RMIT Design Archives in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Arts and entertainment

RMIT Design Archives

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9925 9942

Address: 154 Victoria Street 3000 Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Website: rmit.edu.au/designarchives

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25.01.2022 Our friends at ICAM Australasia, a regional network of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (icam), have sent us a link to an international forum on digital architectural archive collections. The forum is being staged by the Library of Congress in Washington, and will cover born-digital collecting and exhibiting on Thursday December 3rd. It's a tad early for Melburnians to watch the forum live, however the Library of Congress plans to record this free event. See details for registration below.

25.01.2022 Design and manufacturing is the focus of next issue of the RMIT Design Archives Journal. It will include articles by Philip Goad on the architecture of manufacturing; Laura Jocic on independent design and fashion production in Melbourne from 1983-1994; Giorgio Marfella on the design of a headquarters for a major textile manufacturer; and Robbie Napper on bicycle design. Philip Goad opens the collection with an examination of post-war Australia when architects, artists and d...esigners were enlisted as part of a broader push in a new and vitial project of national recovery: the establishment and growth of a resilient local manufacturing industry. While Marella investigates the design by Guilford Bell and David Godsell in 1959 of the Melbourne headquarters of textile manufacturer Feltex. As editor Harriet Edquist writes Jocic and Napper discuss the ways in which manufacturing impacts on the design process. Jocic paints a picture of fashion production in the 1980s through the archives of Bruce Slorach and Sara Thorn, and Napper investigates mass customisation of bicycle design where the customer plays a central role. To receive a free digital copy of the Journal subscribe via the RMIT Design Archives website, or to receive a printed copy contact us by email ($20 plus $5 postage). The Journal will be released in December. Image credit Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness (Melbourne: Cheshire 1960) illustration by Robin Boyd Factory ‘X-TRA the Home of Special, 1960 Estate of Robin Boyd, courtesy Robin Boyd Foundation. #rmitdesignarchives #designjournal #rmituniversity #manufacturing #fashiondesign #bicycledesign #factorydesign #textiledesign #rmitculture

25.01.2022 #Repost @astittintime Here’s a post from the team of Master of Communication Design Students @astittintime . Ever heard of the Jigsaw Factory? ... . Inspired by working with educators Bill and Lorna Hanna, graphic design duo Alex Stitt and Bruce Weatherhead opened the Jigsaw Factory in 1971. . Their vision was ambitious, to engage children in learning through fun. A true collaborative learning space, workshops were also run by Nancy Cato from ABC’s children's program Adventure Island. This included making posters, cut-outs, puzzles and games. Stay tuned to see some examples from the Jigsaw Factory throughout the week! . Image credit: Photograph of Interior Jigsaw Factory, 1971-1973, Gift of Georgia Weatherhead, RMIT Design Archives collection. . Explore more on October 14th when our exhibition launches! . #AStittintime #AlexStitt #VirtualExhibition #RMITDesignArchives #TheJigsawFactory #GrendelGrendelGrendel #LifeBeInIt #VictoriaWhatHappenedWhereandWhen #StayHome #VirtualGallery #AlexStittInTheArchives #ASIT2020 #Stitt2020 #stittchallenge See more

24.01.2022 Here are some page spreads from Christine Phillips and Peter Raisbeck’s article ‘Robin Boyd: The Wizard of Oz’ which was published in the Robin Boyd issue of the RMIT Design Archives Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2019. The Boyd issue of the Journal was one of the shortlisted entries in Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards. Typographer and designer extraordinaire, Stephen Banham designed the Journal. Museums Australasia received over 180 publications and des...igns. The award ceremony is today, and it aims to celebrate the wonderful and important work the Australian Museums and Galleries sector produces, especially in times of trouble and flux. The Journal is available to read on issuu, and the RMIT Design Archives website. #rmitdesignarchives #museumsaustralia #designawards #australiandesignawards #designjournal

