Categories
Designers Homewares

Dinosaur Designs celebrate landmark 30th year

With a three-decade career designing iconic homewares and jewellery under their belts, Dinosaur Designs‘ creative directors Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy, have today launched their latest collection, Rainforest.

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_earth bowls_assorted

An evolution of their previous collections, which have referenced birds, flowers, seeds, earth and stones, Rainforest evokes the moisture and warmth of the tropical rainforest, with bright accents and tonal greens, and the solid earthen tones of wood and stone from the forest floor. “Nature has always been a core inspiration,” explains Louise. “So it only seemed fitting that a collection inspired by rainforests — a lush environment full of wonder and full of life — should mark our anniversary.”

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_stone_jug_moody_blue

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_yellow_string

The homewares collection is dominated by very large-scale bowls, platters and servers, and by popular demand, the signature ‘pebble’ pepper grinder returns, this time accompanied by a salt grinder. The jewellery is a delicate balance of boldness and finesse, with accents of gold and brass, and exciting new cuff and drop earring styles.

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_stone_servers_malachite_assorted

The Rainforest collection also reflects Louise and Stephen’s deep respect and concern for the future of rain and old-growth forests. The world’s rainforests are home to 50 percent of the earth’s plants and animals, and act as the planet’s thermostat by regulating temperatures and weather patterns. Highly endangered, Dinosaur Designs have decided to help support rainforest preservation by donating a percentage of the collection’s sales to the Australian Conservation Foundation to support their Great Dividing Range Campaign.

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_ivory_grinder

dinosaur_designs_rainforest_olsen_ormandy_bart_celestino_homewares_large_medium_stone_vases

Rainforest is available in store and online from today.

Shop online.

Categories
Designers Homewares

Dinosaur Designs’ sculptural Flower collection

Sculptural and beautiful, the upcoming solo collection by Louise Olsen, creative director of Dinosaur Designs, sees floral forms reinterpreted and designed as stunning objects for the home and wearable pieces for the body.

dinosaur-designs-olsen-ormandy-flower-vases-small-medium-tall-scatter

Entitled Flower, the homewares collection brings large petal forms together to create a field of flowers, in pieces ranging from servers to flower-like plates. The vases resemble blossoming flowers, long and delicate in shape.

Bold opaques mix with the glowing transparent colours of pastel peach and green, and the warm purple swirl applied to the flower plates evokes the incredible spot-like markings of an orchid.

dinosaur-designs-olsen-ormandy-flower-scatter-homewares-platters-dishes

“This collection is about the sculptural forms of flowers, the unexpected nature of nature,” explains Louise. “It plays on that sense of wonderment that flowers gives us through their form, colour and scent”.

dinosaur-designs-olsen-ormandy-flower-coral-blue-purple-bowl-dishes-spoons

With a palette that mixes resin with the more muted accents of sterling silver and brass, the Flower collection comprises of 11 homewares pieces and 34 new jewellery designs.

dinosaur-designs-olsen-ormandy-flower-blue-green-platter-plates-dishes-homewares

Flower will be in Dinosaur Designs’ Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, New York, London and online stores from 4 May. For more information.

Categories
Homewares

Dinosaur Designs’ new Red range

Dinosaur Designs’ Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy have launched their new showcase colour range, Red. I’m not usually a fan of red, but we’re talking much more subtle than in-your-face Valentine’s Day red. Phew! Speaking of which, Happy Valentine’s, lovers!

Red collection Shell Wrap vase
Red collection Shell Wrap vase

The palette varies from deep reds and bright oranges to soft peaches, complimented by accents of cream and gold, which create harmonious colour relationships. New art range colours have also been developed, combining powerful reds and an earthy tortoiseshell.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Video: Behind the scenes at Dinosaur Designs

Ever wondered how they make all those gorgeous vases, bowls, bangles and more at Dinosaur Designs? I’ve been lucky enough to see behind the scenes in person and the amount of work that goes into each truly individual piece, all by hand, is quite staggering. Take a look yourself in this new video featuring co-founders Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy at work.

Behind the Scenes at Dinosaur Designs from Dinosaur Designs on Vimeo.

Categories
Furniture

Dinosaur Designs branch out into furniture in their signature resin

Dinosaur Designs co-founders Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy have released their first furniture collection: side tables in the brand’s signature resin.

