Speaking about her Melbourne-based blog The Design Files, Lucy Feagins says she started her site in early 2008 after realising that Australian design wasn’t being showcased online nearly enough.

“I was reading a lot of international design blogs like Design Sponge and there were a lot of really great ones in America and the UK, but there wasn’t really an Australian voice in the mix,” she says. “I didn’t think that I was necessarily going to be that voice. It was more about having somewhere to be able to promote and talk about Australian design.”

Feagins says the beauty of the online world, particularly for young and emerging designers, is that it provides an incredible opportunity to promote their work to a wider audience and get an almost instantaneous response.

“All those international sites are kind of competing for the next thing and it’s just so relentless and so prolific,” she adds.

Amongst it all, The Design Files site has found a way to stand out, with Feagins noteing that she often gets emails from people she’s featured telling her they’ve been inundated with requests about their products, often overnight.

“I think, in terms of my own blog, there is a real power of persuasion because it feels like a personal endorsement when I write about something,” she says. “There is a real relationship that you build with your readers by having that routine, when you appear in their mailbox everyday.”

Similarly, Mikael Colville-Andersen has taken an interest in capturing images of cyclists all over the world for his world Copenhagenize blog, and particularly those looking good on a bike for its sister blog, Copenhagen Cycle Chic. He will be discussing how accessible this medium can be for a city, both bikes and blogs.

Fellow Design Dinner panelist Dan Hill draws upon his wealth of architectural knowledge on his blog City of Sound. A leading blogger in architecture and urbanism, Hill will be discussing the influence of recurring ideas of design on media and culture.

The Design Dinner will be held on Thursday 22, July at Comme. Tickets for the event, and a three-course meal with matching wines, are $85 per person and can be booked by calling Comme on (03) 9631 4000.

www.designfiles.net
www.copenhagencyclechic.com
www.copenhagenize.com
www.cityofsound.com

www.stateofdesign.com