24.01.2022 Here's a link to 'A Stitt in Time', a masterly online exhibition produced by the students in RMIT's Master of Communication program. The class of Curating and Exhibiting Design students have captured the essence of Alex Stitt's creative practice, and brought the RDA's archival records to life. Stitt's best known the creator of Norm who starred in the Life Be in it. program, but as you will discover there's more to Stitt, than Norm. The exhibition is a joyful and clever celebration of one of RMIT's stellar alumni. Congratulations everyone. https://www.astittintime.com/alex-stitt

21.01.2022 #Repost @astittintime There is still time to book into the Humour in Design panel discussion on Wednesday 14 October at 4pm. It is presented by RMIT’s Master of Communication Design Students. Special guests include Dan Torre, senior lecturer, writer, and academic at RMIT University, Julian Frost, a well known and awarded illustrator and animator, and director of the widely successful campaign Dumb ways to die, and Lienora Torre, an artist, lecturer, curator and practic...ed-based researcher at Deakin University. Bookings via Eventbrite. The students will also be launching an online exhibition exploring the work of legendary designer, Alex Stitt, head to the #astittintime for details. Image credit: Alex Stitt, designer, Your Pharmacist is here to help you, ‘I've decided to stop smoking. What do I do now?’, poster, (detail), 1970-1980, RMIT Design Archives, 0105.2010.0226. Poster advising people to talk to their pharmacist if they are trying to stop smoking, part of the Life. Be in It. Here to help campaign. #AStittintime #AlexStitt #VirtualExhibition #RMITDesignArchives #TheJigsawFactory #GrendelGrendelGrendel #LifeBeInIt #VictoriaWhatHappenedWhereandWhen #StayHome #VirtualGallery #AlexStittInTheArchives #ASIT2020 #Stitt2020 #stittchallenge #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #rmituniversity

21.01.2022 It’s Melbourne Fashion Week, and we are celebrating one of Melbourne’s old masters. Hall Ludlow’s (born New Zealand 1919, arrived Australia 1947, died 2003) fashion practice became an intrinsic part of Melbourne’s high fashion ideal of the 1950s. According to RMIT University’s Robyn Healy, Ludlow played a critical role in the economic push to establish ‘Australian’ fashionability and design, both as a symbol of national identity and key export commodity. The collection of ‘t...oiles’ from the RDA's Hall Ludlow archive, provide an insight into the technical process and design iconography of Ludlow’s designs, these unique garment fabric prototypes/pattern templates show the process of how a dress was formed and detailed. Just one of the treasures from the Design Archives fashion and textile archives. Image credit: Hall Ludlow, toile of cocktail dress, c. 1950s, Gift of Diane Masters, 0008.2009.0001.1-10 #MelbourneFashionWeek #rmitdesignarchives #fashion #1950style #rmitculture #rmituniversity #archives #patterns

19.01.2022 Here is a link to the latest issue of Archivoz, a free informative digital journal in a blog format relating to archives and records management. The Australian content manager is Evanthia Samaras, an alumni of RMIT, and staff member of PROV. We are delighted that the RMIT Design Archives and it's remarkable collection of illustrations by Alfredo Bouret featured in this issue of Archivoz. Congratulations to Rebecca Lloyd, a Master of Cultural Heritage intern for her work on Bouret's Mexican illustrations in the Archives in 2019.

19.01.2022 #Repost @astittintime Humour in Design Panel Discussion. RMIT University Masters of Communication Design students present a playful, thoughtful and dynamic intersection of design and humour. Panellists will showcase and discuss the practice of designing with a sense of humour. Hear from well-renowned illustrator Julian Frost, academics Dan Torre and Lienors Torre, and RMIT Archives curator Ann Carew as they traverse this dynamic craft.... Register to the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/humour-in-design-tickets-12343 Artwork produced by Master of Communication Design Students, RMIT, GRAPH2658, Term 2, 2020, inspired by work of Alexander Stitt. We acknowledge that this exhibition was largely produced on unceded lands of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders, past, present, and emerging. We extend this respect to the First Nations Custodians across all the lands this digital exhibition reaches.

