Asia Pacific Design Library

2013 Brisbane Regional Architecture Awards Project Entry Exhibition

Posted on 30 Apr 2013| by apdl |

Love architecture? Project entries from the 2013 Brisbane Regional Architecture Awards will be on show here at the library from Monday.

The exhibition precedes the Awards night which will be held on Friday 10 May, 2013 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Creative Directors Owen and Vokes and Peters are responsible for the theme of Garden Variety… a celebration of the familiar, habitual, prevalent and homespun architecture of a place, Brisbane.

The exhibition will take place from Monday 6 May until Saturday 11 May 2013 at the Studio, Ground Floor, State Library of Queensland, Stanley Place, South Brisbane.

The 2013 Brisbane Regional Architecture Awards Exhibition is a partnership between the Australian Institute of Architects and State Library of Queensland’s Asia Pacific Design Library in support of Design Online.

Technology & Collection Challenge

Posted on 25 Apr 2013| by apdl |

** Applications must be received via email to asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au by 5pm, Monday 29 April, 2013. **

The brief:

Today, information is everywhere and sometimes it’s hard to make sense of it all. Do you love making complex information understandable and meaningful? Are you passionate about applying the latest technology into new areas and in new ways? You might be a programmer, an interaction designer, a data visualiser, a hacker or even a new-age librarian. If this sounds like you and you dig libraries, we should talk.

We would like to invite you to join APDL and The Edge for three months to develop a technology idea that makes the APDL’s Design Collection more discoverable and meaningful.

The details:

You will commence your work with the teams at APDL and The Edge on 1 June, 2013 and continue for three months until 30 August 2013
You will be engaged as a contractor working within a $5000 budget which includes all materials, labour and expenses associated with delivery of the project. Outcomes and deliverables from the contract will be agreed within this budget.
We will provide access to the facilities at both The Edge and areas of the State Library South Bank building, with a focus on APDL
We will allocate you a workspace on Level 3 of SLQ and will also be provided access to a workspace at The Edge if required
You will be required to research, design and implement a technology idea to enhance the qualitative browsing experience of APDL’s Design Collection, improving the discoverability of content within the Design Collection and encouraging an increase in overall engagement with the Design Collection and online content
You will need to involve the APDL and Edge community in researching, designing, testing and implementing your technology idea. This could be in the form of consultations, creative workshops or online documentation of your progress.
An emphasis will be placed on the use of ubiquitous technology and open source culture and in the demonstration and documentation of this process for other libraries and organisations to replicate
You will be supported by staff from APDL and The Edge where required to make your technology idea a reality

Background:

The Asia Pacific Design Library (APDL) is a shared space for industry, academia and the general public to come together in the exchange of ideas and generation of new knowledge around design in the Asia Pacific. The APDL is an experimental model for 21st century libraries that focuses on experience rather than simply providing accessing to information.

The APDL Design Collection hosted in the Design Lounge, level 2 State Library of Queensland, is a bespoke collection of books, journals and magazines. It is an experiment in new ways of presenting a collection beyond the traditional ‘Dewey decimal’ arrangement.

Interested?

To submit your expression of interest for this work please email asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au the following information to by 5pm, Monday 29 April:

Cover letter or email confirming your acceptance of the terms of this brief
Your full contact details including your ABN (or a completed hobby form)
A 2 page (maximum) CV
Links or summary of some relevant past projects

If you have any questions email asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au.

Design Offline

Posted on 08 Apr 2013| by apdl |

The Design Offline Journal is designed to help you experience design lectures and events in new and more meaningful ways.

We have designed six different lecture prompts that will challenge you to engage in lectures in diffferent ways, and hopefully learn something new. Although we’ve made it easy to continue to take notes like you always have, why not be open and curious to doing things a little differently? You’ll find the different prompts arranged by a number on the right of the page. Work from start to finish or pick a random number. Choose your own adventure!

Design Offline can be purchased at The Library Shop or via Eventbrite with tickets to the UQ Architecture Lecture Series.

We would love to hear your feedback, so drop us a line at asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au and let us know what you think!

Weekly Wrap Up / Making Marks

Posted on 28 Mar 2013| by cpettrup |

I’m about to wrap up my first couple of weeks at the APDL. What a crazy/busy/amazing time it has been. I’ve been buried under a mountain of new books (new to me, anyway), welcoming faces and exciting projects and there is nowhere else I would rather be. It’s been so good to start seeing some regular faces down in the lounge too!

