The humble coat hanger has been given an extreme makeover by QUT design students who gathered them together and turned them into edgy, streamlined furniture to win a gold award in the Queensland Design on Show (QDOS) awards.
QUT student design team, Void Furniture, has transformed wire coat hangers from wardrobe cloggers and makeshift car aerials into beautiful, gleaming tables and stools, and transparent plastic ones into ethereal hanging and floor lamps.
QUT students, lecturers and alumni have featured strongly in the QDOS awards which are presented by the Design Institute of Australia's Queensland division to recognise outstanding designers from a range of disciplines.
QUT acting executive dean of the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Professor Sue Savage said designers played a vital role in designing environments for people's comfort and enjoyment, while also considering sustainability.
"Not only are the works beautiful in a modern and sophisticated way, they have been produced through the re-use of everyday items," Professor Savage said.
"QUT supports innovative and sustainable outcomes within its curriculum. The student and graduate works at the QDOS awards are a great demonstration of these principles by future leaders in their fields."
Void Furniture team members Phillipa Bonney, Cassandra Donald, Elizabeth Scott and Daniel Way are students from the QUT School of Design and co-gold award winners with fellow student, Darren Giddy, in the Emerging Student Three Dimensional Design QDOS awards.
Darren's Subway Sketch design is a canopy for a university stop at a theoretical Brisbane subway system. His stunning design proposes to 'hang' the canopy from three stainless cables with vertical structural rods for stability.
Three silver awards in the same category also went to QUT students: Anna Jacobsen designed ResQ, a rescue device for lifesavers to immobilise patients with suspected spinal cord injuries as they are rescued from water; and another design reflecting our surf culture - Mark Boardman's InSURFhaler - a wrist-worn, seawater-proof carrier of asthma inhalers that gives instant access to the life-saving medication.
QUT designers also featured amongst the winners in the Visual Communication design category this year with team members Susan Sewell, Christine Schmidt, Carla Binotto, Paula Dunlop and Dani Klein winning silver for their booklet "Five: Fashion Musings".
These and many other up-and-coming winning QUT student designers are following in the footsteps of QUT design alumni, who also claimed much of the QDOS kudos.
QUT graduates featured in teams of most winning entries, including Jason Bird from Luxxbox, Glenn Bevan from Infinity Design, Angela Layton from Arkhefield, Scott Bagnell of Cottee Parker and Kirsti Simpson, interior design director for Hassell and 2009 QUT Outstanding Alumni of the Year for the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering.
The stand-out award winner was Arkhefield architects, whose entries included work by associate and QUT graduate Angela Layton. The company picked up seven awards in the Interior Design category, including three gold awards. It also received gold awards in the New Residential Design category, the Best Use of Lighting, and Public Institutional Interior Design and three silver awards for its Hospitality Design entries.
Jason Bird received four awards across the Three Dimensional and Luminare Design categories, including two gold for his Brainwash Collection - an espresso culture cafe series of stools, tables and benches - and Phase furniture designs, as well as two silver awards for his Radii Collection and Tingle, which is a mix and match colour series of interior or exterior low seating and table collections.
As design manager for Infinity Design, QUT graduate Glenn Bevan won an Award of Excellence Honours for Enviromesh, a strong lightweight alternative to cement steel reinforcement of concrete slabs, which reduces labour and the possibility of corrosion causing concrete cancer. Infinity Design won gold and silver for Industrial Design and Luminare in the 3D Design category.
Four gold awards in the 3D Design and Interior Design categories were claimed by built environment design firm Hassell whose director of Interior Design is QUT graduate Kirsti Simpson. Ms Simpson is also the 2009 QUT Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering. Hassell also won a silver award in the Best Use of Lighting subcategory for the Hatch Workplace.
Scott Bagnell, QUT Graduate and now senior interior designer with the Cottee Parker Interiors team, shared in a silver award for the Institutional Interior design category.
All QDOS winners and finalists' works can be viewed at www.qdosawards.com and are on display in a public exhibition at QUT Art Museum, Gardens Point Campus until 25 October.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
** High res photo of Void team available for media use.
