Above: a delighted visitor gets tactile at Interface’s Galleria installation

As the dust clears across Melbourne’s design precincts, bump-outs finish, and headaches ease, we look back on the two days of Melbourne Indesign with enormous satisfaction, and deep gratitude for everyone who helped make it such a great event.

The streets of Fitzroy-Collignwood come alive for MID

With more pre-registrations than ever, we were confident MID 2014 was going to be a success, but the enthusiasm and creativity of exhibitors and visitors alike has set a new standard.

Weylandts gets floral

The most important new element ­- Galleria – was abuzz with activity from the minute the doors opened on Friday. Relatively compact compared to the Sydney equivalent in 2013, the richness and variety of exhibitors created infectious electricity in the space that demanded engagement (our ‘brief’ visit lasted two hours!).

Preparing for festivities at Galleria

And of course the city’s precincts came alive, with fresh faces and familiar favourites alike unveiling, collaborating and entertaining. In Richmond’s Church Street and Collingwood’s central cluster alike, the density of locations animated the streetscape with electric green flags, lanyards, bags and decals – a true design invasion!

Elegantly presented new product at District 

As bustling as these hubs were, Melbourne’s avid design community was adamant to ferret out the less central locations as well, with visitors taking advantage of buses to methodically work their way through the exhibitor list.

Cafe Culture + Insitu gives the people what they want

Online, we were thrilled to see social media come alive over Friday and Saturday, with #MID14 popping up all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Many exhibitors hosted competitions on these channels with fantastic prizes, and the number and quality of entries is sure to make choosing winners a tough job!

Live glass blowing  demonstrations at Phillip Stokes Studio Glass

All up, the feedback from exhibitors and visitors was fantastic, and we noticed a lot of smiles.

So thanks Melbourne, you’re a star!

And stay tuned for all the post event coverage right here at: https://www.indesignlive.com/category/articles/in-review/mid-2014

Words by Marie Jakubowicz