With the launch of her first collection as recently as 2007 at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week, Donna Sgro has taken great strides in creating her fashion design label from the ground up. Reflecting her independent and creative attitude, Donna has designed a label that reflects a spirit that is quirky, playful, colourful and light-hearted.

Donna studied Fashion & Textiles at the University of Sydney, Technology, where she graduated with First Class Honours in 2007. While still studying she built a solid portfolio of achievement including having her work displayed in exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum and winning the Fresh Fruits Competition.

Prior to studying fashion design, Donna competed an Arts Degree at the University of Sydney, where she studied Art History & Theory and Philoshophy. It was during this time that Donna developed an extensive knowledge of modernist art movements and cinema – with surrealism, dada and futurism defining the background to her creative thinking.

Set in the theme of the Curious Deep Sea, help celebrate and send local fashion designer Donna Sgro to Paris! Special underwater deep sea screenings and music from hosts Jay Katz & Miss Death Featuring a Mini Market Installation from some of your favourite designers Donna Sgro, Made by White and Twiggy. Plus a Lucky door prize for the best dressed, Squid and Jellyfish Performers and raffles with great prizes!

What: The Octopus’s Garden Party
When: Saturday 5th September 2009 from 8pm
Where: Mumeson Archives
Address: Cnr Parramatta Road & Trafalgar Street, Annandale.

The City of Sydney is encouraging local artists and illustrators to explore what contemporary Australia means to them in this year’s ‘Multicultural Art Competition – capturing Australia’s Identity’ now open for entries.

The competition, now in its second year, is a City initiative showcasing artworks that acknowledge and promote Sydney’s diverse cultural background. This competition asks local emerging and established artists to draw inspiration from our cultural diversity by exploring their own ideas and experiences of what it means to be Australian.

The finalists will be announced at the exhibition launch at Customs House on 17th October 2009, with more than $4000 in cash prizes up for grabs, including $2000 for first prize. The artworks will be exhibited at Customs House Library from 17th to 30th October 2009 and at Pine Street Creative Arts Centre, a unique arts centre in the heart of Sydney, from 4th 22nd November 2009.

The judges will be looking for artworks that explore the diversity of Australian identity in an original way, are stylistically strong and adaptable to various formats.

Entries close at 5pm on Monday 24th August 2009.

For more details about the competition, including artwork specifications, judging criteria and submission forms, please visit www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/grants or call .

Iconic is a modern buzzword that has taken a beating from copywriters everywhere lately. But how does a design, when the hype dust settles, make the cut?

Icons are the mainstays of popular culture, they have pulled off the oh-so elusive transcendence into popular culture and won the public’s enduring affection. The recipe is a cocktail of aesthetic freshness delivered with breathtaking simplicity and ultimate functionality. I know what you’re thinking, a success formula straight out of the textbook… easier said than done.

“The one thing design must do is fulfill its function efficiently. If not, it risks looking ridiculous, regardless of whatever else it has to offer.” Says design commentator, Alice Rawsthorn of the New York Times. But perfect functionality alone will not elevate a design to the pedestal of iconic as she discovered in the case of the Heinz ketchup bottle.

Rawsthorn recently investigated this beloved packaging icon, noting that it was an ineffective predecessor to Heinz’s cheaper, squeezable plastic bottle for getting the tomato sauce out when it becomes thickened. “Why do millions of people still choose to pay more for a glass bottle, which will not work as well?” she asked. The simple answer is, people just like it.

She identifies Heinz’s success as achieving familiarity without being dull, the 1882 patented bottle tapping into positive nostalgia and promoting a corporate heritage that people respect. The same could be said for the Coca-Cola Company’s famous bottle. Created in 1915 it is known now as the “hobble-skirt bottle” for its unique, pleated glass style and curvaceous contours which are said to be inspired by the shape of the cocoa pod.

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Children are invited to get arty for World Environment Day and enter the City of Sydney’s third annual Children’s Fine Art and Digital Art Competition and Exhibition.

This year’s theme – ‘Green Transformers – Your Planet Needs You!’ – asks children aged 5 – 12 to explore the idea of people as ‘Green Transformers’, saving the world through environmentally sustainable solutions including energy, water, waste and biodiversity.

“The World Environment Day competition gives young people a chance to express their unique view of what we can do to create a more environmentally aware City,” said Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP.

This year’s competition has been expanded to include both fine art and digital art. Fine art entries can include paintings, charcoals, pastels, watercolours or collages. The new digital media category includes digitally composited or manipulated images, short animations and films.

