We have recently been playing with new ways of communicate and sharing narratives of designs. First up, is Dresden!
Vert worked closely with the founders of Dresden Optics to design & develop a new, innovative glasses system with a single universal frame style & user-friendly customisability. Setting out with the aim to make glasses more simple & less expensive without compromising quality, the flexible, lightweight & interchangeable frames & arms come in four sizes, joining with a unique hinge-pin system.
Thank you BWD Strategic for having us at "Rethinking Waste" - a panel discussion on the Circular Economy to honour B Corp month. Our Principal Designer and Founder, Andrew Simpson talked about designing solutions rather than materials - reflecting on his perspective on how the #waste challenge has changed over time.
In March, we visited our friends at Mastroplas for a factory tour and insight into their manufacturing processes, including automation with robots. We got to see two of our projects on production line. Mastroplas are our partners for Best Practice Plastics, and we have been working with them for over 18 years.
Vert are honoured to have collaborated with Good Design Australia to design and develop the packaging for the GDA 2022 and 2023 Trophy. Congratulations too all recipients of a Good Design Award this year! The GDA is celebrating 65 years of recognising design excellence and creativity.
At the London Design Festival, Studio Snoop presents Tilly2.0 and the living design pieces that were presented at Milan Design Week this year.
We are proud to have collaborated on bringing her lighting design BAM BAM to life through prototypes, powered by Neoz lighting and glass pieces manufactured by Rob Denizen Glass.
We are very humbled that our collaboration with Felton Industries has resulted in a Good Design Award. Ribbon Range is a suite of outdoor furniture products the Ribbon Range generously connects communities. Fitting for urban streetscapes to lush parklands, the designs are elegant and durable.
Eloise Spark Festival and Remarkable Tech to discuss the topic “The Future of Tech, Design and Innovation is Accessible”. She discussed opportunities that come from working with diverse communities including people with disabilities, which allows us to access currently untapped innovations. You can listen to the full panel discussion here.
We are very excited to see 4eyes Vision receive the Gold Winner GDA award in 2023. The winners of Australia’s peak international design awards – the highest honour for design and innovation in the country.
Check out this article written by Eloise Cleary for The Centre of Inclusive Design on Diversity.
Congratulations to our girl Neuti Seo for receiving an Honourable Mention in the Dowel Jones Design From Home 2023 Competition for her office chair ‘Chance of Rain”.
Our Senior Industrial Designers, Mitchell Brown and Ned Mason will be facilitating the course ‘Materials and Processes’ at the University of New South Wales.
A great article on our Joyrolla project by Broadsheet, Read the full article here.
IDX Powerhouse Late: Industrial Design event. Our Founder and Creative Director, @andrewcsimpson presenting a review of objects from the Powerhouse digital catalogue. Photo: Andy Roberts.
Eloise Cleary facilitated a workshop, alongside Nila Rezai at the Design Institute of Australia - ‘Inclusive Design Series #2 USE’
Learning exchange with Sydney Boys High School - Neuti chatting through the design process, our studio and the Industrial Design industry with year 11’s.
The Good Design Awards new trophy was designed by Clandestine Design Group in collaboration with Defy, Bespoke Aluminium and Vert Design. The trophy is made from one kilogram of compressed Australian post-consumer plastic in which an Australian-sourced extruded aluminium tick is embedded. With 1000 trophies already in play, Good Design Australia is aiming to divert one tonne of plastic waste from landfill and marine habitats.
The development process for our new boat design has been challenging and exciting at the same time, Stay tuned for more updates and the launch date on The Balmain Boat Company website.
We are pleased to share Andrew Simpson "Mantle" designed as part of the Hybrid Commission will go on show @powerhousemuseum from this Saturday through to February 28th, 2021.
We are very humbled by the awards presented to SNÜX this year at Good Design Awards. SNÜX is a ski overboot that gives the user advanced thermal insulation to eliminate cold feet on while on the mountain. The SNÜX Overboot is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ garment and provides and full boot coverage delivering maximum heat transfer.
