A good cup of tea.

This one's for you NP. Despite the accident.

my great-nanna's teapot

I really appreciate things that are well designed. And i don't just mean that they look great, but they function intelligently too. I'm sure there's loads of design theory and discussion about form/function, etc. out there and I'll leave that for you to research later.

But i just wanted to say what i'll be voting for in this year's Australian Design Awards: http://www.designawards.com.au/application_detail.jsp?status=4&applicationID=664.

For those who can't be bothered following the link, it's a ceramic kettle by Sunbeam (scroll down a little - there's a picture).
It sounds lame, but it has been developed with consultancy from ceramic artist David Edmonds. It's focus is on sustainability and intelligent resource usage. And it looks great! Not as nice as my great-grandmother's tea pot, but still pretty schmick for a cup of tea.



The design awards are specifically for product design, but i'm surprised that there isn't more graphic/visual design featuring in this year's awards. Surely well-designed books and websites have a product functionality as well. In fact the whole field of finalists seems to be a little 'light on' for really exciting creative innovation. Don't get me wrong - some great and important ideas, but they're all a little, well, safe.

I don't know if it's always like this and that they're like the equivalent of the oscars for film (great for entertainment, but a little light on in the true credibility department). The awards are set up by Standards Australia - not necessarily know for their creative flair, but I'd like to see a bit more spunk into the awards in the future and elevate true creative design and innovative thinking to a level which really deserves some merit.