Making Meaning

A couple of years ago I saw a wonderful exhibition in Munich by Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouten Schouwenberg entitled ‘Beyond the New’. It included this powerful quote: “True innovation is enabled through entertaining a vivid dialogue with the past and linking the stories to the here and now.”

This quote was in my head when I caught up with Perth-based design practitioner Penelope Forlano, as it resonates with her credo as a designer.

She grew up in Perth with a love of arthouse films (especially those made by British director Peter Greenaway), theatre, and television shows such as Melrose Place (which used sets with subversive interventions by a group called GALA). These influences fuelled an interest in set design, which she noticed was often done by architects.

“That’s when I started looking at architecture and interior design,” she explains, “thinking that was what I was really interested in. When I look back now it was always that hybrid of art and design, how a space could totally transform a person’s mood or emotions.”

Her degree was in interior design with a strong architectural component, along with some town planning and visual arts. Graduating in 1997, she worked for prominent interior design company, Blake Thornton-Smith, before heading off to London. Here she worked in hospitality and retail design “doing a lot of detailing of furniture and custom components – all very highly customised design”.

An economic downturn in 2001 — and the fact that her partner, Glen Oldfield, did not have a European visa — sent her back to Perth.