Tasman is a Sydney based creative who's passion lies in Social Design (design for human well-being and livelihood). On paper his profession is Industrial Design, but off the record he's cheated on ID with a bunch of other mediums. Recent exciting projects have covered environmental health in remote Indigenous housing, Human Centred Design with the Royal Collage of Art (London) and nutrition with Gijs Bakker (Holland). Currently he is collaborating with 'Designing out Crime' (UTS) exploring education in NSW Corrective Services.

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I was thrilled this year to receive an invite to exhibit at the Interpretations IIII exhibition at Object Gallery.

The exhibition is curated by Andrew Simpson of Vert Design, every two years a group of Sydney based designers are asked to create work with a selected material or manufacturing process, past exhibitions have included glass, sheet metal and sand casting, this year's theme is stone.

For my contribution I've been exploring the way we value gemstones in jewellery making. Underground, all stone is of equal value, but above ground we invent imaginary check-boxes such as rarity, clarity, and level of perfection which we use to determine value. Why are some stones drastically more expensive than others? Because we say ......

I have recently had the privilege of working with the inspiring Designing Out Crime unit at UTS, an innovative research centre who are one of the Australian leaders in socially responsive design. Working closely with architect Kevin Bradley we were engaged to design 'Intensive Learning Centres' for maximum security prison. The project aims to consolidate the education program into a six month intensive course focusing on citizenship, vocational skills and community integration. A framework was developed in order to address each space systematically exploring various ways to offer connection to different scales of community.

The project addressed the design of the buildings, furniture, landscaping and some elements of the ...

Last year whilst squatting in London I helped to run a free community arts centre in an abandoned shop fronts. Read about our adventure in London's creative underbelly HERE 

A project by Christian Tietz, Tasman Munro and Greg Norman

A project designed to reduce the impacts of overcrowding in remote Indigenous communities by improving amenities around the house perimeters and transforming these spaces into more valuable living environments. These areas are typically barren and lack facilities, data from the National Indigenous Housing Guide shows less than half of housing has any outdoor cooking facilities and 16% of houses have no verandahs. In response to these findings the Yardmaster utility unit was developed, based on a standard universal beam (UB250) and a range of accessories it introduces power, water, shelter, lighting, work benches, washing facilities and storage to outdoor living spaces.

Gallery.........

(Image courtesy of the Design Museum London)

Last year I was lucky enough to intern with the The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (at the Royal collage of Art), contributing to a project to redesign the UK ambulances. It has just been announced that the project won the transport category of London Design Museum's Design of the year 2012! Massive congratulations to everyone involved and thank you for letting me contribute to the final stages of a long inspiring project. Previous posts on the experience HERE and HERE and learn about about the project in the presentation below:

REDESIGNING THE AMBULANCE: IMPROVING MOBILE EMERGENCY HEALTHCARE from HHCD on Vimeo.

A big mile stone for us today, having The Analogue Crusader screened at The Museum of Contemporary Art! As part of Imagine.Create.Inspire, the night showcased works from a selection of Sydney's emerging film makers.

The screening was one of the first major events to be held in the gallery's controversial new building. On the inside the space is incredible, with beautiful handing of light and slithers of spectacular harbour views. The outside, in my opinion could be slightly more sympathetic toward the old building we know and love, but I must say it's slowly growing on me.

Was interviewed by D*Hub on the Design NSW Travelling Scholarship and reflections on Social Design.

Read Article HERE

Recently I found a big heap of rubbish in the alley behind my house...some of which looked particularly valuable. So I piled it into a shopping trolley, carted it into my backyard and began hacking it apart.

This was the final creation:

Home safe and sound after an incredible 6 months in Europe with the Design NSW Travelling Scholarship. Warming up the drawing skills after my Christmas break!