The competition is open to entries from both individuals and primary school groups and offers a range of great prizes.

The individual category has three age groups: 5 – 7, 8 – 10 and 11 – 12 years. Each age group winner will have the choice of either a collection of fine art materials or an art course at Pine Street Creative Arts Centre.

The primary school category invites schools in the City of Sydney Local Government Area to create a group artwork. The winning school will receive six portable planter box systems plus teaching resources to help students learn about growing food. The school will also win a compost bin, worm farm, compost turner and training workshops.

Runners up will receive an environmental show bag and certificate of achievement.

Entries close at 5pm on 15 May 2009. Winners will be announced at the exhibition launch at CarriageWorks on World Environment Day, Friday 5 June.

The exhibition is free and will run from Saturday 6 June until Saturday 13 June at CarriageWorks (245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh). Opening hours are Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm, and Saturday 9am – 1pm.

For more information including judging criteria and entry forms, please visit: http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/pinestreet/ and follow the links.

Paddington Markets has over 250 stalls showcasing the very best of Australian contemporary art, craft and fashion, directly by the artists and craft makers themselves. Paddington Markets is Sydney’s creative cutting edge. Emerging design, art and fashion students compete for an opportunity to launch their name on the Sydney art, design and fashion scenes.

Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th April 2009
Paddington Markets
395 Oxford Street Paddington, NSW
www.upandcoming.com.au

Featuring works by 21 of Australia’s leading and emerging fashion photographers such as Carlotta Moye, Georges Antoni, Richard Bailey (pictured right) and Simon Lekias. Shot on locations as diverse as the Outback to Dubai – this exhibition embraces everything from Miranda Kerr floating on a duck to Eva Mendes bringing true glamour to Bondi. The limited-edition prints are signed, beautifully mounted and framed. Priced at $750, all profits will directly benefiting the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

On now until Wednesday 8 April 2009
MLC Centre
Corner of King and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney

Slotted between Mah Jong, Line Dancing and playgroup, 5 women meet every Tuesday at The Leisure Learning Centre at Balcombe Heights Baulkham Hills to quilt. Anne has been with the group since 1999 and explains the language of the craft, “Quilting has a language of its own such as ‘fat quarters’, piecing, stippling, blocks, rotary cutter, ‘Jelly Rolls’, rotating mat, templates… special names to reflect the finished appearance e.g. Grandmother’s Garden, Shoo Fly, Ohio Star, Flying Geese.”

Quilting has a history that spans the entire globe with ancient beginnings in most unlikely places.  The Bangladeshis quilted, the Dutch, Hawaiians did too, in fact, and all are still at it.  But perhaps the most influential are America’s Amish people. And yes, Anne assures me, men do quilt.

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Sweat-Shop Productions continues to stretch the boundaries of T-Shirt design with their latest range of T-Shirts, simply titled – “The Quintet”.

Coming on the back of another successful summer, with some of last season’s range appearing in the controversial Australian film “The Combination”, this year’s creations have taken a less political and more subtle approach to the art of T-Shirt design story telling.

The brainchild behind the range is Klaus Kinski who founded the label in 1999, when he felt there was a need for simple, subtle, politicised designs that were accessible to the general public.  “T-Shirt design has evolved, and so has my latest range, I am now aiming for total market domination. I want to be like that musical dude, Kanye West of T-Shirts”, says Klaus.

With the world in the midst of a recession, Sweat-Shop Productions have dropped the price of their entire range down to $25 – a tactic unheard of in the quality T-Shirt market. “We need to rise up and face the challenges that are thrown upon us by the changing global climate and make products more accessible and cost friendly for the consumer; that is why Sweat-shop Productions have lowered their prices significantly. The shirts only cost me one olive to make, so there is no point in being greedy”, says Klaus.

When quizzed why his range was titled the Quintet, when there were only four new shirts, and not five, Klaus responded with the following. “When seagulls follow a trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”.

Go ahead and buy yourself a T Shirt. For further information regarding Sweat-Shop Productions , including giveaways, please contact Frank Bouquet at 
http://www.sweatshopproductions.com

The Marly Markets is a showcase of new up and coming designers from across Sydney and a selection of vintage collectors and artists. A wide array of clothes, jewellery and accessories are available each week with stalls changing weekly to give customers new retail experiences at each market. Designers include; Ampersander, Hallican Boodie, Andru Chrisst, Loformea, Piparela and many more.

On every Sunday: 11am-5pm
Marlborough Hotel
145 King St Newtown, NSW