Best in Class: "This product which is made from trash, is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable, won this award"- Nik Robinson. The plastic from one 600ml single-use bottle makes the frame, arms and hinges of one pair exactly. No screws, no metal. “Australia’s Good Design Award is more than a symbol of design excellence - it represents the hard work and dedication towards an innovative outcome that will ultimately make our lives better. These projects showcase the sheer brilliance of design and the potential it has to improve our world,” Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia.
We are very excited to see Light Soy receive the Gold Winner GDA award in 2020. The winners of Australia’s peak international design awards – the highest honour for design and innovation in the country were announced today during the 2020 Good Design Week. Light Soy, the premium soy fish lamp designed by Vert Design for Heliograf received a Good Design Award Gold Accolade in the Product Design Furniture and Lighting category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
We are very excited to announce that our Light Soy has been longlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020, lighting design category.
It was a great pleasure to work on Deus “Bombshell” kit, an all-in-one custom kit that is easy to install, bolt-on kit for any Yamaha XRS700 & MT-07, allowing you to completely transform the look of your bike. Learn more about it here.
Vert Design director Andrew Simpson on the judging panel for 2020 Good Design awards, Next Gen category. See a full list of judges as well as this years entries here.
Congratulations to James Walsh for winning this year’s Australian Furniture Design Awards, one of Australia’s most prestigious awards recognising excellence in Australian furniture design and its contribution to design discourse and Australian culture.
The BIGSOFTI campaign is now live, head to Kickstarter to order a kit and support the launch. And congratulations to BIGSOFTI for hitting their funding goal in less than 1 hour!
Check out our feature on Architecture and Design looking at Vert's public furniture projects for Sydney Metro North West, opened 2019.
Vert have been shortlisted for their submission to Creative Victoria and the NGV 2020 Victorian Design Challenge – the E-Waste Challenge, which this year is focused on reducing, recovering and eliminating e-waste, more to come…
Mike Smith’s trip to Jakarta in December 2019 to take a closer look at their supply chain and discover exactly how the plastic waste gets collected, cleaned and processed to turn into Zero Co dispensers.
We’re super excited about our recent project for Zero Co going live on kickstarter this morning, a range of reusable home-care products made from ocean waste plastic.
Sydney Morning Herald meet co founder of Zero Co, Mike Smith and get a first glimpse of the recent Vert project, a home-care product range and returnable refill system, set to offer a cost effective solution to single use plastics.
The story behind our collaboration with Country Road, Creating a jewellery range partially made from marine debris plastic collected by Eco-Barge in northern Queensland. Read the full article here.
Vert’s Director Andrew Simpson delivering the occasional address at University of Technology Sydney graduation ceremony, Class of 2019. Read the details of the speech here.
A great collaboration with Country road, making marine debris wall hooks for their first sustainable flagship store in Chadstone, which achieved a 5 Star Green Star Design Review rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. Read more about the project in an article by The Design Files.
A great interview with Andrew Simpson the founder of Vert studio conducted by the talented Smack Bang Design, Find out more details here.
Keep an eye out for the Good Citizens Glasses, one of our latest sunglasses project. Made from recycled PET bottles retrieved from the ocean.
Sydney Metro North West is now open to the public, it’s the first stage of the 36km rapid transit system that connects the booming North West Sydney region to the CBD. Vert designed the new customer help points, which are positioned throughout the stations to provide passengers with general travel information and emergency assistance. More detail here.
We are excited about the opening of Sydney Metro North West on 26th May 2019. Vert Design were commissioned by Hassell Studio to design a suite of public furniture for the Metro stations and areas surrounding them. The suite includes public benches, platform seating, bus, bike and rest shelters, bins and drinking fountains. More details here.
We’re excited that Dieline have published an article about our recent 2D/3D collaboration with Depot Creative, for a new bespoke fragrance bottle & brand ident for Recreation Beauty.
Our marine debris doorknobs for Spark & Burnish are featured in Melbourne Design Week’s Welcome to Wasteland exhibition, more details here.
The light of your life… check out the full interview with Knnox’s founders Desmond and Jessica Ware on The Rake.
Looking for a valentines day gift? Our Knnox lighter is featured on British GQ Magazine as an elegant gift idea for this years Valentines Day…
Congratulation to our newest team member James Walsh, one of the finalists for 2018 Mercedes-Benz Design Award, Read the full article here.
