Best in Category wins for Monash Design at the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards and a new Chair appointment
Monash Design researchers have taken out two "Best in Category" wins and Associate Professor Leah Heiss has been announced as the incoming Chair of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.
The Monash Design team had a lot to celebrate at the Victorian Premier's Design Awards, with staff, a student, and alumni recognised for their design excellence.
Associate Professor Gene Bawden (Head, Monash Design) said he was immensely proud of the recognition Monash Design has received in the latest Victorian Premier's Design Awards.
“These are among the most prestigious awards for Design and Architecture in the country, and Monash more than held its own alongside the best established and emerging design firms in Australia. The project awards recognise that we are leaders in all four judging criteria: Design Process; Design Excellence, Design Innovation and Design Impact.
It is also reassuring to have a government recognise and celebrate the impact of design, and not just for its commercial value but also its social agenda of equity, inclusion and respect. These are Monash values, and reflected in all our award winners,” he said.
Best in Category: Communication Design
Ian Wong with Dr Indae Hwang and their collaborators took out the "Best in Category" in Communication Design for The Victorian Premier's Design Awards Showcase.
This is an exceptional curation of work across multiple exhibition platforms, from the real to the augmented. This fruitful collaboration between Ian and InDae has also resulted in the current Light Colour Humanity: The legacy of Alistair Swayn exhibition at the Canberra Museum.
Best in Category: Design Strategy
XYX Lab and their collaborators from RMIT and LaTrobe secured the "Best in Category" in Design Strategy for the TramLab Gender Sensitive toolkits. The XYX Lab team working on this project include Associate Professor Nicole Kalms, Associate Professor Gene Bawden, Dr Gill Matthewson and Isabella Webb, who were recognised for the rigour of the research and the project’s broad applicability across national public transport networks.
We also wish to extend a huge congratulations to 2022 Industrial Design graduate Zac Vassallo for receiving a 'Highly Commended" award in the student category for his extraordinary project Habi.
Other finalists from Monash included:
- XYX Lab for Keep Running
- Professor Lisa Grocott / Emerging Technologies Research Lab / Wendy Ellerton for SEED/ing Transformative Change
- Monash Urban Lab for RetroFit Kit (project leads Professor Nigel Bertram, Associate Professor Maryam Gusheh and Catherine Murphy with Dr Tom Morgan, Warren Taylor, Tahl Swieca and Dr Rowan Page - with a cohort of Monash Architecture and Industrial Design students)
- Phenomenal Fungi (Commissioned by KFIVE and led by Dr Gyungju Chyon)
- Amelda Norsworthy (2022 Industrial Design graduate) for Allevia
It was also great to see Monash alumni also acknowledged as finalists, among them Laura Cornhill / Studio Binocular for Safe and Equal; Sarah Gross for Alto Health, and Jo Szczepanska as part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet team who developed Co-design NOW, and Dan McKenna for Nightingale Ballarat, in collaboration with Breathe.
Chair appointment for Associate Professor Leah Heiss
There was more to celebrate for Monash Art, Design and Architecture, with the appointment of Associate Professor Leah Heiss as Chair of the Victorian Premier's Design Awards.
An award-winning designer and leading researcher in the nexus of design, health and technology, Associate Professor Leah Heiss is an Australian Good Design Ambassador and her design work has been recognised with six Australian Good Design Awards, the most recent in 2022 when she was awarded the Australian Women in Design Award.
Supported by the Victorian Government, the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards recognise excellence in the practice and application of design, honouring both the designer and the client who commissioned the work.
The awards contribute to Victoria’s reputation as a centre for design excellence. Associate Professor Heiss' appointment as the Chair of these awards is further recognition of her leadership in this field.