One of my other favourite things to see in the lounge at the moment is the paper markers left behind in books, remnants of thoughts from the day before. I like to try and connect the patterns of thoughts and try and imagine what kind of projects the reader would have been working on. It’s a nice little visual reminder that this space is not just a reflection of contemporary design but also of the people that use it too.

To that end, there is another way for you to leave your mark on the design collection – by sending me recommendations of books and magazines that you want to see in the library. We’ll even give you props, in the form of a bright white sticker with your name on the cover. Just like John Challenor here. It’s our little way of immortalizing your name in the design collection forever* and your chance to claim all of the fame and glory of having such amazing taste in books (well done, you good thing!). Email them to me at asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au or even let me know next time you pop your head in to the lounge.

This week we also had the first team outing to the AGDA screening of The Start Up Kids. I have such admiration for people with the determination, dedication & belief in their projects that they continue to ideate and iterate in spite of any roadblocks or challenges that could stand in their way.

If, like me, you were feeling pretty inspired by the event and were looking for some more direction, check out The Lean Start Up, The Art of Innovation or Change by Design, all located in our Design Thinking Section. Personally, I was really inspired by Vimeo founder Zach Klein’s decision to put up stumps in the woods, so I’ve been trawling through Spacecraft 2 for a few ideas on designing my new forest retreat.

Until next week!**
- Chenoa

*Disclaimer: Forever not guaranteed.

** That is, of course, unless I get this tree house built and functional within a week. The statistical likelihood of which is about 1 in 1,215,865.

Introducing the Design Lounge Coordinator

Posted on 20 Mar 2013| by cpettrup |

Even from a very young age, I have had an over-active imagination. I loved telling stories to people and trying to convince them they were true. At the age of 6, I first tried my hand at making pictures to go with the stories. It was my first foray into design and in many ways these initial projects were indicative of what was to come in my early design career.

In the four years that I have worked in the visual communication industry, I have been involved in many roles that use graphic design to tell stories. Working with the likes of 826 Valencia & Bluewolf, I was using design to tell stories; stories about communities, brands and shifts in technologies and business.

However, it was during my time at 826 Valencia (see this TED talk for more about 826) that I realised that there was an opportunity for design to have much further implications than pure aesthetic. With this in mind, I completed the Master of Design (Futures) at QCA and participated in and contributed to events like the Design, Action, Leadership & the Future Brisbane Hot House and the Brisbane Sustainability Jam. Getting involved in this program really accentuated the value of interdisciplinary design and education based design initiatives. It also piqued my interest in the intertwined relationship between humans and design and how they both affect and effect each other.

That leads me to right here, right now at the APDL —as the new Design Lounge Coordinator. This is such an exciting new adventure for me & is a culmination of everything I have learned up until now. But the truth is—I’m still learning. Every day that I’m here I am finding out more about design and its evolving role in our lives through the ever-expanding design collection.

More than this though, for me the Design Lounge is about you—the educators and the students, the seasoned design professionals and the uninitiated design dabblers. You all have the capacity to teach me so much, whether it’s through book suggestions or new ideas on how the better improve the services of the design lounge (send them to me here or better yet, come see me at the library). In my time here, I would like to be able to help you to shape the design lounge in a way that is most valuable to you. I have so much to learn from you, the visitors & I hope that I am able to return the favour and teach you something as well.

APDL is looking for an Online Content Officer

Posted on 12 Mar 2013| by apdl |

APDL is looking for an Online Content Officer!

Applications close 5pm, Monday the 18 March, 2013. Read on for more details.

We’re looking for someone to join us on a short-term contract basis to support the ongoing curation and creation of content for APDL online platforms Design Online & Design Minds.

Background

Delivering on the strategic objectives of the APDL, the two websites Design Online and Design Minds were developed and launched on the 28 June 2012.

We’re passionate about creating an environment where the design community can come together in the progression of new knowledge around design. We do this through critical writing (via Design Online) and design education (via Design Minds). We promote these platforms with regular content updates via social media and our email database.

We’ve learnt that high-quality, relevent and regularly-updated content resonates with our audience and sparks curiosity and discussion around design. We received this piece of feedback from one of our Design Online readers, Tee Kay, based in Tokyo, late last year:

“I am really excited to be able to read upcoming articles from Design Online! I believe my friend found Design Online on a Tumblr, that curates minimal designs. My friend and I regularly look for minimal designs for inspiration, and we were lucky to find Design Online! We really like the content on the site, very well formatted and we learn a lot !”

While Design Online has benefited from audience growth as a result of regularly-updated content, Design Minds still has a long way to go in terms of meeting its objectives for reach and engagement across Queensland schools.

We want to continue the positive momentum of Design Online and address the gaps in content and engagement currently evident through Design Minds but with our humble little team there’s only so much we can do!

That’s why we need an Online Content Officer to help us kick goals!

Details of the Contract

You will be engaged for up to three days a week at $40/hour (ex. GST) up until the 30 June 2012
You will have experience in online content curation as well as a body of online, published work
You will be super-confident using the Adobe Creative Suite as well as WordPress and Microsoft Office
Your passion for critical design discussion (Design Online) will be equally matched by your enthusiasm for the promotion of design education (Design Minds)
You’ll need to have an ABN or be willing to complete an ATO hobby form (speak to your accountant)
You will have exceptional written, visual and inter-personal communication skills, be well-connected in the design community and have the ability to develop future relationships in support of the objectives of the APDL

Interested?

Download the full brief here: 13-03-08 APDL Online Content Officer EOI

Send your expression of interest to us via email at asiapacificdesignlibrary@slq.qld.gov.au by 5pm, Monday the 18 March, 2013 and get in touch if you have any questions.

The APDL Roadshow!

Posted on 05 Mar 2013| by Christian Duell |

Before he jumped on a plane and shipped his life off to Berlin, one of our fantastic rockstar volunteers Michael ‘Fletch’ Fletcher took the initiative to make contact with many of the South-East Queensland design colleges and universities to introduce the APDL. Given that our APDL team has been very small for most of it’s life, getting out and about to spread the word that we not only exist but that we exist for the design community (“all yours”) has been a distant but aspiring intention of ours for some time.

Thanks to the time that Fletch has invested in organising, since the start of semester I’ve been lucky enough to go out and visit a few of the local design colleges and uni’s and share a little bit about the APDL and the value of the design process to society.

CATC College, Fortitude Valley

On Wednesday 13 February I presented to three seperate groups (Graphic Design, Interior Design and Photography) at CATC Design School in Fortitude Valley. The visit was coordinated by the Think Education Group’s sole librarian Wendy Batho who’s been a passionate advocate for the APDL to all of the campus staff and students. It was great to witness the passion and enthusiasm of Wendy and the CATC teaching staff and students and we look forward to supporting them further.

Griffith University, QCA

The following Wednesday 20 February I was off to Griffith University at Southbank to present to the Queensland College of Art, Design Futures Students. Peter Hall, who is head of design at QCA has worked very closely with us over the last couple of months to develop resources for Design Minds and it was a privelege for me to visit Peter in his world this time. QCA have taken the bold initiative to ‘re-design’ their courses around the ‘design futures’ philosophy which is all about using design as a process for enacting positive cultural change. This was something I spoke about in my presentation also and so I’m very I’m very excited to see what will come out of this new approach from QCA.

QUT Design & Sustainability students

Yesterday, I had my biggest gig yet, presenting to a few hundred first-year QUT School of Design students as part of the Design and Sustainability subject. This is my third year in a row guest-lecturing in this subject and I’m really encouraged by the approach QUT has taken to embed design thinking with sustainability as a primary focus from first year. The subject combines first-year industrial design, architecture, landscape architecture and interior design students and is lead by the wonderful Dr Jeannie Sim.

This was a full forty-minute lecture from me, so the main part of my talk was around the role that designers can play in improving their standing within wider society and helping to facilitate positive change. My presentation was adapted from a paper I wrote last year for Consult Australia and an article I wrote for Design Online entitled ‘Bottom Up, Top Down‘. Jeannie passed on some really encouraging feedback from the presentation:

“Strongest takeaway message for me was that designers can make real contributions to the future and society beyond the traditional pathways of yesteryear. You reinforced our challenge to the students to get involved now and in the future.”

The roadshow continues this Friday when I’ll present to first year UQ Architecture students and then again in a few weeks to QUT Fashion students.