18.01.2022 Curious about the front cover image on ‘Robin Boyd: Late Works’? It is a virus display in the Australian Pavilion at Expo 1967 You’ll have to grab a copy of the book to find out more. Congratulations to Dr. Christine Phillips, RMIT University, and Dr. Peter Raisbeck, The University of Melbourne, the authors of this new account of Boyd’s work. The book focuses on Boyd’s creative practice from 1961 until 1971, and examines his public architecture, urban design, multi-reside...ntial design, exhibition designs and multi-media presentations. The book is the result of deep archival research in the RMIT Design Archives, the State Library of Victoria, and the National Archives of Australia, and includes previously unpublished drawings and photographs. The award winning graphic designer, Stuart Geddes, an industry fellow at RMIT University, designed the book. Order a copy online from Uro Publications. Image credits. Christine Phillips and Peter Raisbeck, Robin Boyd: Late Works, (Melbourne, Vic. Uro Publications, 2020), detail of cover and page spread #rmitdesignarchives #rmituniversity #rmitculture #robinboyd #expo #SLV #NationalArchivesofAustralia #Carnich #unbuiltprojects #Australianarchitecture

17.01.2022 Athens of the South is emblazoned across the program for the 1969 Australian Architectural Students’ Association meeting in Adelaide. From 1963 architecture students across Australia and New Zealand began to organize gatherings to critique their profession, their education and society. The Adelaide program was a jam-packed program, public speakers included Jane Abercombie, Denis Crompton and Marty Webb. Guides to Adelaide’s accommodation, watering holes, and discos, were a...ll part of the package. The RDA staff send our very best wishes to our colleagues in Adelaide this weekend, as they endure the toughest COVID-19 lockdown yet in Australia. The program was donated by Ian Godfrey and Lecki Ord in 2014. Please contact us if you know the name of the designer. Visit the RDA collection highlights page to see more of the 29 pages of the program. Image caption: Australasian Architecture Students Association, poster titled AASA CONVENTION ADELAIDE 1969, 0025.2014.0043 Gift of Ian Godfrey and Lecki Ord 2014 #rmitdesignarchives #activism #student #pedagogy #architecture #Australianarchitecture #AASA #archives #rmituniversity #Adelaide

13.01.2022 Celebrating Grand Final Day ... held in Peter Corrigan’s extensive archive is this postcard promoting the 1996 exhibition ‘Eyes on the Ball: images of Australian Rules Football’. Curated by Chris McAuliffe, the travelling exhibition was first shown at Waverley City Gallery (now Monash Gallery of Art) during the 1996 football season. Peter Tyndall’s painting was one of the works exhibited and is reproduced on the card. Go Cats! Go Tiges! Commiserations to Saints and Demons... fans ... and all those diehard footy fans in lockdown in Victoria. Image caption: Waverley City Gallery, Eyes on the Ball exhibition invitation incorporating painting by artist Peter Tyndall, 1996, Peter Corrigan Collection, RMIT Design Archives, 0006.2017.0037, Peter Tyndall, courtesy Anna Schwartz Gallery. Artwork caption: Title detail/A person Looks At A Work of Art/someone looks at something/Saints v Demons/after The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism/by Tommaso Siciliano/Medium A Person Looks At A Work of Art/someone looks at something/CULTURAL CONSUMPTION PRODUCTION/Date -1585 1996/Artist Peter Tyndall #afl #footy #architecture #design #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #petercorrigan #rmituniversity

11.01.2022 Repost from @astittintime astittintime Here’s an exercise to get you moving before lunch. Can you reach for your knees and then your toes? Head to @astittintime for more exercise inspiration. It’s a new Instagram account established by RMIT’s Master of Communication Design students. ... The project will explore the creative practice of graphic designer Alexander Stitt through social media channels, a website and an app. Image credit Master of Communication students, RMIT University #astittintime #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #rmituniversity #rmitcommdesign #practicebasedlearning #alexanderstitt

