Goings-On: Melbourne Design Week
It was Don Norman, director of The Design Lab at University of California, who said "Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design" and we tend to agree. So, to ensure no good design went unseen, we rounded up a list of Melbourne Design Week events and exhibitions that took place in and around the Gertrude street lap, making it easy to start your design-charged day with coffee at Morning Market, followed by a quick breather for lunch at The Builders Arms and easing into the day denouement at Marion.
Now in its 8th instalment, the scale of MDW is considered to be on par with that of Paris, New York and Shanghai Design Week, which is no small feat, and no doubt thirsty work when taking it all in. So we suggested a quick sip and snack in between viewings to ensure eloquent and fervent discourse, especially when considering this year's theme was ‘Design the World You Want’. Encouraging designers to put forward projects that might ‘heal, replenish, and enable life...as an act of repair and transformation.’, the relevance of this discussion cannot be understated when considering current global goings-on, and it most certainly could not have been done on an empty stomach.
Dining On Design: A Three Course Design Dialogue, Smith & Deli,107 Cambridge Street, Collingwood
Discussed over a dinner of seasonal plant-based dishes, guests were encouraged to consider the role design plays in tackling some of the most prominent issues of our time.
Design House Vol. 2, Oigåll Projects, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Oigåll Projects filled (really filled) their space with the works of incredible female designers to prove that there is no scarcity of work happening in this field.
Replica Autoprogettazione, Anibou Furniture, 3 Newton Street, Cremorne
“Sitting at the intersection of architecture, industrial design, authorship and modernism Replica Autoprogettazione surveys the current design landscape in a humorous and inventive light, looking for ways that we can design our way around the world we have, to arrive where we want.”
Work Shop: Low Key, Toni Maticevski X Fiona Lynch, and Fiona Lynch Archive, Fiona Lynch Office, 75 Langridge St, Collingwood
The three exhibitions that filled the Fiona Lynch space explored the quiet joy of research, illumination and beauty as well as showcasing some of the furniture and lighting pieces that make up the studio’s personal archive.
Here and There, 47 Derby Street, Collingwood
This was a solo exhibition by furniture designer Dirk du Toit, “exploring how local design emerges from ‘here’, while also being quietly shaped by international ideas and references from ‘there’.”
Objects by Fomu, Friends with Frank, 120 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
This window display exhibition showcased Fomu’s exploration of illumination and form.
Garniture, Oigåll Projects, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Another Oigåll Projects experience showcased Cordon Salon’s collection of lighting and object designs inspired by Western European Plate Armour, considering its ‘material, method and memory’.
V.Brokkr x Another Bureau Of Design x Bracken Projects, Seekers, 203 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Visible from the street, viewers were encouraged to take a closer look at the range of furniture, lighting and product designs on display, all by local makers with diverse design backgrounds.
The Okayama Project; The Simple Life, CIBI, 33-39 Keele Street, Collingwood
An on going exhibit ‘The Simple Life’ was accompanied by a series of talks hosted in the CIBI Collingwood design store, hoping to provide viewers with a taste of the simpler things in life and what slow living might look like.
Top Designs, Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton
Melbourne Museum showcased the work of some of Victoria’s most outstanding VCE, VM and VCE VET design and technology students at Top Designs 2025.
Image Credits: Melbourne Design Week