Perhaps the most animated audience I have seen so far at SOD, the mostly twenty-something crowd who turned up to see emerging and established designers battle it out at Iron Designer were already pretty liquid by the time the game show graphics started. But sadly the coordinated outfits and choreographed beginning didn't amount to much more than the montage of misfits flashed on the big screen.
It was an impressive line-up of talent - with Studio Round, HPG, Minifie Nixon and The Signet Bureau battling it out in the first round, and Tin & Ed, Motherbird, XYZ and Right Angle Studio taking each other on in the second - but the ideas didn't seem to make much out of the table of goodies.
The final showdown - with finalists The Signet Bureau and Tin & Ed challenging reigning winners Monash University - was most notable only perhaps for the inclusion of Mikael Colville-Andersen's young son playing the role of "the known Universe" in Monash's failed attempt. Apparently the Sydney version of this event - on show as part of Sydney Design - has already sold-out...but I can't help but wonder why. I am told this was a stand-out event last year, but sadly, I missed that...and the point of all this.
At least on the way home, I got to have a look at Trent Jansen's work fully lit...so beautiful how his temporary foam structures, powered with battery-operated LEDs, mirrored the building lights opposite.
