Orchard Design is a Melbourne based contemporary art and design studio emphasising the integration between Art and Architecture.
Owner and principal artist Anthony Russo started his professional life in 1987 when he co-founded Orchard Studio. Over a 20-year period Orchard Studio produced a considerable amount of significant work ranging from major public sculptures to contemporary liturgical design.
It was in the area of liturgical art, through displaying a sensitivity to the sacred, that Orchard Studio found a creative niche. This allowed the studio to expand on it's own conceptual interests as well as increase the size and scope of works that could be undertaken. Working on an architectural scale unlocked a new range of possibilities that were both innovative and equally stimulating.
As a studio, Orchard Design's interest centres around the relationship between three-dimensional form and materiality - the intersection between contemporary design, architectural form and sculptural intent.
In recent years, Orchard Design has expanded as an Art and Design studio to include both Architecture and Landscape Architecture within it's professional capabilities.
Because the studio incorporates it's own sculpture workshop with an architectural and design office, it ensures the closest collaboration between artist and designer, effectively blurring the edges between art and architecture.
This combination of interests and abilities within the studio is seen as a natural response to the emerging diversity of the contemporary cultural landscape, both local and international.
Embracing an open attitude to creative thinking and physical practice has lead us to seek experience across numerous disciplines.
Including:
- exhibition art
- 'one off' sculpture commissions (public + private)
- site specific art and sculpture installations within an architectural environment
- large scale outdoor public sculpture projects
- residential architectural projects
- concept and master planning within a liturgical environment
- liturgical architectural projects
- landscape design and architectural integration
The consistent theme within the life of the studio has been creativity viewed as the connector between the conceptual world of the invisible and the world of physical reality.