Place 8 groups of designers on stage. Add glue, cardboard and scissors and let the creativity simmer for 20 minutes until boiling point.

This seems to be the winning formula for the Iron Designer event at Melbourne’s State of Design two years running now.

With sell-out shows since its debut in 2008, Iron Designer is action-packed and extremely comical, its format inspired by the Iron Chef phenomenon.

The night is run in two rounds, with four teams battling it out on stage each round – the objective: to come up with a winning design concept in 20 minutes. Last year the competitors had to incorporate key themes into their designs, proving quite the challenge for those stuck with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Moscow and green. 

It’s a chance to get up close and personal with a bunch of designers, to see first hand how they process their abstract ideas into something more concrete (and pretty wacky in this case)!

But don’t think the most experienced designers have it in the bag – the title could be anyone’s considering last year’s winners were 3 Honours students from Monash University.

If you can’t make it down to Melbourne for State of Design, Iron Designer is taking to the road, so you can catch the mayhem in Sydney on 6 August at the Powerhouse Museum. 

Iron Designer at State of Design

stateofdesign.com.au/Public-Events/activities/iron-designer

Friday 23 July, 6:30pm