Event Summary

designEX is Australia largest interiors, design & architecture event featuring brands in furniture, textiles, lighting, architecture, bathrooms, appliances & surfaces.

Organisation

Diversified Exhibitions

Team

Lauren Ebbeck - Event Director designEX
Kobe Johns - Exhibition Manager designEX
Conor Farrell - Operations Manager designEX
Rebekah Murphey - Marketing Manager designEX
Courtney Johnstone - Event Coordinator designEX
Matthew Bevan - Exhibition Sales designEX
Kate Mirabito - Exhibition Sales designEX

Event Details

designEX is an event for trade professionals within the design and architecture industries. Held each year in Sydney or Melbourne, the event provides a unique space where industry leaders, experts and innovators congregate to share ideas, gain inspiration and source innovative design led products. The show features a blend of events, exhibitions and live talks from progressive local and international design thinkers.

In conjunction with partner's the Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia, designEX provides a platform for sharing and promoting new thinking models and is committed to supporting the evolution and success of the Australian design industry. Through partnership with the Authentic Design Alliance, designEX supports original design.

Now in its 25th year designEX consistently attracts in excess of 10,000 professional visitors from across the design and architecture industry.

Testimonial:
Meryl Hare - Hare & Klein
Attending designEX as a visitor, I come to experience the brand through the event stand. A stand allows a concept to be presented a way in which we can connect with the brand and see how it can bring a space to life which can’t happen through seeing reps in our showroom

Innovation

The 2012 event presented the speaker series 7 Kinds of Happiness: Conversations on Design and Emotion which was curated by Emma Telfer and The Office for Good Design - a series of physical and digital discussions, each exploring how happiness impacts the practice of leading local and international designers.

Speakers included Alice Rawsthorn, Ilse Crawford, Stefan Sagemeister, Broached Commissions, Rotor, WorkAC and Australian Creative Directors of the Venice Architecture Biennale Anthony Burke and Gerard Reinmuth.

In 2012 the Nest launched to great aclaim. This feature of the event supports and promotes independant Australian design and designers. Featured this year was Blakebrough and King, Christopher Boots, Charles Wilson and Adam Cornish.

Curated by Anne Maree Sargeant, the Nest allowed Australian Independent designers and design collectives to showcase new product and introduced them to manufactuers and distributors with great success.

Sustainability

Diversified Exhibitions who runs designEX is committed to sustainability year round and particularly in production of their large scale exhibitions.

In all venues Diversified chooses to make material and waste recycling available to exhibitors and contractors.

Through our content the promotion of sustainability is always forefront. A feature of designEX in 2012 was the 'Re-think, Re-use' product showcase which displayed many products by leading designers that are inherently sustainable or re-using everyday products in manufacture.

7 Kinds of Happiness speaker series also questioned the designer's responsibility in creating happiness or designing for sustainability in Alice Rawsthorn's keynote session. Rawsthorn thinks that happiness, like sustainability, should be part of any design agenda.

“To me, sustainability and happiness are inseparable in design. How can we feel happy unless we are confident that we have no reason to feel guilty about the things that surround us every day?”