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Sophisticated and sustainable products triumph at the VIVID awards.

Presented at Furnitex - Australasia's largest furniture and furnishings trade fair, held during the State of Design festival - Clarke's designs were up against those of more than 45 new designers.

The commercial award went to Anastasia Tubert for her Ida side table, made from Tasmanian oak and turned by hand so there's ''a lot of love in each'', she says.

VIVID curator Uli Hasel says: ''The use of bamboo, plantation plywood, recycled materials and other specified eco-materials demonstrates that sustainable design is here to stay.''

Vivid imaginations

05 Jul, 2011 10:38 AM

THEY are our new visionaries in furniture and design, chosen by industry leaders to showcase their innovative pieces as part of the Vivid (Vibrant Visions In Design) competition at Australasia's premiere furniture and interiors showcase, Furnitex. For the 49 finalists - all students and new businesses - Vivid presents an opportunity to get noticed by buyers and manufacturers; and to immerse themselves for four days in the latest furniture and interior design. On the eve of the big event, Mary-Jane Daffy meets four of the young Melbourne designers who look set to make an impact. Photographs by Teagan Glenane.

Anastasia Tubert

Furniture: Ida Table Age: 25 Lives: Southbank

Practicality is important to Anastasia Tubert. Effortlessly, she spins the brilliant yellow tabletop of her Ida Table onto its solid wood base, having detached it to carry it the three blocks from her home in Southbank to our photo shoot. "It's about functionability as well as producing a beautifully designed table," she says.

It echoes the "fit-for-purpose" mantra she adopted for her company Tubert Yule Design which she recently launched with Campbell Yule.

"On the table there's a hard-wearing friendly finish; we know if you put a glass on it, it's not going to leave a mark," Tubert explains.

The Ida Table is part of a collection inspired by ceramic forms. Tubert wanted to create a unified range which focuses on detail and craftsmanship. "Contrasting this, we added bright colours to bring it to life," she explains. Teal blue, zesty green and burnt orange hues run through the collection.

The yellow Ida table is the middle child of the series, bookended by a shorter, more bulbous version and a taller, more slender version. The lip of the tables unites the group, much like the signature mark links a particular ceramicist to their collection. Each piece is hand-turned on a lathe, with a keen focus on precision.

Born in New Zealand, Tubert moved to Melbourne earlier this year. While studying for a Bachelor of Product Design at Unitec in Auckland in 2005, she landed a furniture design job at Design Mobel. "My background is manufacturing and wholesale business so I approach design with that in mind, rather than from a designer-maker background," she explains. The result is a striking collections of pieces that will appeal to a commercial market.

The Ida Table collection will premiere at Furnitex, and will then be available for sale through Mule Design.

Furnitex is on at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre

from July 21-24. For information visit: furnitex.com.au

The road to business success sure is bumpy with plenty of highs to enjoy and lows to learn from.  Having found the perfect manufacturer to produce our new furniture range and with prototyping underway they decided this week close the workshop down! It's been back on the phone and traveling to the far edges of Melbourne over the last couple of days looking for a new workshop. Actually, that's been the only real low and in hindsight it really is just a speed hump.

We saw the production samples of a side table range we have designed called Ida and they are looking fantastic. Really striking forms and a bold use of colour makes a refreshing change from the common natural tones of solid timber furniture. Ida is due for release end of July 2011.

As designers having to deal with the admin side of the business is fairly low on our interest lists. Our discovery of the week is a web based accounting package that is really simple to use, quick to update and a great price at $25 per month. It's worth looking into for any small business http://www.reachaccounting.com.au/  

The weekend is about to start with a couple of glasses of wine. We hope yours does too!

We are very pleased that two furniture pieces have been selected for the Vivid Furniture Exhibition and competition as part of Furnitex 2011. More information on furnitex and Vivid can be found at http://furnitex.com.au/events/vivid

Welcome to our blog where we will be bringing you updates on what we are up to and our thoughts on the world of furniture and design. You can get notifications of our blog updates by joining us on facebook or following us on twitter. We are also interested in hearing your thoughts, ideas and comments so please feel free to talk to us.

Campbell