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From the editor

This special issue, guest edited with designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb, is focused on Australia’s talented emerging designers, and it’s been a long time coming. Years ago, I noticed more emerging studios popping up – individuals who had taken a punt and broken away from medium and large firms to set up solo or small practices. They were producing exciting work, untethered by traditions, styles or legacies. These young individuals were not just designers and architects – they were researchers, artists, educators, environmentalists and social enablers. They were using their design credentials to solve longstanding problems – create furniture from waste, design spaces for social inclusion and use new technologies to share knowledge. It was time to dedicate an entire issue to these rising stars – Australia’s most promising and original talents working in furniture, object, interiors and architecture.

I wanted to work with a guest editor who had an instinct for talent, could understand the practical predicaments early-career designers face and was a role model for this generation. Working with Pascale to compile this issue has been a delight. Together, we searched for emerging designers who went beyond the demands of the brief and were concerned with social, environmental and educational obligations. I thank Pascale for her impeccable eye for talent, and for her late-night uplifting DMs.

On page 22, Pascale and I explain how we selected the 30-plus designers and architects surveyed in these pages.

Artichoke has always championed the work of the rising talents of the time – we have published the first projects of many designers who have gone on to have long, award-winning careers. It’s an honour to continue this practice and dedicate an entire issue to Australia’s emerging designers.

– Cassie Hansen, Editor, Artichoke

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