STATE OF DESIGN WORKSHOPS
For the first time Designer Rugs participated in the State of Design Festival, an initiative of the Victorian State Government, showcasing Victorian and Australian design in a 10 day program of over 125 interactive events, exhibitions, workshops, and talks. The 2009 Festival (15-25 July) was one of the best Australian design events ever held, with over 100,000 national and international visitors participating in fun-filled, informative days around public and business events.
For our part in the Festival, carried out two interactive workshops, with great success.

"Designers for the Future" was an interactive workshop open to tertiary design students of any discipline, where Victorian State Manager Petrina Turner educated and inspired students on the art of making and designing rugs. The hope for this workshop was to uncover the next generation of talented designers from design schools throughout Victoria. We will keep you posted on the entries.

"Develop your own Interior Style" was an interactive workshop open to the public, to inspire participants on the principles of design and how they could incorporate rugs into their own personal space. While Victorian State Manager Petrina Turner gave interior and rug background, we were also lucky enough to have Julie Paterson of Cloth as our special guest to inspire our participants on how to interpret their own style/ art/ ideas into their personal spaces. As well as worksheets, we also provided inspiration cards, paint chips and wallpaper samples from Porters Paints, swatches of Cloth fabrics and rug samples for participants to make their very own mood boards.

We would like to thank our event partners Fiji Water, Eckersley's, Cloth Fabric and Porters Paints.

Stay tuned to view the student designs that form part of the ‘Designer for the Future competition'.