Emma Elizabeth
THE DESIGN CHAMPION
best known as a multidisciplinary creative who advocates and supports Australian designers through her website, Local Design.
Emma Elizabeth is hard to pin down. Having graduated from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, she went on to start The Design Vlog, before launching Local Design, a site that offers everything from sales and networking to news and editorial for lovers of Australian design — all while running her own practice. As a tireless champion of Australian designers, Elizabeth creatively directs exhibitions and events at Milan Design Week in their honour, where she arranges everything from the shipping of new designs to negotiating sponsors, drumming up press, and even sorting the designers out with a bed for the night. She describes the European and Australian design climates as a seesaw when it comes to innovation and the sexes. “The furniture, lighting and homewares industry to date in Australia has been somewhat man-heavy,” she says.
“If you look to Europe, there has almost been a shift the other way.”