Exhibition Introduction
Transcript
Situated beyond and to the left of the glass case that contains the taxidermied form of the famous race horse Phar Lap is the entrance to the gallery that houses this exhibition.
First, we encounter the Title Wall, which bears the words ‘Top Designs 2025. Saturday 29th March – Sunday 20th July. VCE Season of Excellence 2025. Beneath are the logos of the exhibition’s sponsors and cultural partners.
Moving into the entrance corridor. Projected on the wall ahead is a soft motion graphic application in pastel blue and yellow. On our left is an acknowledgment of Country.
Top Designs acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurring peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations, on whose ancestral lands this exhibition takes place. We acknowledge First Peoples as the traditional and ongoing owners of the lands across Victoria, where exhibitors have investigated new creative possibilities and developed their bold designs. We pay respect to all First Peoples as the first innovators, inventors, storytellers and creatives of these lands, and recognise the deep knowledge of their Countries.
An exhibit listing on the primrose-yellow wall to our right groups the exhibitors by study area.
We take a left towards the Welcome Wall, which repeats the exhibition’s title and dates, then reads ‘Welcome to Top Designs 2025, a showcase of outstanding work by students who completed VCE and VCE VET design studies in 2024. Now in its 25th year, Top Designs showcases the young future designers of Victoria. The products on display demonstrate the research, experimentation and development involved in creating new design solutions. Top Designs 2025 exhibitors interrogate the changing world around them to propose innovative possibilities in sustainability, place, community, automation and craftmanship. The exhibition highlights the imaginative ways students have responded to the assessment criteria. With applications received from government, independent and Catholic schools across Victoria, panels of expert educators selected 77 works across each of the 9 design studies.
Managed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), Top Designs is part of the VCE Season of Excellence, which also includes Top Talks, Top Screen, Top Arts, Top Class and Top Scribe.’
Immediately to the right of this text is a teal-coloured slanted table, which contains the accessibility resources: a tactile map of the exhibition’s layout and large print exhibition labels. Text on the wall details the exhibition's accessibility resources:
This exhibition is fully wheelchair accessible.
This exhibition includes 22 audio descriptions.
All audio content in this is open-captioned.
This exhibition is described in an Access Guide.
Large Print exhibition labels are available online and in print.
The nearest Quiet Room is located near the entrance of the Gandel Gondwana Garden and has a sign on the door saying Quiet Room.
QR codes to the right of this text link to the audio descriptions and the accessibility information.
A Content Warning reads: Some films make reference to violence, coarse language and other mature themes. Please ask a member of staff if you would like further details.
A plinth to the right contains touch-screen interfaces to access educational resources.
The high-ceilinged exhibition space is laid out by study area. What would otherwise be a vast room is given structure through interjecting temporary walls that protrude into the space from either side and encourage focus on the separate areas as you progress through.
Large format suspended banners (in different colour combinations) identify each of the study areas in vertically placed black text, then a brief introduction to that study area in smaller horizontally positioned black font. The banner’s colour combinations are echoed throughout the panels and display cases in each study area to further help group the exhibits together.
The first area is devoted to Visual Communication Design and uses variations of the colours lime and sunset pink. Projected onto one of the walls is a ‘meet the exhibitor’ film. Each student’s work is showcased mounted to the wall or presented in a display case, or a combination of both, depending on the nature of the exhibit. Labels beside each work detail the student’s name, school and the school’s location (including its Indigenous Country name). The labels include the work’s title along with a short description. A reminder of the exhibit’s study area underlines each label. Where audio description of an exhibit is available, adjacent audio description labels will display QR codes which will link directly to that exhibit’s audio description.
Throughout, clustered against coloured shapes on walls or mounted in angular plinths, are screens that allow the visitor to scroll through the folio documentation and demonstration videos that accompany the exhibits.
The next area presents the VCE VET exhibits on a central sunset-pink plinth. A banner in sunset-pink and purple introduces the study area.
Off this central study area is a crimson-coloured alcove devoted to Theatre Studies exhibits – which uses a colourway of pink and yellow. Opposite seating, costumes, set components and props flank a projected film that presents each of the exhibitor’s works. Screens set into pink angular plinths provide digital access to related folios and demonstration videos.
In evolving shades of lilac and orange is the Music Sound Production booth. Headphones hang on the sides of the plinths that house the touch screens presenting these exhibits.
The Systems Engineering study area is coloured sky blue and blood red: with exhibits placed on sky-blue painted plinths and the supporting folios, documentation and demonstration videos available electronically on touch screens mounted within red plinths.
Peach and Indigo blue mark the Media study area, which includes mounted photographic exhibits and a display case in blue that presents the media print exhibits. This area also includes a click-and-point computer game – which has also been audio described.
The Product Design and Technologies study area is coloured shades of green and lime. Exhibits that consist of garments are displayed on mannequins (and a number of these have accompanying audio description). Sandbox-style constructions present prototypes of some of the exhibits, demonstrating the evolution and iteration of some of the works.
To the left of this study area is the Media Film alcove. Its blue and pale pink walls are dominated by a large screen, where the films will be played.
Beyond this study area is the exit. Having essentially travelled in the shape of an elongated horseshoe, this, appropriately, leads us back out into the main gallery, with horseshoe-shod Phar Lap now on our right.
Flanking the exit from the Top Designs 2025 gallery are lit display cases. Titled ‘Beyond Top Designs’, these present information about and work from Top Designs Alumni of previous years:
Viet-My Bui - a Visual Communication and Design exhibitor at Top Designs 2007, now an Artist and Illustrator whose practice focuses on character-driven imagery, rendered organic lines and a sense of movement. She recently had her debut solo exhibition, Magical Girl, at Off the Kerb Gallery in Collingwood.
Meg Kolac – a Design and Technology exhibitor at Top Designs 2007, now a Freelance Illustrator and Designer. Meg reveals: “Top Designs gave me a leg up into uni and uni gave me a boost into my first job. I’ve been designing, illustrating and creating ever since.”
Liam Neil – a Visual Communication and Design exhibitor at Top Designs 2000 is now the Director of Near Far Productions. He has spent the last 15 years producing, designing, photographing and filming award-winning content around the globe for travel and hospitality brands.
Leigh Aitken – a Systems and Technology exhibitor at Top Designs 2000, now a Robotics Specialist and founder of TWIG&BOT: a business that uses his self-built robot machining system to carve and craft from wood.