Andrew Simpson has been granted the prestigious Churchill fellowship to travel the world and gain knowledge of glass mould making for art, craft and industrial production, specially low volume production.
Andrew Simpson explains the development process of our ocean plastic collection. We have developed a new material and a process which allows us to buy waste plastic from collection groups and turn it into a number of commercially viable products we have developed in house.
Video by: Thomas Lim, Deng Chiew Chan and Joyeon Kim from University of Sydney.
A feature on our recent collaboration with Mundane Matters on Wasteland Installation. The man-made orange objects are designed for injection moulding from Marine Debris plastics collected from the Great Barrier Reef. Read the full article written by The Design Files.
"Vert Design's Ocean Plastic Knobs, developed especially for Spark & Burnish, look like elegant inverted marble cupolas but are in fact made up of recycled plastic waste retrieved from Australia's oceans"... read the full feature on the project in The Australian Financial Review.
"Knnox has a flair for refined design, in its 1970s-inspired attention to curves and contours, and contemporary approach to technology"... read the full Wallpaper* article on the recently launched KNNOX lighter.
Andrew Simpson's concept of a chair made from waste plastic film for Plasticity, an experimental art exhibition presented by alt.material. Read more about the exhibition here.
Collaboration with Spark & Burnish. Vert designed, developed and produced a range of elegant door handles made from Brass and marine debris plastic. Read more about the door handles in the Dezeen feature article.
We are excited to announce the launch of KNNOX, a lighter which explores new rituals and gestures for making a flame.
The Huskee cup is featured in CommonGood exhibition at MAAS museum, as part of Sydney Design Week 2018. Read more about the exhibition detail here.
Vert Design has won the Product Design - Housewares and Objects 'Best In Category' from the Good Design Award® with their Huskee Cup range. Find out more about the details here.
Vert Design collaborated with Sagitine for creating the new edition of stands to be exhibited during Milan Design Week 2018 as part of Local Milan.
The NRMA Fire Blanket has been announced the winner of Australia by Design’s Innovation of the Year, watch the full episode here.
Chivas Regal Australia has partnered with Vert Design to create a hand-crafted glass that enhances the whisky drinking experience and highlights some of the 85 flavour notes of Chivas 18.
Flintu launches SideKick, a portable, versatile smartphone charger which has your back when your phone battery leaves you stranded. Back the campaign on Kickstarter and check out the project here.
After running a successful crowdfunding campaign, Huskee Cup will be ready for pre-production this autumn. Read the full article with Specialty Coffee Roaster here.
Another successful year of interpretations. The fifth edition featured works by 8 Australian designers, investigating paper in all it's forms and processes.For more information visit our website here.
Keep an eye out for the premium whiskey tumbler and coaster/lid we have developed for Chivas Regal 18. Read the full story here.
In the third episode of 'Talking CX' by the creative agency THE WORKS , Andrew Simpson delves into everything from how empathy should drive design thinking , the importance of play and how you should solve problems that don’t exist.
Nutricium's NuPods Kickstarter campaign just went live! Head over to the Kickstarter to support the project.
Marine Debris Bakelite project by Supercyclers is now live on pozible. This collection includes 11 objects designed by some of the world's most renowned designers, such as Jasper Morrison, Forma Fantasma, Jonathan Zawada, Greece is for Lovers, Kristie Van Noot, Martie Guixe, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio.
Andrew Simpson talking at Purpose 2016 on environmental sustainability in large scale production & consumerism.
Fascinating forms; giant pollen structures carved from stone. Vert's work with Sydney artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso are now on display around the new Darling Harbour Development.
New batch of handmade Stilla Carafes coming soon complete with new & improved packaging; an environmentally optimised protective keep-box.
Celebrating in style... Bollinger Champagne; Life Can Be Perfect 2016 event at Shelly Beach Boat House featuring Vert's Balmain Boat ice buckets. Check out the project here.
Vert Design have been working together with NRMA Insurance & M&C Saatchi's innovation partner Tricky Jigsaw to create The NRMA Fireblanket; an early bushfire detection & monitoring network. Check out the full project here.
Vert Design & Depot Creative pick up Silver at the 2016 Pentawards for their collaborative work on new product & brand; Baré Cosmetics. Check out the full project here.
