The NSW branch of the Design Institute of Australia launched its Top 10 x10 Designer Talk series in 2007 to provide an opportunity for established and influential designers to share their knowledge and experience with an audience of practicing designers and those interested in the design industry. more

Sydney’s vast sea of roofs belies its rich legacy of gardens and gardening. In every direction from the city, large estates and gardens have been subdivided and lost to our ever-increasing need for real estate. Lost gardens explores Sydney’s rich and diverse gardening heritage. more

Photographer Steven Siewert has spent years documenting Sydney’s rockabillies, a vibrant subculture who live and breathe an era that predates their earliest birthdays. The boys dress for cool with stovepipe jeans and slick quiffs, while the women wear dazzling cocktail frocks by night and colourful vintage dresses by day. more

A multi-media work for architectural light, music and multi-channel sound by Mary-Anne Kyriakou, recipient of Peggy Glanville Hicks Composer Fellowship 2008-2009. more

The Powerhouse Museum’s collection is like an iceberg; about nine tenths are hidden below the surface. Take a journey to those depths on a curator-led tour of our basement and Castle Hill storage areas. See the historical and contemporary design and decorative arts collections in their resting state - folded, filed, sorted and shelved. more

Free lunch-time talks every Wednesday and Sunday at the Powerhouse. Throughout August Talks After Noon focuses on some of the unique events, exhibitions and people featured in SD08. more

The most outstanding examples of the latest Australian design and innovation from the 2008 Australian International Design Awards are now on display. The Powerhouse Museum’s annual selection from the finalists include a personal tracking device for skiers and snowboarders, a communications device for firefighters, an electronic earplug for communication in loud environments, and a selection of models from the Australian Design Awards – Dyson Student Awards. more

Discover how modernism transformed life in Australia across five tumultuous decades from 1917 to 1967. Modern times looks to the city and its skyscrapers, cafes and swimming pools, where modernist ideals of functionalism, internationalism and the healthy body profoundly reshaped Australian culture. more

There’s a hole in my bucket invites 20 local designers and 80 members of the public to put their bucket where their mouth is and photograph a part of Sydney, or a part of their everyday lives, that they consider to be badly designed; and every image must contain the ubiquitous yellow bucket. more

Curated monthly by A&E Metal Merchants, this showcase in the Powerhouse Museum shop brings to light recent work by contemporary jewellers. For Sydney Design 08, A&E has handed the reigns to jewellery students at Sydney College of the Arts. more

An annual exhibition of work by Sydney College of the Arts, Object Art & Design students, from undergraduate to postgraduate research candidates. This year’s theme goes local, asking participants to respond to the term ‘u-beaut’ and the idea of an Australian vernacular. more

Ceramic artists from Australia and New Zealand are invited to participate in this annual exhibition, competition and homage to a universally-loved vessel. Rarely will you see so many interpretations of a single, utilitarian object. more

Presented by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and Bangladeshi Architects in Australia (BAA), this exhibition showcases architectural projects completed in Bangladesh by prominent local architects, international luminaries including Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolf, Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Stanley Tigerman, as well as selected works by architects and students of Bangladeshi origin living in Australia. more

In 2006 Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) members proved they don’t always take themselves too seriously by staging an intervention in Omnibus Lane – en route to the Powerhouse Museum – that treated passers-by to a particular graphic design sense of humour – speech bubbles with graphic design gags like ‘Lose dot gain. Ask me how’ and ‘Only designers bleed’ more

Founded in 1998 by Dutch graphic designer Roger Willems and artist Mark Manders, the Amsterdam-based Roma Publications is known for the production of autonomous publications in close collaboration with artists, designers, curators, writers and poets. This exhibition focuses on the convergence of art and design through the publication of exhibition catalogues, prints, posters and films. more

A showcase of the breadth of talent across undergraduate design programs at the University of NSW Faculty of the Built Environment, including architecture, interior architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture and planning. From the large scale to the domestic, Platform depicts the future as seen by young professionals working in Australia and overseas. more

This exhibition explores the work of eight contemporary fashion designers, who not only create new garment forms and new ways of wearing clothes, they also develop entirely new design systems. Featuring work by Simon Cooper, Paula Dunlop, Ess. Laboratory (Hoshika Oshimi and Tatsuyoshi Kawabata), FORMALLYKNOWNAS (Toby Whittington), Anthea van Kopplen, MATERIALBYPRODUCT (Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald), Project (Kara Baker and Shelley Lasica) and S!X (Denise Sprynskij and Peter Boyd). more

An exhibition featuring seven contemporary jewellers whose work is at times experimental, confrontational and non-functional. Alice Lang, Tiffany Parbs, Julia de Ville, Leah Heiss, Chelsea Gough, Gabby O’Conner and Melinda Young rebuild, recreate, restore, renovate, remake, reassemble, refashion and re-enact to create works that transcend convention and the body, and take the notion of jewellery to a new level of understanding. more

Workshopped 08 explores the theme ‘Design matters’ by asking participants to consider the questions: ‘What is important about your design? What does it set out to achieve? Where will it find a home? And why does it matter? more

Graphic designer Paul McNeil has over 20 years experience on the Sydney scene, designing for film and for companies such as Mambo and Mooks. In this exhibition of sculptures and two-dimensional works, using his trademark palette of red, black and white, McNeil explores the graphic visual language of gangs. more

A group of local designers were invited to create new work for this in-store exhibition at Beautiful on the inside in response to the brief: design an object for a time capsule; a piece representative of design today or simply worthy of being immortalised. The designers are Henry Wilson, Matthew Conway, Arthur Koutoulas, Babak Aryaei, Keith Melbourne, Christopher Earl Milbourne, and Lana Alsamir-Diamond. more

Take a tour of some of Sydney’s most important architectural developments with the Australian Architecture Association (AAA). more

Krispin K, international trend forecaster and fashion guru, returns this year to explore the modern movement in Australia with a fast-paced, fun-filled tour of the new exhibition Modern times. more

The Historic Houses Trust’s recent conservation and redecoration of the State drawing rooms of Government House has broken new ground in the conservation and presentation of Australian historic interiors. Contemporary artists and designers were commissioned to design new carpets, furniture and furnishing textiles for project. Hear about the challenges and the triumphs during two discussion forums. more