets the tone for both the food offering and the space itself.

Mr Big Stuff takes a unique approach to Southern American soul food and brings it to the Melbourne market. To match, the space got a complete overhaul by Techne Architecture + Interior Design. The new design pays homage to the owners concept, naturally inspired by American music and film culture from funk to old school hip-hop, which was re-interpreted in a contemporary way that is relevant to Melbourne.

Mr Big Stuff Restaurant
Techne Architecture + Interior Design
Photography by James Geer

Restaurant Nomad in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Nomad is a cellar door and Mediterranean restaurant, located in a stunning turn-of-the century warehouse in Sydney’s Surry Hills. Complementing the bones of the original building, co-owners and directors Al Yazbek and Rebecca Littlemore, worked closely with architect Annie Snell, to pull together a palette consisting of concrete, steel and more concrete that is evocative of a foundry. Among these beautiful elements sit a purpose built room that is home to Nomad’s house made cheese and charcuterie.

Restaurant Nomad
Annie Snell
Photography by Tom Ferguson

Kavellaris Urban Design Studio Space in Melbourne.

Melbourne based architectural practice Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD) have transformed a conventional commercial office space into a fresh and creative workplace. Blurring the lines between office and factory, industrial strength ropes clad walls and criss-cross ceilings where bare light bulbs hang from frayed fisherman knots.

Images courtesy of Kavellaris Urban Design
Photography by Peter Clarke

Emporium Melbourne Installation by Gloss Creative.

Gloss Creative have designed a temporary streetscape of commanding visual fiction for Emporium Melbourne. The 100 metre wall installation alludes to an old world charm and a redefined sense of new world luxury. The wall faux marble wall has 10,000 layered gold, silver and marble scales that flutter in the breeze. Large round forms morph out of the wall, encasing moving geometric re-interpretations of the fashion icons that glow with warmth and sparkle at passers by.

Gloss Creative
Emporium Melbourne
Photography: Marcel Aucar & Timothy Burgess.

STARCH Boutique Project in Beirut by Studio GHAITH&JAD.

The boutique store ‘Starch’ features a spatial installation of 27 brass members that slide along each other and hook to 186 wall/ceiling-bound hooks. These members on which the clothes are displayed, float over pedestals on a rough white floor, both made of casted plaster. With these contrasting elements of mass and outline comes a 1.1m spherical light source that moves in the space along the back wall, held by two balancing concrete counterweights.

Watch the short clip on the interior of the designed boutique
GHAITH&JAD
Starch Boutique

Exhibition by José Cabrita for Contexte.

French industrial designer José Cabrita has created a minimalist and very elegant way to display pictures. Exhibition allows you to hang & switch your picture in quick and simple way. Thanks to its tilting system and magnets you can easily change the atmosphere of a room.

José Cabrita

Oon Power Outlet by David Okum.

The Oon is a new type of multi-outlet power cord for living designed David Okum. Combining logical function and thoughtful design with three electrical socket/blocks designed to flex and rotate, separated by three wooden sphere spacers, allowing for all the connections to be utilised and organised. Deliberately crafted, details in wood, metal, plastic and fiber compliment and complete one another. The sockets are enclosed in hard maple for durability.

David Okum

I Geometrici Towel Warmers by MG12.

Italian design company MG12 launched I Geometrici, by Brazilian designer Monica Geronimi, which are a set of towel warmers that act as a rack that seamlessly blends into the environment. Rather than the normal obtrusive, towel racks, I Geometrici is an innovative design that’s clean and elegant. I Geometrici comes with painted surfaces, or can also act as a mirror for those who want something more unique. The shape also helps the towels absorb heat more efficiently, resulting in less power consumption.

MG12

Utopia Goods Project Launch of Upholstery Fabrics with Jorn Utzon.

To celebrate and showcase the launch of their upholstery fabrics, Utopia Goods went in search for the ‘perfect sofa’. After a lengthy and challenging endeavor, the Sydney-based duo Bruce Slorach and Sophie Tatlow uncovered a unique design piece that was manufactured in 1967 titled the ‘New Angle’ sofa, designed by architect Jorn Utzon.

The sofa’s cool aluminium contours were an ideal match for the fabrics fleshy tones, and it’s sculptural shape made it a natural fit for the Utopia Goods fluid and unique style. Inspired by the tropical native Firewheel Tree, the aptly named Firewheel Fantasy textile adorns the curves and contours of the ‘New Angle’ sofa. The flower clusters resemble spiral wheels dancing across the print design. The range includes more than seventeen different prints, featuring a range of native-inspired, botanical motifs that turn the traditional idea of ‘flora and fauna’ upside down. The new collection of upholstery fabrics are all illustrated by Bruce Slorach and hand screenprinted with up to seven colours.

Utopia Goods

Limb Sink Exhibition by Fraser Anderson.

Fraser Anderson creates resin sculptures that objectify the liminal state between the familiar and the unknown, the permanent and ephemeral, old and new. They appear as if suspended in a moment in time, at the tipping point before beauty succumbs to decay.

Anderson’s process is a combination of physicality and alchemy: layered mark-making is followed by the application of resin, which allows for only ten minutes curing time, initiating a highly physical studio performance – a dance between anxiety and faith. This gestural, animated process permeates the work, pushing and pulling it between abstraction and figuration. The suggestive figure is further evoked by resulting undulations of ‘drapery’ redolent of classical sculpture portraying the female form.

Fraser Anderson
Art House Gallery

MADE3 Volume One, An Exhibition of Contemporary Australian Craft and Design.

MADE3 is a collaboration by furniture designer/makers Bernard Benny, Andrew Carvolth and Tim Wallace, that aim to promote contemporary Australian craft, skill & design. Predominantly working in furniture, each share a passion for thoughtfully and well made objects. Building on the success of two collaborative exhibitions, MADE3 Volume One will include the work of emerging and established Australian designer/makers working in furniture and metal. Showcasing the work of Elliot Bastianon, Andrew Watts, Andrew Carvolth, Niklavs Rubenis, Bernard Benny, Tim Wallace and Allison Jackson at the He Made She Made Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney.

MADE3
He Made She Made