He Made She Made is a brand new concept art and design gallery that is opening it’s doors for the first time tonight! They will be showcasing some of Australia’s best young and emerging design talent, with their first showcase including Henry Wilson, Alex Fitzpatrick, Christel Hadiwibawa, Jennifer Edmunds and Ben Edwards – just to name a few. The gallery is run by four designers, who secured the space through the City of Sydney’s Oxford Street revitalisation project. Their aim is to showcase and promote the work of Australian creatives who are otherwise under-represented. Hurrah!

These guys are a self funded gallery and they would love to have your support by attending their opening night tonight and getting to know some local designers and artists. Who knows, you might even find that perfect piece for your next project…

Named after its façades filled with greenery, ‘Stacking Green’ was designed by Vo Trong Nghia for a for a thirty-year-old couple and their mother. The house is located in Saigon, a chaotic city in Vietnam with one of the highest population densities in the world, on a block of land which measures only 4m in width and 20m in length. The front and back façades are constructed of layers of concrete planters cantilevered from two side walls…

Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary Japanese artist who puts dots all over her world. Her obsessive compulsive nuttiness is close to my heart and Kusama’s is definitely one of my all time favourite artists. Since December 2011, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) has been showing her work in a ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever‘ exhibition. Part of this event is a seriously cooltown interactive installation for children called The Obliteration Room – a series of rooms were painted completely in white where every room surface, piece of furniture and decoration was treated as a giant white canvas. Over the course of two weeks, kids were given thousands of colour dot stickers and were encouraged to make their creative contribution towards transforming the white space into one exploding with vibrant colours…

It is very un-Australian of me to be posting (and working) on Australia Day, but I feel as though I have no choice. Luckily today is Design Free Thursday so this should be relatively quick and painless. To Resolve Project by Chris Streger features downloadable wallpapers which are perfect for keeping us reminded of our New Years resolutions! Download one of their templates if you would like to create your own design. Brilliant!

Ok, now I’m off to have a Vegemite sandwich and a Lamington. Or something…

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (which is most un-yellowtrace reader like, btw!) no doubt you would have noticed that THE food trend of the moment on the Sydney dining scene is all about South American cuisine. Brazillian, Argentinian and modern Mexican restaurants and takeaways have been sprouting like…. umm sprouts(?) all over our fair city for a little while now. Many of these places, particularly the Mexican variety, have taken on the stereotypical “Mexican aesthetic”, unlike the interior I wanted to share with you today.

Barrio Chino in Potts Point was designed by Mandy Edge (see her previous project featured on yellowtrace here), completed in a quick time frame and on a modest budget but with a lot of passion and heart. Mandy chose to steer clear of the more obvious visual references, and crafted an interior which references the raw, robust and gritty Mexican aesthetic subtly and effectively. Nice work lady! Another proof that budget should NEVER stand in the way of a successful interior. Below is a little Q&A with Mandy and her experience on this project…