Stephen's collection, Collage
Stephen’s collection, Collage

Having cemented themselves in the Australian design industry, the introduction of these larger pieces is perhaps a natural progression. Louise and Stephen have each designed a collection of side tables, celebrating their individual design sensibility, all which are one of a kind and have been handmade in their Sydney studio.

Categories
Interiors Addict

An earthy new collection from Dinosaur Designs

Safari is the latest collection from Dinosaur Designs, available from today. If you’re more into earthy neutrals than pops of colour or pastels, this could be right up your street.

dinosaur_designs_collection_2013_safari_2

We might be heading into summer but I’m loving these autumnal colours! The collection is a team effort by Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Ocean: the latest Dinosaur Designs collection, by Louise Olsen

Drawing upon inspiration from the ocean, a fierce yet gentle, natural and ever changing beauty, the latest Dinosaur Designs collection by creative director Louise Olsen, resembles sea forms.

dinosaur designs ocean 1

In the homewares range, vases and bowls resemble handmade shell forms. The natural colour of spotted patterned shells is cast upon vases and bowls. Platters form like waves and shells.

dinosaur designs ocean 2

Louise has introduced a dégradé colour technique, which is applied using deep-sea blues and warm coral colours, resembling the depth and lightness of the tide sweeping in and out. To complete the palette, bright yellow and soft sandy tones have been incorporated.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Not one but three winners for 7 Vignettes April

It’s always really tough to pick a winner of 7 Vignettes, so when we had two $200 vouchers this month it seemed a good idea to have two prizes: one for best overall and one for standout single vignette. Luckily the tough judging job went to Louise Olsen of Dinosaur Designs, not me! But then she decided to award a third special mention too!

The overall winner is @mollysmaison. These are my favourites of hers:

mollysmaison

The standout single vignette prize went to @loumasters for this beauty:

Categories
Interiors Addict

Sneak peek: THE quintessential MAGAZINE

Issue 3 of the quintessential MAGAZINE, brought to us by the people behind the divine store of the same name in Balmain, is out next week and it’s a visual treat, as usual.

bread boards
Photo by Sam McAdam Cooper

It’s not just beautiful images, although there are many, it’s always a great read too. This month Dinosaur Designs’ Louise Olsen talks about the inspiration behind her new collection (look out for it on Interiors Addict next week), globestrotting stylist Glen Proebstel reports back from New York, and a variety of people talk about their collections, from breadboards (pictured) to bobbins, potato mashers and more!

Categories
Interiors Addict

The next 7 Vignettes starts on 1 April

Can you believe it’s only a week until the fourth 7 Vignettes? Here’s the list for the next round…

We’re really lucky to have Dinosaur Designs’ Louise Olsen as our guest judge this time. We also have two great prizes in the form of $200 gift vouchers from gorgeous online stores: Cabin & Castle and Zohi Interiors.

Categories
Interiors Addict

The winner of 7 Vignettes March is…

Dee! (aka Pictured Thoughts on Instagram).

Guest judge Darren Palmer and I were equally impressed with her consistent effort throughout the entire week (never mind the outtakes which have continued to be posted as extras ever since!). This is why she won…

White

CirclesIt was such a tricky choice this month with so many stunning entries! I think even Darren might agree it was tougher than judging a room on The Block! But we both feel pretty confident we picked the right person. Darren, who said the quality of everyone’s work was inspiring, added: “Dee definitely had the most vignettes I liked over the week. Great work all round and there were many entries in my shortlist. I was so happy to see such great style and skill out there!”

Categories
Interiors Addict

Colour-blocking combos with Dinosaur Designs’ third collection for Designer Rugs

It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Dinosaur Designs’ resin homewares and jewellery (let’s not talk about my bangle problem) and I’m equally enamoured with their latest rug collection.

Glow by Dinosaur Designs for Designer Rugs

The Studio Collection comprises six designs which, although quintessentially Dinosaur Designs, offer a fresh take on the previous two collections. With bold and punchy colour-blocked designs, the collection plays with rhythms in line, shape, colour and tone.

Moon by Dinosaur Designs
Moon by Dinosaur Designs

“We wanted to play with big planes of colour with this series and work from a really warm palette to a very cool blue palette,” says Louise Olsen of Dinosaur Designs.