First Nations Design Facilitation

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Koskela has had over a decade's experience working with First Nations artists, art centres and artist collectives, collaborating to create unique design products. This experience and the relationships we have built which span the nation, coupled with our industrial design skills ensure we are uniquely placed to work with corporate and institutional clients to bring to life projects that can:

  • Serve to acknowledge the Country on which a building stands;
  • Provide a tangible representation of an organisation's Reconciliation
Action Plan; and/or
  • Embody an organisation’s desire to further reconciliation
  • Each project is unique in scope and is tailored to a particular client’s
needs and the features of the site. We act as the bridge between a client,
architect or interior designer and artist and ensure that the process is one
that clients and artists find rewarding and a real opportunity for connection and growth.

    • Koskela’s scope includes:

  • Interpreting and articulating the brief;
  • Assisting the client in selecting the preferred medium for the work;
  • Compiling a shortlist of suitable artists that meet the requirements of the brief and medium; Managing the contractual arrangements with the artist, ensuring best practice legal requirements are adhered to;
  • Collaborating with the selected artist to design and manufacture any elements that are required; and
  • Documenting the entire process to ensure that the story of the work and the process of its creation is captured and endures.
    • Book a First Nations Design Consultation with our Team ->

    Case studies

    'Maku Wunkun' Towards Tomorrow

    A bespoke installation by Tiarna Herczeg designed to explore the diversity of the land through shape, colour, and texture and showcase and celebrate First Nations peoples, art and cultures.


    Client – Charter Hall
    Collaborator – Tiarna Herczeg
    Completed – 
2023
    Location –
 Sydney

    READ THE CASE STUDY ->

    AMP First Nations tables

    A collaborative design project between five emerging Koori artists to design 15 large tables for 15 floors of AMP’s office in Warrane (Circular Quay)

    Client – AMP
    Collaborators – Chloe Little, Jasmine Sarin, Maddison Gibbs, Dylan Barnes and Josh Sly
    Completed – 
2022
    Location –
 Sydney

    READ THE CASE STUDY ->

    Iuk at EY

    A bespoke lighting piece designed to reflect the significance of the eel trap and its importance to both traditional and artistic Koorie practices.

    Client – 
Ernst & Young
    Collaborator – Ngardang Girri Kalat Mimini (NGKM)
    Interior Designer – Gensler
    Completed – 20
    Location – 
Melbourne

    read the case study ->

    The Alice Range at Maker’s Dozen

    CfAT, which is based in Alice Springs, worked with Koskela to prototype and manufacture a range of furniture for Lendlease’s Darling Square redevelopment.

    Client –
 Lendlease
    Collaborator – Centre for Appropriate Technologies (CfAT)
    Completed     
– 2019
    Location     –Sydney
    read the case study ->

    The Reflection Pods at Westpac

    A site-specific response to the bank’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

    Client – Westpac
    Collaborator – Lucy Simpson of Gaawaa Miyay Designs, Elcho Island Arts and 
Milingimbi Art and Culture
    Interior Designer – 
Geyer
    Completed     – 
2018
    Location –
Sydney
    read the case study ->
    Book a First Nations Design Consultation with our Team ->

    Allied bodies

    Reconciliation Australia

    Koskela has an Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2018 – 2020 to support the national reconciliation movement.

    Indigenous Art Code

    Koskela are members of the Indigenous Art Code; a system to promote and preserve ethical trading in Indigenous Art.

    For our everyday customers

    Koskela takes our own initiative to develop First Nations design products that are available to everyone via the Live sector of our business. Products include fabrics by the metre, cushions, blankets, upholstered furniture, and art sold via our bi-monthly exhibitions.

    Shop now ->

    Bespoke design services

    Koskela has the unique capability to design, manufacture and install highly integrated bespoke furniture for workplaces and institutions. With over two decades of local manufacturing experience and a skilled industrial design team, we know off-the-shelf products aren’t always a perfect fit for a project.

    Koskela are specialists in this type of solution. As an Australian company that manufactures locally, we have a skilled team on the ground that can oversee a bespoke project from start to finish. Talk to us about your ambitions and needs, and we can realise them:

  • – Our experienced Koskela Industrial Design team will develop the concept and create the documentation for production
  • – Our Projects & Products team will work with Koskela’s network of local manufacturers to build the furniture
  • – And our Installation team will work with builders and project managers to integrate the furniture on site.
  • We also offer a dedicated consultant and project manager who is the bridge between you and the team, ensuring the bespoke furniture fits your brief and budget, and is delivered on time. 

    • Show

    Find out more ->