Designing Bright Futures

DBF 2019 Website header

21 November 2019 - 22 January 2020

Designing Bright Futures 2019 presents exciting new work by emerging design practitioners. These new designers consider social and environmental impacts and speak to their vision of what it means to be a designer today. 

An exhibition celebrating the optimism, ideas and ambitions of the next generation of designers and makers, Designing Bright Futures continues Australian Design Centre’s commitment to supporting the work of makers and designers at every stage of their careers.

As Designing Bright Futures is now in its fourth year we decided to include a selection of designers from previous years to see what they have been up to post-university.

Exhibiting Designers: 
Maria Adriano, Sofia Echesortu, Blake Griffiths, Sunny Lei, Forough Najarbehbahani, Olivia Spark, Ivana Taylor, Yanting Zhan. 

These young designers are grappling with what it means to be a designer in a time when we are all contemplating the big issues such as climate change, urban growth, minimisation of waste, ageing populations and reconciling our Indigenous heritage and colonial past. A focus on these issues is liberating design from its commercial role in the industrial age and redefining it as a discipline of resourcefulness, instinct and ingenuity. 

The designers were selected by a curatorial panel: ADC’s CEO and Artistic Director Lisa Cahill, UNSW Art & Design’s Stephen Goddard and designer Elliat Rich.

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Events

Opening night
Join us for the opening celebrations of Designing Bright Futures 2019.
When: Thursday 21 November, 6 - 8pm
Where: Australian Design Centre
Free event, bookings required. RSVP here

Designers Floor Talk
Take a guided tour through the exhibition with the designers.
When: Saturday 30 November, 11.30am – 12.30pm
Where: Australian Design Centre
Free event, bookings required


Explore previous Designing Bright Futures exhibitions here: 2016 | 2017 | 2018

Top Images: L-R: Sofia Echesortu, Battery Powered Performance, 2019; Sunny Lei, Assembling Offcuts Publication Prototype, 2019; Forough Najarbehbahani, Demarcation - After Interaction, 2019. Photos courtesy of the artists.  

Maria Adriano

Derived from the Tagalog word for community or nation, Bayan is a series of spaces that take inspiration from traditional Philippine architecture.

Sofia Echesortu

A New Normal is a research-based design project focused on reshaping cities to become self-sufficient.

Blake Griffiths

Coat of Arms: Totem Status is from a series of pieces called National Emblem Reconstructed, that largely utilise feathers and fur from the animals of the National coat of arms, namely the kangaroo and emu.

Sunny Lei

Assembling Offcuts: An Investigation of Sydney's Contemporary Zine Culture is a documented investigation that celebrates contemporary zine culture in Sydney.

Forough Najarbehbahani

Demarcation is an interactive installation that invites viewers to consider border restrictions and humanity's free will to choose the place where they live as a fundamental issue of the world that we live in. 

Olivia Spark

Cove explores the connection between jewellery and the body and how this concept has changed over time. 

Ivana Taylor

The Beau Stool embodies the qualities that its title suggests: affection, sensuality and intrigue.

Yanting Zhan

Shanghai Nostalgia is a set of concept models and images studying urban nostalgia related to the gradually disappearing Shanghai “Lilong” (alleyway housing) and exploring the role emotional architecture could play in the design of new city spaces.