Design Awards help seed new design school concept

In July, veski in collaboration with RMIT University brought acclaimed Australian architect Lucy McRae to the 2011 State of Design Festival to share her international experience.

During her Melbourne visit, which was supported by a veski award in design, Lucy was engaged in an intensive three-week workshop, which culminated in a public lecture and exhibition.

The public lecture, held at RMIT University, provided an opportunity for design enthusiasts to hear about her provocative and often grotesquely beautiful imagery.

Lucy McRae is an Australian artist straddling the worlds of fashion, technology and the body. As a body architect she invents and builds structures on the skin that re-shape the human silhouette suggesting a new breed; a future human archetype existing in an alternate world.

The public lecture was accompanied by an exhibition of her latest project: An Innovation Workshop. Created with RMIT students and industry professionals over three intense weeks, the exhibition provided interesting insight into the makings of a fascinating music video for an Australian band.

Following the success of Lucy’s innovative collaboration in Victoria, she has begun developing it into a new design school concept.

The other project funded by a veski award in design was X_Field Travelling Exhibition, a collaborative group of practitioners who work across art, architect, landscape architecture, urban and interior design.

Since launching in Melbourne, the exhibition has visited Korea and Beijing and will visit Taipei before returning to Melbourne in 2013. The shows in Korea and Beijing were a tremendous success and resulted in an invitation for two of the practitioners from the Melbourne team to exhibit in the Museum of Art at Seoul National University.

veski design awards support Australian talent to showcase their design excellence on a global stage. Awards are made to outstanding Victorian designers to take part in international exhibitions and fairs. Upon their return to Victoria, the designers share their experiences with the local community through workshops, symposiums, exhibitions and lectures.