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Rainbows and rule-breaking – Danielle Brustman’s bold dash with colour

Rainbows and rule-breaking – Danielle Brustman’s bold dash with colour

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Award-winning Melbourne-based interior designer Danielle Brustman certainly doesn’t suffer from chromophobia. Known for her innovative, boundary-pushing residential and commercial interiors, immersive art installations and exquisitely considered functional objects, including floor lights and cabinets, Brustman’s creative energy is almost limitless. In an exclusive Q&A with Australian Design Review, Brustman shares insights about her love of colour and the joy inbreaking so-called design rules. 

Danielle Brustman in her Collingwood studio. Photography by Dylan James.
Danielle Brustman in her Collingwood studio. Photography by Dylan James.
Australian Design Review: Your style could be distilled to maximalist colour combined with contemporary geometric abstraction. Where did your love of colour come from?

Danielle Brustman: Colour has always been a source of joy and expression for me. I think my love of colour and shape is innate and stems from childhood. I use it as a way of escaping the mundane and expressing myself in a more fantastical and embellished way. I was a big daydreamer as a child and my favourite storybook was Alice’s Rainbow, which was essentially a story about a girl chasing rainbows in search of their origin. 

There is a wonderful quote by Georgia O’Keeffe: “I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way — things I had no words for…”

Harbour early learning centre. Photography by Sean Fennessy.
Harbour early learning centre. Photography by Sean Fennessy.
ADR: Can you walk us through your design process? When faced with a blank canvas, where do you begin? 

DB: A blank canvas can be daunting. I look for touchstones in a brief and figments of a story from which to draw as a starting point for a project. Once I establish a narrative and a direction for a design, I look at ways in which material, colour, light and form can be woven through a scheme to help tell a story and create something interesting and beautiful that is both seen and felt.

ADR: You’re an interior designer and an artist. Which is the more dominant you, and how do you keep inspired? 

DB: It’s hard to quantify really. I tend to call myself a designer more so than an artist but really for me design is an artistic expression whether it be for a commercial interior or a gallery installation. A lot of my work is rooted in explorations of spatiality and is also functional, so I guess the interior designer in me is pretty strong. In terms of keeping inspired, I consume as much art, music and design as possible. 

Harbour early learning centre. Photography by Sean Fennessy.
Harbour early learning centre. Photography by Sean Fennessy.
ADR: The products you design are functional sculptural objects. Can you share how you fuse artistry with functionality? 

DB: I tend to start with the function in mind as well as unearthing a narrative as a brief. I treat each piece as an opportunity to explore and create something unique and hopefully unexpected. My process varies but generally, I begin scribbling out ideas and shapes on paper. Sometimes I use cardboard and build maquettes to help me realise a form and explore sculptural, three-dimensional compositions. Finding the balance between sculpture and functionality occurs in the thinking and material explorations. I imagine how a piece will be used as I am designing but really, it’s not until prototyping at scale that one can understand how something will work. There is great satisfaction in seeing a drawing or maquette come to life in scale and material. There is also a great deal of trial and error along the way.

Chromatic Fantastic, for Sophie Gannon Gallery. Photography by Jonathon Griggs.
Chromatic Fantastic, for Sophie Gannon Gallery. Photography by Jonathon Griggs.
ADR: You’ve designed interiors for childcare centres and residential homes, as well as immersive art installations at iconic cultural institutions such as the NGV and shown furniture at Salone del Mobile in Milan. How do you shift from one typology to another?

DB: I enjoy the variety of projects and places where I get to work, and moving about typologies suits my personality and interests. I love my interior design studio but it’s very exciting presenting work for exhibitions and cultural institutions. Going between commercial and artistic worlds helps me appreciate them both. I didn’t set out to exhibit my design work, it happened organically and I consider exhibition opportunities such a great privilege. I love that a public audience can engage with my work which is quite different to designing spaces for clients only. 

Brustman's installation design 'Coloured In' for the NGV Triennial. Photography by Jonathon Griggs.
Brustman’s installation design ‘Coloured In’ for the NGV Triennial. Photography by Jonathon Griggs.
ADR: People often talk of design rules, especially when it comes to working with colours, materials and forms. Do you believe in any of these rules? Which ones do you love to break? 

DB: I do like breaking the rules especially when it comes to colour. I’m interested in colour combinations that hover in a slightly awkward zone. I find the tension within colour combinations the most interesting and in fact, breaking more traditional rules is where I find the most exciting combinations. There is a certain sweet spot which can be a bit electric that I seek out with colour. I prefer to rely on instinct rather than adhering to rules which also applies to material explorations. I see materials as tactile and sensorial but I also see them as vehicles for colour. 

SPLIT by Danielle Brustman. Photography by Pier Carthew.
SPLIT by Danielle Brustman. Photography by Pier Carthew.
ADR: Of all the individual colours and colour palettes you incorporate into your work, which is your favourite and why? 

DB: I’m not sure I have a favourite colour palette as it’s an endless quest to find new and exciting ones. I keep looping around blues and greens at the moment. There is that old rule — ‘blue and green should never be seen’ — but I don’t buy that for a second!

There is a definite feeling of spring in the air. The days are becoming longer, temperatures are lifting and blossoms are beginning to bloom on trees across the country. Inspired by the promise of summer, this month, Australian Design Review (ADR) highlights projects bursting with colour. We’ve also invited designers to share what colour means to them and give insights into how it can be used to great effect. 

Check out Nexus’s Design’s philosophy on working with colour.

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