11.01.2022 Birds have long been the inspiration for artists, musicians and designers. In the 1960s and 1970s the World Record Club’s art director Geoff Digby invited young Melbourne graphic designers, Rob Haberfield, John Copeland, David Leonard and Alex Stitt to design contemporary record sleeves for classical music, here are a few sleeves inspired by birds. 1. World Record Club, ‘Stravinksy: The Fire Bird Complete Ballet’, 1973, conducted Ernest Ansermet, performed by L'Orchestre De L...a Suisse Romande. The Firebird composed by Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky, and inspired by the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. Sleeve designer Rob Haberfield. 2. World Record Club ‘Rimsky: Le Coq d'or Ballet Suite’, 1961, conducted by Sir Eugene Goossens, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra. Le Coq D’or, aka, The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 poem, ‘The Tale of the Golden Cockerel’. Cover designer, David Leonard. 3. World Record Club, ‘Bach Hunting Cantata Telemann ‘Canary Cantata’, April 1967, conducted by Karl Forster and performed by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Sleeve designer John Copeland. 4. World Record Club, ‘Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor’ and Cesar Frank, ‘Symphonic Variations’, conducted Constantin Silvestri, performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orcestra, 1969. Sleeve designer Alex Stitt. It’s National Bird Week in Australia, and the easiest way to get involved is to count the birds in your backyard! A citizen science project. See the Aussie Backyard Bird Count for details. Image credits: All records held in the RDA’s World Record Club collection, Gift of Geoff Digby, 0022.2014 #birds #classicalmusic #worldrecordclub #melbournedesign #australiandesign #firebird #canary #cockerell #recordsleeves #rmitculture #rmituniversity

09.01.2022 #Repost @astittintime Featured work produced by Alex Stitt. . Can you do 30 minutes of exercise for 30 days?... . The poster above encourages 30 minutes for 30 days and outlines 30 benefits that this small activity could have on one's overall health. Swipe across to see how just 30 minutes of physical activity could change your day. . Image credit: Alex Stitt, designer, poster for the 'Find 30 x 30: The Life. Be in it. Fitness Plan,’ 1983, RMIT Design Archives collection. . Explore more on October 14 when the Masters of Communication Design students launch their exhibition A Stitt in Time! . #AStittintime #AlexStitt #VirtualExhibition #RMITDesignArchives #TheJigsawFactory #GrendelGrendelGrendel #LifeBeInIt #VictoriaWhatHappenedWhereandWhen #StayHome #VirtualGallery #AlexStittInTheArchives #ASIT2020 #Stitt2020 #stittchallenge See more

08.01.2022 'Robin Boyd: Late Works' is now available through Uro Publications. In the fascinating interview below Dr. Christine Phillips and Dr. Peter Raisbeck, give an insight into their deep archival research in the RMIT Design Archives, the State Library of Victoria, and the National Archives of Australia. This new book is the result of a 10 year journey through the archives, and focusses on a neglected areas of Boyd's practice, including unbuilt civic and urban projects. Congratulations to the authors and the publishers for bringing Boyd's late works to our attention in this lavishly illustrated book.

08.01.2022 Featured art work created by Alex Stitt. The Stitt in Time exhibition has launched! Explore both Alex Stitt’s creative practice and RMIT Communication Design student work inspired by Stitt. Congratulations everyone, it's a joyful and masterly presentation of a legendary designer's work! As the students' observe:... With a career spanning 50 years and work characterised by humour, wit and vibrant colours, Australian designer Alex Stitt’s work has reached an intergenerational audience. You may have heard of Norm or Aunty Ivy? Some of the beloved characters he created in the 70s for his iconic ‘Life. Be in it.’ campaign. Maybe you visited the Jigsaw Factory that resided in Richmond in the 70s? Or watched the cult film Grendel, Grendel, Grendel? Give this page a follow @astittintime and join the students as they explore Alex's career and creations, from Life. Be In It to Grendel, Grendel, Grendel. Follow the link in the bio to access the exhibition. . #AStittintime #AlexStitt #VirtualExhibition #RMITDesignArchives #TheJigsawFactory #GrendelGrendelGrendel #LifeBeInIt #VictoriaWhatHappenedWhereandWhen #StayHome #VirtualGallery #AlexStittInTheArchives #ASIT2020 #Stitt2020 #StittChallenge #rmituniversity #rmitculture Image credit: Alex Stitt, Poster titled 'Life.Be in it.: Planning an activity day', 1984-1986, Gift of Paddy and Alex Stitt, 0105.2010.0048.1