The main takeaway message from us to all of the uni’s and colleges is that the APDL is all yours. It belongs to you and we are here to support you in your learning. So, if you would like us to come and present at your uni or college or if you have any suggestions for how we can tailor what we provide to better suit your needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The UQ Architecture Lecture Series Update

Posted on 04 Mar 2013| by apdl |

We know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting an update on this year’s architecture lecture series. We apologise that things have been a little quiet from our end but we promise that it is for good reason! While we still have a few secrets and surprises that we can’t quite share yet, we are very excited to announce the following:

This year’s series has been renamed the “UQ Architecture Lecture Series“ to better reflect the valuable role that the University of Queensland plays in bringing these amazing speakers to Brisbane and sharing them for free with our State Library audience.
This year’s series will run for 10 consecutive weeks every Tuesday night commencing on the 9 April 2013 and concluding on the 11 June 2013. The previous events scheduled for 12, 19 and 26 March have been cancelled. If you have booked in for these events via Eventbrite you’ll be contacted via email shortly in regard to the cancellation. We deeply apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused but we promise the wait will be worth it!
The events will commence with free drinks and nibblies from 6pm with the lecture kicking off at 6:30pm.

We are also very excited to to announce the speakers for the first lectures in April, which will feature a mix of the following inspirational international and local names:

9 April- Dr. Anupama Kundoo and Michael Dickson, Brisbane (University of Queensland, School of Architecture)

Wall House by Anupama Kundoo at Venice Architecture Biennale 2012

16 April- Peter Besley, London (Assemblage)

Iraqi Parliament Competition by Assemblage

23 April- Stuart Vokes and Paul Owen and Aaron Peters, Brisbane (Owen and Vokes and Peters)

Newmarket Valley House by Owen and Vokes and Peters

Stay tuned to our blog, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages as we continue to release the full lineup of speakers in coming weeks.

You can now book in for all of the confirmed dates via our Eventbrite page.

If you have any more questions about the series, feel free to drop us a line. Look forward to seeing you all there!

APDL Volunteer update

Posted on 11 Feb 2013| by apdl |

It was a sunny weekend, sometime in early December last. I was dishevelled, sleep deprived, panicked, stressed, malnourished, and counting down the days to a time when I would never have to do another college assignment again in my life. I was two weeks from finishing my Advanced Diploma at Design College Australia—a time when the ‘future’ is merely the next item on a never ending list of work to do.

I was saved by a well timed email—the APDL had announced it’s intake for volunteers. This quiet piece of news actually made me stop and think about my real future—post-college, post-all-nighters, post-anxiety.

The APDL had become my second home. Here, I lost myself in the mountains of books and the ample desk space. Each visit yielded more wisdom than the last—books titles read like mantras: Start With Why; It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be; Do You Matter?; Don’t Make Me Think. A day was not wasted if I spent more time reading books than doing the work I had to do. The value of the APDL and it’s impact on my studies was far greater.

Thinking of my real future, I saw the volunteer program as an opportunity to give something of myself to the APDL—to the great people responsible for the collection and the familiar faces of the library staff.

Now, my weekly visits to the APDL are a little more involved. There’s the routine work of sorting, scanning, and returning books, as well larger projects to work on, such as organising a series of APDL information lectures to all first year design students across Brisbane.

Somehow, I still manage to find myself lost in the books from time to time.

Discovering Design

Posted on 06 Feb 2013| by Kim Weaver |

I’ve been volunteering at the APDL since December. I don’t come from a design background but I do love books and libraries.

It’s clear the collection is brimming with beautiful books on architecture, graphic design and fashion. But I didn’t count on finding so much inspiration for everyday life.

I’m slowly making my way through, but I’ve already read things that have caused me to rethink the act of being creative, how I consume and how I decorate my home.

Here are 3 books that have renewed my excitement for ideas:

Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon
An energising reminder to forget about being original or even good and just create something!

Made by Hand by Mark Fraunenfelder
Mark writes about DIY and how it can help us connect with ourselves and others. It’s a small step, but it inspired me to grow a herb garden.

The Selby is in your place by Todd Selby
A photography book documenting hipsters in their uber cool dwellings. Pure. Guilty. Pleasure.

Even if you’re not from a design background , come and check out the collection. You’re sure to find something to inspire you.