1955 Exhibition stand for Society of Designers for Industry At a Department of Trade exhibition in Sydney

SDI first public exhibition stand by courtesy of Department of Trade

At the same Department of Trade exhibition in Sydney we were given a courtesy exhibit space for the SDI.  We collected members’ work and showed what we were capable of.

In retrospect it announced to the public that industrial design as a profession was born in Australia and that, naïve as perhaps we were, we were now open for business.

Some five years later the SDI transformed itself into the Industrial Design Institute of Australia and in about the early 1980s it dropped the Industrial in the title to become the DIA – the Design Institute of Australia, giving greater scope to other allied designers to whom the word did not quite fit.

The DIA has flourished and now has its headquarters in Collins St. Melbourne.

1953-sdi-exhib-2

The whole SDI exhibit was designed, drawn and fully erected in 9 hours after being offered to the SDI by the Department of Trade through Peter Hunt our first SDI President.

Largely designed, coordinated and drawn by me with some help from one or two other members.

In the main heading above the ‘missing’ word in the bottle was reflective gold which did not show very well in the photo. It was :  GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD BUSINESS

The small black strips had the names of the various design specialities such as Product design, exhibitions, graphics, fabric design etc.