07.01.2022 The RDA’s photograph of Robin Boyd’s model for Wynn House is part of a new RMIT Gallery online exhibition, called ‘Museum of Me: a student belonging exhibition’. RMIT University student, Rhys Cousins, a landscape architect, sessional academic, designer and aspiring artist selected the photograph for his online showcase in the exhibition. His interpretative label reads, I loved my early formal education in Landscape Architecture. The transition from high school to university...? Not so much. It was a leap that I was not ready for and often was lost with the ambiguity of theory, and the academic world. So, to ground myself, I went back to where I was comfortable making models, often of architectural forms. Robin Boyd was an early inspiration in making and representation. Black and white, for me, has always produced qualities that are lost when colour is introduced. Just before COVID-19 started Cousins moved into his own studio space and viewed the pandemic as an opportunity to focus on his aspirations as an early career artist. His studio itself has become a project titled from my window facing the street. You can check out Cousin’s photographs, and read his reflections about the pandemic in the Museum of Me online exhibition. It’s curated and presented by students across the University. Congratulations everybody! See link in bio. Wynn House is one of Boyd’s unbuilt projects. There are two other views of the model in the RDA’s collection. Image credit: Robin Boyd, architect, ‘Black and white photograph of model of Wynn house’, (1954), photograph by unknown photographer, RMIT Design Archives, Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd 2008, 0020.2008.0858 #rmitdesignarchives #studentexhibitions #robinboyd #architecturalmodels #photography #blackandwhitephotography #COVIDprojects #rmitgallery #rmitculture #rmituniversity #midcenturymodernarchitecture

07.01.2022 Winning entry! Congratulations to Stephen Banham, whose design for the RMIT Design Archives Journal 9:2, 2019, Robin Boyd Redux, has won an award in Museums Australasia Publication Design Awards. This year MAPDA received over 180 entries from museums, galleries and archives across Australia and New Zealand, the RDA Journal was the winning entry in the Magazine Level A category. The entries were judged by a panel representing the galleries and museums, the Indigenous communit...y, graphic designers and the print industry. The criteria include an original creative idea and innovative concept. Design skills in the expression and extension of the idea through suitable typography, photography, illustration, form structure and material use. The RDA’s award-winning issue was published to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Melbourne architect and writer, Robin Boyd. Many thanks to Stephen Banham, the editors Harriet Edquist and Karen Burns, and all the contributors including Jane Connory, Rory Hyde, Virginia Mannering, Philip Goad, Christine Phillips and Peter Raisbeck. A special thanks to the Isaacson Davis Foundation who generously supported the issue. You can read the Journal on issuu,or download a copy from the RMIT Design Archives website. Thank you to Australian Museums and Galleries Association for their support of the annual MAPDA awards. Image credit: Janusz Molinski, David Lancashire and Stephen Banham at the launch in the RDA, November 2019. #rmitdesignarchives #melbournedesign #communicationdesign #designjournal #rmituniversity #rmitalumni #archives #MAPDA #AMaGA #midcenturyarchitecture

