This year’s Sydney Indesign, which incorporated the new ‘Galleria’ space in the refurbished train workshops of Redfern, treated the Australian creative community to a weekend of all things great about design. Extending throughout Sydney’s inner-city ‘creative arc’ – Surry Hills, Chippendale, Alexandria and Waterloo – the new-look Sydney Indesign brought together designers, suppliers, manufacturers and specifiers in a celebration of the region’s architecture and design community. 

Expanding on its successful predecessor in Saturday in Design (SiD), the inaugural Sydney Indesign: The Experience, took the ‘day of design’ format and expanded it into a full three-day weekend of food, music and fun showcasing the newest designer products. And with over 8,400 attendees, 103 exhibitors and 23 unique collaborations for ‘The Project’, it was certainly an event like no other. “Sydney Indesign was the place to be,” said one visitor, “not only for industry insiders, but for design lovers venturing out to seek inspiration.”

Although the open days for the showrooms remained the centrepiece of what the event is all about, the inclusion of the ‘Galleria’ space presented a new, and exciting central venue for the design community to meet, exchange ideas and survey the newest inventions and products in the industry. “I thought the event was definitely the best ever, and the Galleria was fantastic,” said another visitor.

Sydney Indesign: The Experience also reached new heights on social media with over 4146 ‘likes’ on Facebook, 1744 followers on Twitter and 1613 followers on Instagram. The new Indesign format also inspired editorial coverage across several media platforms, including; Art News Portal, Design100, Design Addicts Platform, Frankly, Yellowtrace, Vogue Living Blog and many more. Sydney Indesign: The Experience also utilised a versatile and invigorating marketing campaign targeted at specific industry groups, which featured in Belle magazine, Interiors Addict, Property Observer, Surface Asia, and across the entire Indesign Media range – Habitusliving, Habitus magazine, Indesignlive, Indesign magazine and DQ magazine.

Both design practitioners and design consumers also enjoyed our new speaker series. Our Worklife and LiveLife series, brought to you by Indesign and Habitus magazines, discussed and debated issues close to the design community in various showrooms and the Indesign Podium over all three days. And our Launch Pad programme, which started in 2003, had a record number of 154 entrants this year, with 54 entries shortlisted, and 11 making it through to the finalists stage. As these results show, Sydney Indesign: The Experience was a resounding success. And it will be back next year, as Melbourne Indesign – bigger and better as it continues to grow to be the corner-stone event in the Region’s design community.

Photography: Fiona Susanto, John Doughty, Rollo Hardy