Out of Hand: Materialising the Digital explores the increasingly important role of digital manufacture in contemporary art, science, fashion, design and architecture. The exhibition features Vert Design project transforming the iconic 2D artworks of Lucien Henry into physical 3D pieces. The exhibition is on now until 25 June 2017.
Catch Andrew Simpson speaking about the future of Australian manufacturing on the opening night of Sydney Design Festival 2016, for event information click here.
Andrew Simpson is heading over to France for a week of live judging at the Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity.
Andrew Simpson is speaking at Vivid Sydney 2016 about the benefits of using 3D printing & rapid prototyping technologies in industrial design, and the future of design, manufacturing and construction evolving with the rapid pace of technology.
We're very pleased The Dieline Award 2016 have given second place to the Vert Design & Depot Creative collaborative project; Baré Cosmetics. Check out the full project here.
Vert Design worked on a project to make the perfect glass for creating, serving & drinking the ultimate Old Fashioned, a hand-crafted batch run of individually unique glasses were produced for the Maker’s Mark Old Fashioned Week event that runs from 12th - 20th May 2016. This is the 'making of' video and you can find out more about the project here.
Vert Design & Depot Creative pick up a Gold award at the 2016 A' Design Awards for their collaborative work on new product & brand; Baré Cosmetics. Check out the full project here.
Baré Cosmetics launch in Australia with an elegant & unique glass bottle & stunning brand identity, designed by Vert Design & Depot Creative. Check out the full project here.
The Vert design team took a field trip to get their hands dirty & make a series of custom folding knives - 2.5 days of absorbing knowledge from Australia's leading bladesmiths at Tharwa Valley Forge & excising some good old fashioned craftsmanship.
O Six Hundred Kayak features in this months Smith Journal.
Vert worked with the team at THERE to create a sculptural art wall installation for global property expert's Knight Frank.
Vert designed & developed the GEOHEX Erosion Control System, click here for project details.
Today is the launch of the One Education Infinity, a modular tablet computer for kids. Click here to find out more & to back the project.
O Six Hundred kayak features in two independent digital magazines this month; Uncrate and GearHungry.
O Six Hundred Kayak features in this months issue of Ben&Co. and is now featuring in a year long exhibition at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.
Ben Cooper and Andrew Simpson collect Product Design - Sport and Lifestyle 'Best In Category' from the Good Design Award® with their O Six Hundred skin on frame kayak.
The work-in-progress Vert project XO-Infinity, modular hybrid laptop featured in WIRED.
Deus Australia calls on Andrew to help sand cast new aluminium badges for a custom build; the BMW x Deus R-Nine T.
The O Six Hundred Kayak exhibits in the Good Design Awards 2015.
Sydney Morning Herald's Digital Life takes a sneak peak at Vert Design's 'work in progress' prototype for One Education, the XO Infinity is low-cost modular laptop with parts that can be updated as a child gets older & technology changes, aiming to give the device a lifespan of ten years, instead of obsolete in two.
JamFactory: Gallery One
GLASS: art design architecture showcases 23 outstanding projects by contemporary Australian artists, designers and architects. It represents a cross-section of current creative practices and relationships to this versatile material.
This exhibition will then tour to 14 venues nationally.
Exhibitors: Andrew Simpson (Vert Design)
Feature article in this month's Belle magazine on the Nest at DesignEX with Andrew and his hand blown glass pendants.
Andrew is now a mentor at Incubate - the award winning startup accelerator and entrepreneur events to foster a proactive community and help launch successful startup ventures at Sydney University.
Compassionate Voices is a unique exhibition celebrating animals, art and creativity. The exhibition is a collaboration between Voiceless, the animal protection institute; Koskela, and a collection of 31 innovative Australian artists and designers.
Andrew has designed the Whittier Whittier birdhouse specifically to protect and feed wrens (including the Superb Fairy Wren) which are in decline in Sydney. The birdhouse consists of two timber pieces and two glass parts designed specifically to provide food and water to the birds.
Andrew has been invited to The Other Hemisphere exhibition, first exhibiting at
Ventura Lambrate in Milan then designEX in Sydney.