06.01.2022 It’s the weekend and time to relax if you are looking for exercise or design inspiration visit A Stitt in time, a new online interactive exhibition that presents the creative practice of the legendary designer Alexander Stitt, alongside art works inspired by Stitt and created by Masters of Communication Design students from RMIT University. The exhibition was launched on Wednesday night at a special online event, Humour and Design, hosted by the students with special guest...s Dan Torre, Julian Frost and Lienors Torre. Congratulations to all the students and their lecturers Fayen D’Evie and Chris Mether. It’s a wonderful project. As well as an exhibition website, Facebook page, there’s also an app, and some cool merchandise including facemasks designed by the students. Image credit: Artwork produced by Master of Communication Design students, RMIT GRAPJ2658, Term 2, 2020, inspired by the work of Alex Stitt #astittintime #AlexStitt #virtualexhibition #RMITDesignArchives #theJigsawFactory #facemasks #yoga #lifebeinit #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #stittchallenge

06.01.2022 Retail therapy. Many Melburnians will be heading to the shops today, and rediscovering their City’s arcades and laneways. Hooray! Prue Acton and her sister Sue established the ‘Prue and Sue’ boutique in Melbourne’s Block Arcade in the late 1960s. Their names were painted in pink script on the shops plate glass windows. Young women loved Acton’s affordable fashion forward clothes you can see a few classic examples in this picture. The Block Arcade was designed by archit...ects Twentyman & Askew, and constructed between 1891 and 1893. It is one of Melbourne's most richly decorated arcade interiors. In the 1960s rents were affordable, and it became a hub for a new wave of fashionistas. It's still a favourite haunt of Melburnians today. Image credit: Unknown photographer, Interior Prue and Sue boutique, Block Arcade, Melbourne, 1969, The Prue Acton Collection, Museum of Victoria and RMIT, Donated by Prue Acton 1994, 0017.2011.0010 #PrueActon #fashion #fashionretailing #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #rmituniversity #blockarcade #Melbourne #Twentyman&Askew #boutiques #COVID-19

06.01.2022 Embedding Indigenous knowledge into creative practice and design processes has been a strong focus for students from RMIT’s School of Architecture and Urban Design this year. Fifteen students worked in partnership with Boon Wurrung Elder N’Arwee’t Dr Carolyn Briggs AM in the ‘Yirramboi’ Studio during their final semester, with many saying the experience was life changing. Senior Lecturer and also a member of the RMIT Design Archives Advisory panel, Dr Christine Phillips said... it was part of a broader program at the University to embed Indigenous knowledge into research, learning and teaching. We want our students to really understand what that means and to be more inclusive about how we design in a manner that recognises and celebrates Australia’s 60,000 years of Indigenous knowledge, history and culture. Read the attached article to find out more about this innovative program.

04.01.2022 A new book for your design library. Architectural Drawings\Collecting In Australia has just been released by Melbourne Books. Written by leading architectural historian Professor Miles Lewis, it is a guide for curators on how to collect, interpret and conserve architectural drawings. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the book gives the reader a vivid picture of the architectural drawing collections in archives, libraries, museums, and private collections in Australia. It ...is a feast for the eyes. ICAM Australasia the regional network of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums, and its members have assisted with the provision of images. ICAM, and the author, aims to promote the collection and preservation of drawings and encourage the development of uniform standards and approaches. We are delighted to see a selection of highlights from the RDA’s architectural drawings collections have been included. This invaluable book is published by Melbourne Books. It has been supported by the Vera Moore Foundation. It’s a hard cover with jacket, 270 x 220 mm portrait, and the RRP is $80. For all inquiries contact Melbourne Books. Image credit: Cover of Architectural Drawings in Australia. The Illustration is the Federal Capital Design Competition 1911-12, entry by Walter and Marion Griffin. Sections through the City, Axis BA Central Basin Government Group [detail], by Marion Mahony Griffin. National Archives of Australia A710, 43 #icam #architecturaldrawings #design #designbooks #Australiandesign #Australianarchitecture #culturalheritage #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #rmituniversity #melbournebooks

