Monash Design Shines at the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards

Monash Designs staff, students and alumni were nominated for a plethora of awards at the Victorian Premier's Design Awards.

The shortlist tops-off a very successful year for the Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) design team. In 2022 they won awards at the Good Design Awards,  Australian Graphic Design Association Awards (AGDA), Vice Chancellor's awards and many more.

The MADA design community are finalists for ten awards. Associate Professor Gene Bawden, Head of Department (Design) says, “I'm incredibly proud of the continued recognition our design community is receiving through these awards. We may not secure all or any of them, but being finalists among such high calibre industry projects is testament to the impactful work produced at MADA.”

The Victorian Premier’s Design Awards showcases the talent of the Victorian design industry and community. It takes into consideration the value of design and designers, and the impact shaping society. The winners will be announced on 15 March 2023.

Shortlisted projects

In the Communication Design category the finalists are:

Everyday Australian Design

Ian Wong, Dr Indae Hwang and team are finalists for their projects for the Victorian Premier's Design Awards Showcase and Everyday Australian Design.

The Victorian Premier's Design Awards Showcase is a celebration of 25 years of the Premier’s Design Awards. It’s the first time this data has been documented, recorded, collated and curated to highlight these significant awards. The themes driving this showcase are: THEN, WHO, HOW, NOW, NEXT.

The Everyday Australian Design is an exhibition that showcases the iconic everyday design objects from 1880’s to today.

Keep Running

First iteration of poster pasteups outside of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Photographer: Brett Brown

XYX Lab has been nominated for Keep Running (the AGDA Pinnacle Print Award winner). The Keep Running project is a continuation from the Your Ground research and identifies and attracts attention to the experiences of gender-diverse people and women in public spaces, through displays of data and narratives on billposter paste-ups strategically located for impact. 'Keep Running', extends XYX Lab’s ongoing local and international applied research into gendered spatial inequality in a unique and publicly accessible way. It draws attention to the experiences of women and gender-diverse communities by presenting crowd-sourced data and intersectional narratives of gender that affect how public spaces are accessed and occupied.

This project was designed and commissioned by:

In the Design Strategy category  the finalists are:

SEED/ing Transformative Change

Professor Lisa Grocott from the Emerging Technologies Research Lab, and team are finalists for SEED/ing Transformative Change.

The SEED framework is a strategic book and website that is a scaffold for people-centred transformation design. The comprehensive resource allows co-designing of complex design processes that will support meaningful change in areas such as social injustice, inequality and the climate crisis.

This project was developed by:

Tram Lab Tool Kit

XYX Lab (with LaTrobe and RMIT Universities) for the TramLab Gender Sensitive toolkits

TramLab brings together human-centred design research expertise from XYX Lab, La Trobe University, and RMIT, and investigates issues related to safety for women and girls on public transport

The aim of the TramLab Toolkits is to provide a framework to help make public transport safer for women and girls, providing stakeholders with direction about how to reduce their fear and risk.

This project was developed by:

  • XYX Lab - Nicole Kalms, Gene Bawden, Gill Matthewson, Isabella Webb
  • RMIT University - Nicola Henry
  • La Trobe University- Angela Taft, Leesa Hooker, Kirsty Forsdike-Young

RetroFit Kit

Multi-purpose room: garage conversion for a variety of uses. Credit: Peter Bennetts

Monash Urban Lab’s RetroFit Kit is another finalist.

RetroFit Kit is concerned with the design challenge of how to increase the supply of accessible and adaptable housing. It demonstrates how common housing types could be systematically modified to achieve accessible home environments for people with disability, their families, carers, and future residents through strategic design approaches.

Led by the Monash Urban Lab, the multidisciplinary team includes researchers and educators from the Department of Design and the Future Buildings Initiatives Research Lab.

This project was developed by:

  • Monash Urban Lab.
    • Project lead: Nigel Bertram, Maryam Gusheh, Catherine Murphy
    • Graphic design: Warren Taylor
    • Industrial design: Tahl Swieca, Rowan Page
    • Urban mapping: Tom Morgan
    • Monash Architecture students: Olivia Basile, Ashleigh Carp, Edward Chan, Chee-Song Chuah, Alexandria van Domburgh, Sylvanna Dong, Georgius Hindarko, Amanda Jap, Cheng Lee, Cyndy Li, Ca Kheng Lot, Annabelle Low, Georgia Rose, Scott Rowe, Taylar Stanton, John Tsitouridis, Lenore Whiteside
    • Monash Industrial Design students: Kat Craine, Jules Kabore, Jo Hutchinson, Walt Liu, Qiuyi Peng, Mark Romei, Alexa Gower, Liam Ware
  • Australian Human Rights Commission
    • Dr Ben Gauntlett, Afton Fife, Clare Lawrence, Lisa Le Van

In the student category the finalists are: 

Phenomenal Fungi

Credit: Adam Thomas

Phenomenal Fungi was commissioned by Melbourne furniture company KFIVE and led by Gyungju Chyon. Students from Monash Art, Design and Architecture collaborated on the mycelium furniture project which sought to minimise environmental impact and promote ecological design practices. They utilised mycelium and waste to grow furniture that was both sturdy and biodegradable.

This project was developed by:

Allevia

Amelda Norsworthy is a finalist for Allevia, the medical wearable that helps to alleviate motion sickness.

Allevia's design is based on human-centred design and research and uses emerging technology, Non-Invasive Vestibular Masking, to safely alleviate symptoms of motion sickness without the need for medication.

This project was developed by:

Habi

Zac Vassallo is a finalist for Habi, an immersive experiential pavilion designed to promote environmental consciousness.

Habi was designed to stimulate community participation and education in caring for Country with the reintroduction of Indigenous plant and insect species. The experimental research looked at how the urban landscape could be changed through the bio-degradable composite hexagonal panel frames that act as cells for the germination of native plant species and inform the shared knowledge on why and how individuals may care for Country.

This project was developed by:

Our Monash Art, Design and Architecture Alumni were successful too!

Co-design NOW!

MADA Alumni, Jo Szczepanska is a finalist as part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet and wider team who developed Co-design NOW!

Co-design NOW! is a co-created course run by healthcare staff, consumers, and clinicians, that addresses inclusive education and supports the transformation of quality healthcare education.

This project was developed by: