AGDA Announces the Australian Design Biennale for 2012

24th January, 2012

Dear designers, sponsors and friends of AGDA.
 
Happy 2012.
 
Ten years ago I was fortunate enough to be involved in the 2002 AGDA Awards in Melbourne working with Amanda, Sally-Anne, Mimmo, David, Russell, and Dianna. We delivered an ambitious idea and a strong legacy of lessons learnt
 
The AGDA Awards programme began its life in Melbourne over twenty years ago, and it’s appropriate that it should evolve to reflect the changes over time and the shifts in our thinking.
 
In the ten years since 2002, we have witnessed awards programmes popping up everywhere and I have been thinking about ways in which a beast like an awards programme can offer engagement, knowledge and meaning to the community. This process has brought into question the motives and reasons why awards were created in the first place, and has encouraged the formulation of a new brief—a shift in approach to celebrating design excellence, craft and community.
 
In 2012 the AGDA Biennial Awards will be renamed The Australian Design Biennale. Being a Biennale year 2012 invites designers, clients and suppliers across the region to celebrate the design process, the people who make it happen, and the work that is produced. The Biennale year is an opportunity to reflect, challenge and dream.
 
The inaugural Australian Design Biennale is inspired by the origins of the AGDA Awards programme. It will be a stripped back approach, a raw and inspired framework organized by a spirited and engaged team—the idea of getting back to the basics of design is fundamental to this programme.
 
The AGDA Melbourne Awards event will be a weekend affair.
 
On Friday share a drink and a meal at the favourite watering holes with designers and studios across Melbourne.
 
On Saturday visit a gallery, go for a run round the Tan, smash out a few Ks by the bay, have lunch in Mornington, wander around an arcade, gallery or chase down a tram to Collingwood.
 
Saturday night, frock up for the Awards at Melbourne’s eastern gothic mode, The Forum Theatre. This year is about celebrating ALL Australian design, the work, the designers, and the clients and suppliers who have supported us. A condensed ceremony will give way to an extended party to catch up, celebrate, congratulate, find a dark corner, take in the spectacle, dance a little and make up for lost time.
 
Sunday, catch up on some sleep, do some tai-chi, seek a coffee fix, hit Camberwell market or find a late lunch.
 
Put 24 November, Melbourne in your diary, get together a list of your Biennale entries and think about how you’d like to celebrate design in 2012.
 
Stay tuned, and we’ll see you in Melbourne in November for a weekend that has all the ingredients that make good design what it is.

Andrew Ashton
Chair
Australian Design Biennale 2012

photo: Port Phillip Bay at dusk © Andrew Ashton