03.01.2022 #bornthisday. Happy Birthday to Gerhard Herbst (1911-2011), textile designer and teacher who was born on 1 February 1911 in Dresden, Germany. His parents were Anna Herbst, a medical student and Gustav Thiele, a machinist and engineer. Herbst spent his early years in a textile processing town south-east of Berlin, Cottus, where he lived with his foster parents, Franz and Emmi Lode. He is thought to have attended the Prussian Secondary School for the Textile Industry in Cottbus.... As a young man he worked on window displays, and by the mid-1930s secured a position as a window dresser in Munich in a music store owned by the Jacob family, who were Jewish. In 1938, Herbst travelled to Australia, sponsored by the Jacob's son Kurt who had already established a branch of the family music business in Sydney. Herbst subsequently moved to Melbourne where he joined Prestige, as display manager and assistant to the advertising manager at Prestige. In 1940 he enlisted in the AIF and was attached to the 2nd Employment Company. In 1945 he rejoined Prestige as an art director and led Prestige’s new textile design studio. Herbst engaged young designers and artists, and devised novel publicity campaigns including innovative film and photographic promotions. The image pictured is one of the memorable images he created combining a modern fabric design, superb photography, and a beautiful model. The model is Susan Tandler a young textile designer and alumni of RMIT. In 1948 Herbst began to teach at the Melbourne Technical College, and in 1959 became a lecturer in Industrial Design. He taught design until his retirement in 1976. Herbst was awarded the RMIT Centenary Medallion in 1987. Image credit: Black and white photograph of Susan Tandler modelling Prestige Fabrics, c. 1952,(detail), Gift of Gerard Herbst, 0001.2001.0001, #bornthisday #textiledesign #blackandwhite photography #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #fashionphotography

02.01.2022 Saving for a Rainy Day. Dutch-born designer Pieter Huveneers (1927-2017) designed this poster for the British Post Office Savings Bank in 1957. It’s one of many posters illustrated and designed by Huveneers for the British Post Office. In the 1950s the postal savings systems provided depositors who did not have access to banks a safe a convenient method to save money and aimed to promote saving by those on low incomes. You can see more of these poster designs for the British... Post Office Savings Bank on the RDA’s website. The Huveneers’ collection held at the RMIT Design Archives includes of graphic design, industrial design and corporate identity design created in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia. After fleeing the Nazi’s in Utrecht, Huveneers spent two years in hiding, and then studied design. He first came to prominence when his posters were exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951. We’ve recently added some great examples of the international and British posters to the RDA’s collections highlights page. After spending 15 years in England, and a brief period working for Philips in the Netherlands, Huveneers emigrated to Australia in 1968, where he worked for brands such as ICI, Telecom, Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) and Westpac. The collection is currently being catalogued and digitised for a forthcoming issue of the RMIT Design Archives Journal. We hope you are all keeping dry today! Image credit: Pieter Huveneers, Poster for Post Office Savings Bank caption Well protected, 1957, Gift of Tanis Wilson, 0011.2019.0250 #huveneers #archives #graphicdesign #rmitdesignarchives #rmitculture #BritishPost #PostOffice #savingsbank #illustration #graphicdesign

01.01.2022 The Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards award ceremony is today at 4pm. The ceremony is free and open to all. The association received over 180 publications and designs, celebrating the wonderful and important work the Australian Museums and Galleries sector produces, especially in times of trouble and flux. We were delighted that the RMIT Design Archives Journal was one of the selected entries. The best entries will win an award at the MAPDA 2020 Awards Ceremony today. Just click the link to register your name and email and you will receive a link to attend the ceremony at 4pm AEST on Wednesday 23 September.

01.01.2022 A date for your diaries - Designing A Legacy, a one-hour documentary by Tim Ross, comedian, architecture enthusiast and self-described design nerd, is screening on ABC TV on Tuesday 2 February at 8.30pm and will then be available on iVIEW. The documentary includes footage of RMIT University's McCraith house, aka The Butterfly House, designed by Chancellor and Patrick in 1955. Tim Ross explores how the architecture of our homes has the ability to affect more than those who grow up in those four walls - when we build with consideration and conviction. See trailer for more details. #design #architecture #midcenturymodern