RMIT alumni star in Victorian design retrospective

From decimal coins to Redheads Safety Matches, the ingenious designs of RMIT University alumni are the highlights of a new exhibition looking back at 175 years of Victorian design.

The Design Institute of Australia's 175 Years of Victorian Design exhibition is supported by RMIT and the RMIT Design Archives, as part of Victoria's celebration of 175 years of settlement.

Curator Ian Wong, an Industrial Design lecturer in the School of Architecture and Design, said the retrospective showcased the people and achievements underpinning designs that have formed part of Victoria's everyday fabric.

"This exhibition is about us Victorians," he said.

"While it includes design achievements that have a global impact, I don't think it's essential that we perform on a world stage for the designs to be of value to ourselves and our culture."

Mr Wong said the exhibition featured examples of everyday objects still in local production today that have set Australia apart as a manufacturing nation.

RMIT alumni featured in the exhibition include Richard Carlson, Alex Stitt, Robert Pataki, Ken Cato, Brian Sadgrove, Kate Bissett-Johnson, Kjell Grant, Francis Burke, Lionel Suttie, Barry Hudson, Richard Beck, Bruce Hall, Gerard Mussett, Phillip Slattery, David Flynn, Edward Kayser, Jack Magree, Steven Martinuzzo, Garry Emery and Dr Stuart Devlin.

Iconic objects, products and designs on display include:

• Australian Rules football (T.W. Sherrin, 1880)
• Malvern Star bicycles (Tom Finnigan, 1903)
• Rotary clothes line (Gilbert Toyne, 1911)
• Freddo Frog (MacRoberton's, 1930)
• Decimal coins (Dr Stuart Devlin, 1963)
• Décor cups (Brian Davis, Tony Wolfenden, Richard Carlson, 1970)
• Redheads safety matches (Brian Sadgrove, 1975)
• Décor wine cooler (Richard Carlson, 1978)
• Stackhat (PA Technology, 1982)
• Baby capsule (Robert Pataki, Phillip Slattery, 1982)
• Nylex water jug (Kate Bissett-Johnson, 1994)
• EN-V Project (GM Holden, 2010)

Internationally-renowned Victorian designs in the exhibition include the Safe N Sound baby capsule and Richard Carlson's insulated wine cooler.

The BYO cooler, designed for Décor in 1978, is one of the few Australian products in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The Safe N Sound baby capsule designed by Robert Pataki and Phillip Slattery in 1982 has safely carried more than 2 million babies home from hospital and defies the notion of "assumed planned obsolescence".

"This demonstrates the capability of manufacturers in Australia to develop a unique product that was meeting a need and to retain that market," Mr Wong said.

"The capacity of Australian industrial designers to achieve a high-quality product in a limited production environment is another characteristic embodied in some of the exhibits.

"There are products that were designed 20-25 years ago that have endured, they've not been threatened by cheap imports - what was done was exactly right and has been retained."

This is the third exhibition to emanate from Mr Wong's interest in locally-designed products, which has grown from his doctoral research at RMIT into the history of industrial design in Victoria.

It is the eighth exhibition to be staged at DIA's Design Gallery since the contemporary space was launched in May this year.

The DIA is the only multidisciplinary organisation representing designers in Australia, promoting the value of design and designers to industry, business, government and the community.

175 Years of Victorian Design is at the Design Gallery, Level 1, Kurrajong House, 175 Collins Street, Melbourne, until December 23. Entry is free.

Décor wine cooler by RMIT alumnus Richard Carlson (1978).

Stackhat by PA Technology (1982).