As a designer, I’m interested in how creativity can nurture connection and care between people, materials, and the land we share.
Wildseed responds to the loss of native flora and fauna across Australia, and to the growing disconnection between people and Country. Wildseed uses play as a tool for learning and regeneration, inviting participants to restore balance across ecosystems and rediscover what it means to care for the living world.
Wildseed combines design, ecology, and education to create meaningful, tactile experiences. It shows how design can slow down consumption, cultivate curiosity, and inspire real environmental care, one card, one seed, and one act of renewal at a time.
Outstanding Project: Design for Learning
The Game
Wildseed is created to rebuild the relationship between people and the flora and fauna of Australia. Wildseed explores how design can create moments that help us slow down, notice, and learn from the living systems around us. Wildseed is a cooperative game that rebuilds the natural environment, each turn, players nurture plants, protect animals, and heal environments through collaboration. The goal: restore all five ecosystems to full health.
The Cards
Each card is hand made with recycled paper and plant material, using traditional techniques to create a strong and sustainable playing card. Each flora card contains the real seeds imbedded within, using the knowledge from the game to grow your own native garden.
The Aim of the Game
When you begin the game you begin as caretakers of Country, working together to restore balance before the land’s Resilience runs out. The aim of the game is to work together to restore balance. Cooperation always heals faster than isolation.
The Resilience Tree
The overall health of the ecosystem is tracked through the Resilience Tree, a central element that grows or withers in response to players’ collective actions. The number of leaves on the tree reflects the environment’s wellbeing, representing balance, thriving species, and successful collaboration.
The Rulebook
The Wildseed rulebook is a pocket-sized zine that blends illustration and instruction, it acts as both guide and companion, helping players navigate the game while deepening their understanding of Australia’s ecosystems.
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