Andrew was featured on ABC's 'The Business' giving a response to what the new budget means for innovation business.
Design for Change has written a feature article on Andrew discussing design and sustainability.
Andrew has been invited to talk on Creative Ways to Change the World. The talk is on May 24 from 6:30pm at Vivid Ideas Exchange, Museum of Contemporary Art.
Impressed by the Junk Press, Maud collaborated with us to utilise this technique for coasters for the worlds biggest advertising conference. Looking at the function of a coaster and using design thinking to take this further than just print design, we hand made these coasters with raised details to stop the glass from sticking.
A project with Supercyclers, that considers waste as a resource that we have not worked out what to do with. The Junk Press challenges the perception of junk mail being rubbish, and instead utilises trash as a raw material that is delivered daily for free. The press is sand cast in aluminium and has interchangeable moulds to make a range of bowls, plates, lunchboxes light shades and cups.
Now partnering with Sneaking Duck, we're really excited to introduce 3D selective laser sintered glasses to a larger audience.
Career Tracker awards designed for branding agency There. The awards are turned Australian hardwoods and laser etched matte black aluminium.
Balmain Boat Company featured in Incu's Edition magazine.
We're now able to show a project we completed last year with The Monkeys to launch the Intel 2 in 1 Ultrabook. More info here.
Latest issue of Belle magazine which features our Incalmo vase.
A project we worked on with Benjamin Shine called 'Re-Kindle' as the candle burns the wax is collected, ready to be re-used in another candle!
Some new glass casting we've been doing for Adam Goodrum.
Exciting times ahead in 2014 we'll be working with Sneaking Duck on a project!
News came this week that we had been highly commended in the Australian Packaging Design Awards 2013, which is always good news especially considering we didn't enter!
Andrew's contribution to the 'Here and Now: Lucky' exhibit at Carriageworks. Lucky has been curated by Liane Rossler to feature works by Australian and New Zealand creatives. The concept is to explore the idea of luck and interpret their findings through design and art.
&company turns 4 so to celebrate they're having a party! We're joining the party with our ow pressure injection moulding machine for people to have a go with.
Monday 9 Dec, 6-9pm. RSVP here.
Pier 8 Cafe, 23 Hickson Road Walsh Bay
Some wooden moulds we've been making for Adam Goodrum.
Wax grenades for Collective Co.
Danny's Pocket Gym!
First renderings for a new coconut cruncher.
Testing prototypes for Purina!
Spinning and shaping glass
Experimenting with moulds for coils
Gladys McKenzie's tongue scraper samples.
Andrew's limited edition cast bronze Water Charms
Some quick experimentations with polypropylene folding to create interlocking opening and closing forms.
Pecha Kucha Vol. 23 at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. Andrew spoke alongside Alexia Estrellado, Adam Simpson, Mark Vaarwerk, Anthony Matthews, James Nathan and Robert Beson who all shared their inspiring stories on the theme of the cultural impact of innovation and technology.
We've been experimenting with scanning and re-producing ourselves.
Sneak peek of a new project with our friends at MoffittMoffitt.
Presents! Thanks Intel!
More experimentation with 3D printed CO2 rockets today.
We're very pleased to announce the lovely people from D&AD have awarded Alaskan Rock with a packaging design award.
Wallpaper* Magazine, curator of all things cool in terms of design, interiors, fashion, art, and lifestyle have included our incalmo vases in their latest print editorial.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso has transforms the MCA for her exhibition of the Museum of Copulatory Organs (MoCO) or "Sex Everywhere*". The installation celebrates the diversity and complexity in genitalic structures across the animal kingdom, first shown at the 18th Biennale of Sydney in 2012.
We're really excited to join in on at the Art Bar where Andrew will be there with our 3D printer, making models of reproductive morphologies. But if watching is more your thing, you’ll enjoy X-rated screenings of snails mating, penis fencing and shark threesomes on Friday 26 July at the MCA and tickets can be purchased here.
*sex is prohibited in the Museum
He Made She Made gallery on Oxford Street, invited 21 artists and designers (including ourselves) to create and display a bespoke mask as part of their Masked Intentions exhibition and publication release. No conceptual or material boundaries to the masks have been adhered to other than that they must be wearable and fit a human sized head. The finished masks take on various forms, presenting unique stories of their genuine/fictional significance to the world and their creators. The exhibition is on until June 9 2013.
