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…

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…

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…

Aesop retail stores are so consistently and predictably AWESOME that it’s actually becoming a little bit boring. Except – WHAT am I taking about – awesome is totally never ever boring! Period. From the very beginning, Aesop have understood the value of design and have managed to build a covetable world-wide brand by exploring and utilising every aspect of design excellence to their advantage. Their stores are their ultimate brand extension and fine examples of interior branding at it’s best. So clever, so inspiring, so AWESOME and never boring.

Back in September, Aesop opened their first standalone store in New York in the Nolita area (images above). Designed by New York architect Jeremy Barbour, who also created Aesop’s Grand Central Terminal kiosk, the interior “further explores construction possibilities of newspaper by using reclaimed copies of the New …

Ryan Hanrahan and Bianca Riggio from Page Thirty Three are ‘that’ couple. You know the kind – young, talented, interesting, stylish, clever, spirited, driven… did I mention madly in love and amazing looking? Yes, well – that sort of stuff definitely shouldn’t be allowed and I’m almost tempted to roll my eyes at them in envy, but I won’t. I happen to really like what they are doing so I am going to tell you about that instead.

Page Thirty Three was formed in 2010 as a true reflection of Ryan’s and Bianca’s minds. Even the opening opening line on their about page “Welcome to the inside of our brains” says so. I really love that. Ryan and Bianca’s work has already gained a significant amount of exposure due to their ability to blend various elements – design, art, humour, irony, functionality and the street…