The Curator Company blog

Back from the Bowerbird Bazaar

I recently got back from Adelaide after taking part in the second Bowerbird Bazaar market. Organised by Rebekah from One Small Room and Jane from InSync Design who I first met at the launch of the photocurator at Young Blood 08 and who has been a regular friendly face through out the last year and a half as I attended various design & trade shows around Australia.

The first bowerbird bazaar had been referred to by a few friends who attended last years as ‘one of the best they have done’ – which was saying something, as they had done a lot.

With this in mind, the potential of the event was playing up as a classic, one-of-a-kind market with large crowds and lots of new people who hadn’t been introduced to the photocurator before – and it didn’t disappoint. Although not as huge as Melbourne Federation Square Design Market (not much tops that one) or the madness of the Young Blood, the Bowerbird was a huge success with over 6000 coming through the doors and lots of sales leaving me with very little stock left to take back to Sydney.

There was a great selection of designers at the Bowerbird, such as Mattt, Lola & Bailey, Pigeonhole, Vinyl Wall Designs, Smug Designs, Printspace, Sarah Rothe, a skulk of foxes and many more… after the last year’s experience someone should do a book on these people!

Thanks to Jane and Rebekah for putting on such a great event – hope to be back in October!!

Life inStyle

Four days of trade show craziness has now come to an end, phew – how exhausting. Life in Style is a boutique bi-annual show held in Sydney and Melbourne and this was my first experience of the madness.

The show was buzzing with lots of buyers, distributors, magazine stylists and store owners from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and HK. So many people in such a large space (The Hordern Pavilion in Fox Studios).

Well what to say… I suppose ‘Thanks!’ would be a good start. Thanks to all the new retail outlets who have signed up the Curator Company to provide them with photocurator packs. Now as the list of outlets which sell the photocurator is growing I will be adding a ‘Stockists’ area to the menu so you can find us in a shop near you.

If you are a retailer who is interested in stocking the photocurator then please give me a call or email me and I can give you all the information you need. Don’t forget we are now represented in the USA and Canada so if you are interested in stocking the photocurator in your neighborhood then also drop me a line.

Well the last few days and the coming week are (and will be) madness. Filling the orders and following up with all the nice people who gave me their cards will make my days very long.

Well back to work… see you soon!

2010 here we go!

Well January is nearly over and I’m rapidly moving out of first gear. It’s going to be a huge year ahead with lots of events, new products and more international coverage. Late last year the Curator Company signed on with a new distributor to help spread the word of the photocurator (and up-coming products) within the US and Canada. If you are based in North America and you’re interested in selling the photocurator then please drop me a line! hello@curator.com.au

With February starting in a couple of days preparations for the LifeinStyle exhibition are truly underway. The LifeinStyle is one of Australia’s largest design tradeshows and everything I hear about it says it will be a great time – drop me a line if you are thinking of attending!

Not long after LifeinStyle we will be in Adelaide for the Bowerbird Bazaar This will be my first foray into South Australia and I’m really looking forward to it. If you live in Adelaide and will be out and about on the 26th-28th of March then come down and say hello!

Thanks for the nice feedback

Ever since August last year when I started the Curator Company and launched our first product, the photocurator, I have had some great feedback from people I have met or customers who have bought them – either at markets, retail or online.

I haven’t mentioned them in the past but with the goodwill surrounding Christmas I really I can’t let the love go by without saying thanks! So here goes..

Thank you Design Boom – you were there right at the beginning when we launched (talk about being on the cutting edge of design!) – link to article

Thanks Babyology for the nice write up earlier this year, haven’t seen so much traffic – link to article

Thank you Quit your day job (great name for a blog btw) – link to article

Thank you Apartment Therapy – link to article

Thanks for the mention at misskish – yes that Melbourne market is madness (and I also got a shuky laptop bag!)

Thanks Design Vagabond – you were also there at the beginning and must have a keen eye for good design link to article

Thanks to Megan at Interior Blogging

Thanks Im not unfaithful

Thanks Benjamin!

Thanks Mel:Hot or Not

If you have written a nice post about the photocurator, then please feel free to drop me a line I would love to read your throughts! You can contact me here

Melbourne Design Market Xmas 09

The last market of the year and it went off with a bang. As usual (this is the 3rd Melb Design Market I have attended) everything starts quietly, almost disconcertingly quiet… then without warning, Melbourne’s happy, design hungry marketeers come flooding in. I love the pace of the Melbourne Design Market, so many people and everyone is so excited by what they see – it’s very exciting and inspiring.

Thanks again to Steve for helping out, he has been working the stall/booth at every event this year (apart from when he got swine flu at Design Made Trade). I can now start to focus on the long list of things that need to be done before next year’s Life in Style Trade Show in February 2010 (which luckily is just around the corner so no need to travel).

I will be sending out a little newsletter to update all those about our new discounts for those wanting to buy in bulk. There is the larger mount to get onto again, along with a couple more products I have been working on in the lab.

I’m starting to enjoy using social media more too – twitter has been great, I need to look into my stale Facebook page and Flickr photos. There is also this web site… after a year of questions and answers from everyone I am hoping to start using video more and to commission a photographer to get my product shots up to a higher quality. So much to do and with no events on for the next few months maybe I can get some of these things done!

Xmas Young Blood 09

Just over a year ago the Curator Company launched the photocurator at the Powerhouse Museum’s Young Blood Market. It was a great success – selling out in a few hours and throwing me into a learning curve which I am still on.

Over the last year I have attended trade shows, design markets and started wholesaling to a few select retailers throughout Australia. It was with this in mind that re-attending the Young Blood Market for Xmas 09 was (and always will be) an happy experience. The Young Blood Market will always be a part of the Curator Company history. Thanks to Louise and Jane for putting together a great event. Hopefully I will be able to launch new products there in 2010!

Finders Keepers Brisbane 09

Steve & I flew up to Brisbane the weekend after the PYD market for the first Brisbane Finders Keepers. I think it was Steve’s first time in Brisbane and I’m sure he wasn’t disappointed. We were staying at a little motel in Fortitude Valley – I’m sure that place has stories to tell… I’m sure the drunken woman at the motel singing Bon Jovi at the top of her lungs at 5 in the morning also has a few stories to tell (if she could remember them) anyway… Finders Keepers… what a great event.

Well done to the organisers they did an excellent job. The music was spot on, the mix of designer products, jewelery was of a very high standard and the everyone was having a good time!

Surprisingly we sold out of all our coloured mounts (Orange, Blue and Green) and by Sunday afternoon all we had was a few packs of black mounts left. Good on you Brisbane for being up-for-the-colour, I personally like the green/olive mounts and the blue and orange mounts do a great job of adding pizzazz and vibrance to a wall.

Thanks Brisbane for having us I’m sure we will be back soon!!

PYD market 09

Had a great time at the PYD Design Markets last month – everything was going really well until this huge storm came through on the Sunday and washed away everyone attending the Dank st Festival … anyway, it was nice to meet a whole lot of new people who hadn’t seen the photocurator before, thanks for making the effort to come down.

This year I was using a new wall-stand display to show the mounts on, it’s really just a old sign with a piece of hardwood over the top. But the mounts stuck so easily and were removed and re-stuck with such ease that a lot of people thought they were held on by magnets! I might need to replace the hardwood with plaster board or something…

Anyway, it was a good weekend although my space was sitting on an angle which didn’t bother me much (at the time) but it took a week for my knees to recover!.. just in time for Brisbane…

Finders Keepers Brisbane

Good news! Last week I found out that we have been accepted into the Inaugural Finders Keepers Market in Brisbane on Saturday October 31st and Sunday November 1st at The Old Museum.

Steve and I will be there, so if you are in Brisbane then come and say Hi!

The Art of the Snapshot

I just came across an interesting article about the art of snapshot photography. Written by Craig Garrett and originally published in Flash Art No. 233 (Nov/Dec 2003) called: COERCED CONFESSIONS: Snapshot photography’s subjective objectivity

This photographic genre was very fashionable during the nineties and early 00′s with practitioners such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Leeta Harding being a couple of my favourites.

I remember back when this style first appeared during that period of ‘Heroin Chic’ and ‘Dirty Realism’ back when I was at art school. At the time I was a little dismissive of the genre, but now as my interest in the snapshot genre has grown and digital technology has gone on to change photography – my interest in the photo diarists and the role I believe this look has for the future has also begun to develop.