Dinosaur Designs — A Benchmark for Human Designed
I’ve got to admit it: I’m a collector, with many vases floating around my house, boldly coloured, quietly proud—they’re not just homewares. They’re little sculptures with attitude, pieces of art masquerading as functional objects.
What fascinates me is how this Australian studio transformed resin into a language—an aesthetic signature that blurs home décor and fashion, paint and product, art and everyday. The colours—it’s what stops you in your tracks. The shapes—they invite touch. The material—they sit where charisma meets craft.
I looked into this brand a little and it seems from the moment co-founders Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy began sculpting their own resin processes back in 1985, they asked themselves not only what could we make? but how could we feel it? “Resin really does have a mind of its own,” Olsen once said.
And colour? “Colour rushes to our heads… tone touches the soul,” she reflected in an interview.
When I think about how they “get” those colours—it’s a mix of painterly impulse + industrial craft. According to the short film “Handmade”, prototypes begin as hand-sculpted clay; then resin mixed with jewel-like pigments is poured, sanded, finished, every piece individually handled.
“The brand says: this is art. This is design. This is lifestyle.”
The fact that each piece has a unique “hand-felt” quality is part of the story. They’re not mass-perfect—they’re perfect in their individuality.
What I love is how the brand lives in two worlds simultaneously. On one side: the home—tablewares, vases, objects that occupy space and conjure emotion. On the other: fashion—bangles, necklaces, earrings. And not just accessories, but statements. The same material language, the same colour choreography, the same studio presence. The branding embraces that: strong fashion photography, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the makers, carefully chosen global stockists. The brand says: this is art. This is design. This is lifestyle.
Because of all this, when I see one of these pieces I’m reminded: design doesn’t have to behave quietly. It can occupy, it can speak, it can cross categories. Dinosaur Designs teaches us that home-object and fashion-object can share DNA; that colour is not just decoration but voice; that craft, narrative and personal collection converge.
Looking at Dinosaur Designs through a "Human Designed" lens
Craft First: Dinosaur Designs positions resin as a hand-shaped material, proving that true luxury comes from human touch, not industrial polish.
Colour as Emotion: Their pigment work behaves like painting, turning every object into a study of mood, intuition and artistic instinct.
Form Through Feel: Shapes aren’t engineered to perfection — they’re sculpted with personality, wobble, tension and intent, celebrating the beauty of the imperfect.
Cross-Category Creativity: By applying the same handmade philosophy to both homewares and jewellery, the brand blurs the boundaries between art, fashion, and object.
Visual Storytelling: Their branding amplifies the human process — showing makers, texture, tools and behind-the-scenes craft — reinforcing authenticity over artifice.
Collection as Identity: Each piece is designed to be lived with, collected, paired, and displayed, proving that human connection is the ultimate marker of design value.
Longevity Over Trends: Rather than chase seasonal aesthetics, they refine a signature language across decades — a quiet example of timeless, human-led innovation.
Check out Dinosaur Designs here
