Studio Periscope is an industrial design agency based in Melbourne and founded in 2006 by Lisa Oaten and Robert Sim. Studio Periscope’s portfolio spans product designs for a diverse range of industries and categories, ranging from conceptual design through to detailed engineered solutions. The studio has received numerous accolades, including winning the NGV Victorian Design Challenge in 2019 and best hardware and building product at the 2020 Good Design Awards.

On display in Melbourne Now are the studio’s door handle designs for Lockwood, an iconic Australian brand in the locking industry dating back to 1934. Designed in 2019, the Lockwood Brass Core range is a collection of twenty-four door handles meeting accessibility and mobility compliance requirements for public institutions. It is one of the largest collections of AS1428.1 compliant door handles on the market and is manufactured in Australia.

Fungi Solutions, founded by Amanda Morgan and Camden Cooke, is an innovative social enterprise that produces custom bio-regenerative packaging solutions. Harnessing the adaptive capabilities of fungi, the company recycles organic waste usually sent to landfill, which they repurpose to produce clean and circular myco-materials that support healthy ecosystems while reducing reliance on harmful petrochemicals and sequestering carbon. Fungi Solutions aim to eventually create a network of myco-cycling facilities across Australia, eliminating the need to ship waste or create new landfill sites, and helping to establish a more sustainable and circular economy.

On display in Melbourne Now, Wine packaging and cooler, designed in 2021 and refined in 2022, recycles by-products from the winemaking industry. Bonded together using mycelium to create a material that is lightweight, durable and insulating, Wine packaging and cooler can be grown to form in seven days.

Edward Linacre is a Melbourne-based multidisciplinary designer whose studio designs and manufactures lighting, furniture and objects. Working closely with local crafts-people and fabricators, Linacre balances experimental and environmental design principles, often implementing recycled materials and by-products, and using high-quality and sustainably sourced materials that maximise energy efficiency.

On display in Melbourne Now, Flask bracket sconce, first designed in 2015 and updated in 2021, is part of Linacre’s Flask range, an award-winning bespoke architectural lighting system. The titular ‘flask’ refers to individually sculpted glass luminaires, which are customisable in colour, size and shape, linked together by a small family of brass and aluminium components that connect, mount and suspend. The sustainable design utilises energy-efficient LED technology for lighting output and is 100 percent Australian-made, with most components fabricated in Victoria.

One Planet is a Melbourne company that designs and manufactures technical outdoor equipment, specialising in backpacks, sleeping bags, tents and apparel made for Australian conditions. Its products are used by local adventurers, search-and-rescue personnel, park rangers, and the Australian Antarctic Division. The result of decades of design innovation incorporating technological and material advances, all One Planet products are manufactured at the company’s factory in Sunshine West factory.

On display in Melbourne Now, are the Tarkine, 2022, a rucksack used by specialist and recreational bushwalkers, the Cocoon sleeping bag, designed 2006–21 and One Planet’s Polar pyramid with vestibule, 2003-2018, a specialised shelter designed for scientists and researchers conducting remote fieldwork, used by polar agencies worldwide.

Maton Guitars is Australia’s longest running and most successful guitar manufacturer, pioneering the use of Australian wood species in guitar construction. Established by Melbourne-born jazz musician, woodwork teacher and luthier Bill May, who is regarded by many local luthiers as the founding father of the Australian guitar-making industry, Maton remains 100% family-owned and Australian designed and made. Located in Box Hill, Maton’s guitars are beloved by musicians including Tommy Emmanuel, John Butler, Paul Kelly, Neil Finn and Keith Urban.

On display in Melbourne Now, the Maton SRS70C, designed in 2012 and updated in 2018, is a guitar created for the working musician providing great acoustic tone and high-quality, dependable amplified sound in live performance. Since its release in 2012, demand for the SRS70C has grown consistently, with 8000 produced by mid-2022.

Robert Gordon Pottery is a family-owned business that has been designing and manufacturing Australian-made ceramics for over sixty years. Founder Robert Gordon followed in the footsteps of his mother, June Dyson, herself a renowned Australian potter who set up her studios in 1945 and formed a formidable partnership with her husband Colin as business director. From its humble origins in a tin shed, Robert Gordon Pottery soon expanded into a large, purpose-built Pakenham factory in 1987, where its headquarters remain today – with creative director Kate Gordon at the helm.

On display in Melbourne Now is a dinner plate, side plate and bowl from the Canvas collection, which has remained a staple for the brand since the collection’s original launch in 2012. The Canvas collection embodies true collaboration between potter and chef, with the company learning through in-depth industry research and discussions with some of the world’s best chefs that restaurants – both locally and abroad – increasingly wanted elegant, flat plates to serve as canvases for innovative culinary creations.