Even though it only feels like 2018 has just begun, there has been plenty of happenings – both here and abroad.

It’s all about anniversaries to celebrate lately – Cult did its 20 years in style recently with a huge event in the Sydney showroom. WAF celebrated hitting its 10^th anniversary late last year and also announced that in 2018 the event will move from Berlin to Amsterdam. On home soil, the Good Design Awards has announced its big 60^th will be taking place at the iconic Sydney Opera House, which is set to be a stellar evening of iconic design.

From our camp, we were really pleased to launch The Collection – a comprehensive directory to help you with specifying. If you’ve not already seen it, take a look. We also announced the jury for Launch Pad 2018, and it’s chock full of industrial design talent – including Benjamin Hubert, Michael Young, Henry Wilson and Tom Skeehan. And there’s a bit over a week left to enter. We’ve also been quietly working away on a new specifier event that cuts away the usual fanfare seen in tradeshows. If you haven’t come across FRONT yet, take a look here and mark 9-10 August in your diary. More to come soon though.

Our friends at the Architecture Foundation announced a 2018 Conference in Deerubbin. And the NGV has announced the call for the next Architecture Commission, get in there and see your design come to life at the junction of art and architecture. Across the Asia Pacific region, the Serpentine pavilion is doing its first temporary structure outside of London, and guess where they chose to put it? China. Just shows the power of the Asia Pac region and we’re thrilled to be reporting from it. A big controversy that has ruffled lots of feathers of late is Apple moving into Melbourne’s Federation Square. Architecture&Design investigates the conversations surrounding the announcement, and ArchitectureAU has been reporting heavily if you’re not in know.

All design lovers in Sydney and Melbourne best get prepared, the next two weeks will see Sydney Design Festival and Melbourne Design Week take over the cities. Expect your evenings and weekends to be filled with design inspiration. Plus, it’s the perfect opportunity to enjoy a cheeky drink and do some mingling. In other design event announcements, Denfair will be coming to Sydney… But the question remains, will the Sydney crowds embrace the Melbourne event? 

Despite all the reasons to pop the champagne, we have sadly said goodbye to three industry stalwarts. Michael Crouch AC not only pioneered Zip Water, he was a huge advocate for design and the arts. It’s an understatement to say it’s a huge loss. The same can be said for Judith Sutton, who founded Woven Image, our thoughts are with the family. We were also very sad to hear of the passing of Janne Faulkner AM. As an Indesign Luminary, Janne was truly one of Australia’s interior design greats, we pay homage to her work at the helm of Nexus by re-publishing her Luminary profile from the archives.

Stay tuned for my next monthly wrap-up, and make sure you’re signed up to the Indesignlive newsletter to keep your finger on the design industry pulse.

– Raj, Founder Indesign Media Asia Pacific