Indeed it is raining and pouring, and just in time for this year’s Melbourne Design Festival, with the aptly selected theme ‘When it Rains it Pours’. This year, Ambiguous Horse is making a triple-pronged contribution to the festivities; a Pop-Up project titled There’s A Hole In My Bucket; event management of Down to Earth; and a stall for all of our wonderful designers at the Melbourne Design Market, July 8th at the Federation Square Car Park. And to think there are only 24 hours in a day… Thankfully we are consoling our busy heads with thoughts of the just-scheduled launch of 200 Characters, confirmed for August 30th at Horse Bazaar. That’s right folks, the best way to stay warm is to keep moving…

Contact Pip Carroll by email

phone: + (03) 9017 3183

ABN: 56 411 815 265

You can also stay up to date with Ambiguous Horse at flickr or MySpace

From little things big things grow! Starting out as a project in the 2006 Next Wave Festival, the Don’t Sweat Shop is now staging workshops to teach young people how to make and screen-print their own clothes from recycled materials, and in doing so, educate on ethical consumerism. We are now taking registrations for a series of 3 workshops in 2008. Download the Don’t Sweat Shop details. Visit the website.
View images from the first Don’t Sweat Shop

With several years, thousands of words and countless numbers of deadlines to our name, Ambiguous Horse knows a thing or two about putting together a publication. Before the horse was a horse she was PJ Carroll, a contributor to publications including 3D World, HR and Lucky Magazine. These years developed extensive experience is liaising with designers, writing copy, sub-editing, editing and supplying to print.

Now, Ambiguous Horse works with an crack team of subcontractors - graphic designers, writers and sub-editors who can deliver just about any publication imaginable. If your organisation needs to produce a catalogue, program, magazine, annual report, research findings or handbook, Ambiguous Horse will deliver a publication you will be proud to call your own.

See work done for Moonlight Projects.

Sometimes you have the client, you have the skills but you don’t have the time or patience required to make the two ends meet. Ambiguous Horse is a rare creature in that is speaks both ‘creative’ and ‘corporate’ and can translate in real time.

Specialising in projects that involve multiple stakeholders, we work in close consultation with your organisation to outline and execute a step by step plan. We attend weekly work in progress meetings with your organisation and handle all emails, meetings and phone calls off-site from the Ambiguous Horse studio.

The service is particularly useful for organisations that need to deliver an activity outside their normal scope of activities, large campaigns, seminars, business development or events. 

Ambiguous Horse revisited its partnership with the National Design Centre in 2007 to plan and deliver events in the Melbourne Design Festival. The major project managed was Down to Earth, an exhibition of outdoor landscapes that use little or no water. Landscape Architects and Environmental Artists creates beautiful landscapes on the sloping grasses of Birrarung Marr. View images from the festival.

What would you do if a performer gave you $500 and said you could keep it? Sara Juli’s The Money Conversation does just that. Direct from New York, Ambiguous Horse will present the show in September. The one-woman show is all about money - what it means, how much is enough and whether you would take it from a stranger.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Ideas Catalogue is the brainchild of Melbourne contemporary artist Gabrielle de Vietri. It is a book in which ideas are up for sale. The first issue, launched in September 2005, was created as an output for the ideas left over from the art practice of the catalogue’s founding editor, Gabrielle de Vietri.

View images from the launch. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have a text message stored on your mobile phone that you can’t bring yourself to delete? Have you ever been tempted to peek into someone else’s inbox and read their messages? This book will have you laughing and crying out loud at 200 tales from the short message service. Collected from inboxes all over the world, the book speaks volumes on the way we live and communicate today. Read the rest of this entry »

WHO

Ambiguous Horse Agency manages all aspects of supplying to retail for independent designers, including liasing with buyers, ordering, invoicing and collection and distribution of payment.

The agency service has grown over the 3 years of operation to now include 9 local designers creating unique and imaginative hand-made products. Products from each of the designers are featured here in the Online Store.

WHAT

The products available through Ambiguous Horse are selected on the basis of their originality and clever use of materials, processes and ideas. Ambiguous Horse selects designers to work with by applying the following guidelines:

• Is it made by an independent designer or craftsperson?
• Is it original, the best example of its type?
• Is it hand-made or does it incorporate sustainable production methods or materials?
• Would I wear it myself?

Retail buyers can be assured that the products represented by Ambiguous Horse are of the highest quality and that the designers behind them are amongst the most talented around.

WHEN

All of the designers in the Ambiguous Horse stable make to order. This means that all of the products we supply are available throughout the year, but that delivery may take up to 3 weeks. We guarantee to advise the buyer if any order is likely to take more than 3 weeks to reach you.

WHERE

The designers represented by Ambiguous Horse are from Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, and we currently supply to retailers in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, U.S.A, Singapore, Scotland, England, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.

WHY

The agency was established to assist small-scale producers by providing a level of administrative capability beyond their own means. We help creative and talented designers to what they are best at - make beautiful things.

Ambiguous Horse is committed to a sustainable future and by supporting small-scale industry we hope to contribute to turning back the tide on the proliferation of mass-produced consumer goods.

HOW

To order from any of the designers represented by Ambiguous Horse obtain an order form by emailing us, fill out your order and contact details and return to us at the same address.

We then pass the order onto the designer who prepares it and sends to you via registered or express post. New clients will need to pay up front for their first order; subsequent orders will attract 30-day terms.

To stay up to date with new ranges, products and designers, we encourage you to subscribe to our retail newsletter, emailing us by clicking here.