Our contribution to the show, entitled 'A Glimpse of Another' conceals facial emotion and allows the wearer to hear and react privately to dialogue and/or their environment. The mask highlights the importance of neutrality and respect through its maze of intricate cuts and precision detailing. The mask was a billet of aluminium which we CNC Machined in our Redfern Studio. We were really pleased with the results and delighted to be included in such a great exhibition with 20 other Australian artists and designers we admire. There are also 20 signed and numbered editions of the print available for purchase through He Made She Made's online store.
Monument magazine has featured Andrew in their May issue. The spread titled "Inside The Mind Of" is a collection of what drives and inspires Andrew in his everyday practice. These range from carved stone neolithic balls, the yachting industry, scientific methodology and the speed with which life passes us by are all motivators and influence for Andrew. It's always nice to be included with such a high standard that Monument is known for. The rest of the issue includes features on some innovative products, features on other designers and architectural wonders.
United Nationals' Regional Seas Program estimates more than 6 million tonnes of debris enter the world's oceans each year. This debris never biodegrades, instead it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of the original item, forever remaining in the environment. We've been working with Luke McConell from Revolve Your World who collects this debris and plastic litter from the beaches of far North Queensland. We've put this collection of debris through a small extruder and broken this down into small pellets. We're now working on developing a large scale industrial system to break down this debris and recycle it and use it for easy integration into new products.
Viajiyu was founded by Nicole Still, co-founder of The Balmain Boat Company, storyteller and entrepreneur. Nicole started wondering about the great shoemakers and what their business would be like if they started in the Digital Age. She wanted to create the perfect pair of ballet flats for the modern woman. The woman who travels for work and play. Conceives businesses, as well as, children.
Viajiyu allows the user to become the designer and choose from a range of customisations of colours and styles to develop the perfect pair of ballet flats hand made in Tuscany, Italy. We developed the renderings for the website that allow the user to pick and choose the different elements for their flats.
Interpretations is an ongoing exhibition Andrew curates biennially (every two years) which challenges the participating designers to embrace a new process or material and produce something, the brief is very open. Different local Sydney designers get together and share ideas in regards to a theme or particular manufacturing process that has to be adopted in order to exhibit.
This year the chosen theme is Stone. Also, this is the first year Interpretations IIII will be held at Object Gallery on Bourke St, Surry Hills. The exhibition will be on display from 26 February - 21 March and exhibits work from Michael Alvisse, Tasman Munro, Andrew Simpson, Guy Keulemans, Henry Wilson, Oliver Smith, Charles Wilson and Liane Rossler.
For more information on the exhibition please refer to the interpretations website.
There have been some lovely reviews of the exhibition featured online:
HabitusLiving.com
These are gold and white gold wedding bands were developed and made for Mark Nichols which have his fiance's fingerprint etched onto the inside of the wedding band.
We are blessed with having the opportunity to teach and learn from work experience and internship students coming to the studio. This also means we get to see what talent is coming up. Brandon Wong is no exception. Brandon is a 15 year old grade 10 student who learned to use solidworks from scratch, and designed his own glasses which he now prints and sells in just one week with us.
With summer quickly approaching, Mitch and Andrew have been working away at the new 16ft Balmain Boat Company prototypes. Pretty soon we'll be off getting the timber cut and building the tests in the coming weeks.
For those of you that haven't heard of the supercyclers, they're an ever growing international collective of designers focussed in their practices on building a sustainable future into the products they create whilst transforming perceptions of waste materials and the way we use things in the process. We're really happy to be a part of such a great collective that has the same ideas about sustainability as we do. We've been receiving some really wonderful reviews from all different blogs and magazines, for more information check either our press page or the supercyclers website.
Image via Vogue Living August 2012.
Seeded Paper is a wonderful company that produces recycled paper with Australian native trees and shrubs (such as Bottlebrush, Tea Tree or Paper Bark) embedded in the paper. Once you've read the message on the paper, you just need to plant it and a little water and sun, soon you'll have a little plant growing from what used to be paper. We've been working with them to create a machine that produces the paper.