Oliver Farrow

Industrial Design

My true focus is on beauty of forms - I want to be able to create objects that could be considered art.

There are many misleading directions when it comes to true sustainability. I hold a passion for understanding how I can continue to further my sustainable thinking as an individual who creates objects.

The world is always so quick to progress when it comes to cheap and efficient manufacturing.

As a creative individual, I seek to understand the best of both digital/mechanical and analog methods of design; to create a fusion between both methods, combining efficiency and quality. Further, I hope to bring this understanding of manufacturing processes to consumer, establishing trust in products.

I believe:

Where there is quality, there is transparency.

Fac - Final Honours Project

A series of commuting/travel bags designed universally, focusing on enhanced ergonomics in fashion-level items, ensuring the bag does not ostracize between people living with or without dexterity and motor skill-related disabilities. Fac has utilized high-quality upcycled materials and holds features dedicated to a higher level of repairability - in order to take part in the movement to a more sustainable consumerist society.

Saemoonan

Designed during an overseas internship at the architecture company, Seoinn Design. Amongst working on architecture projects with the company, a brief was actioned; 3D printable lighting piece to celebrate the landmark Saemoonan Church, for the church to potentially sell as merchandise. The resulting 3d printed mood light was a sculptural design with the light accentuated at the doors of the church to symbolise entry to a holy place. The PLA fixture fits snug inside an off-the-shelf wooden base, readily accessible for the client. The final product was a clean two-print combination.

Torsion

Designed for industry partner Aboutspace Lighting. The Torsion is inspired by a forgotten old-school cocktail garnish made with an orange. The Torsion intersects into itself, transforming from a flat pattern to a curved lighting fixture. The felt fixture was designed to seamlessly integrate into the client's pre-existing modular lighting systems, to create both wall lights and beautiful ceiling lights. This allows existing buyers and future buyers of the Aboutspace product, Zero Series, to hold the ability to adapt soundproofing through beautiful lighting fixtures.

Urchin

Designed for industry partner Country Road. Urchin is a humanisation luxury dog furniture piece. To align with the client's brand, Urchin is a simplified contemporary ocean-inspired form that celebrates the high life of living on an Australian Peninsula. Urchin is a heavy concrete dog cloche, the cloche design is ideal for owners of multiple dogs, or social gatherings where dog food isn't wanted to be seen or food is wanted to be preserved. a slow feeder insert also provides owners with a means to help their dogs live healthier.

Hand Forged Jewellery

For the past 3 years, I have been learning and creating jewellery under a master goldsmith who designs and constructs the highest end of jewellery - all custom to order. This venture has become a major passion of mine after experiencing the reactions after creating beautiful and deeply meaningful pieces for people to cherish. Being trained in a means of chasing perfection and purism, learning off this master goldsmith has been the driving force which directs me in my journey as a designer, to keep quality and to strive for nothing less than perfection.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.