Designers Australia Awards 2023 - jury announced
DIA – Awards
• Prominent and respected jurors include Brian Parkes, Emma Williamson, and Gene Bawden.
The Design Institute of Australia (DIA) today released the first three out of six jurors invited to judge the prestigious Designers Australia Awards 2023, the benchmark for Australian design excellence endorsed by the DIA.
The highly-respected jurors representing a broad cross-section of the design community include:
• Brian Parkes
Brian Parkes has been CEO at JamFactory in Adelaide since April 2010. He has overseen significant development of the organisation’s exhibition and training programs and substantial growth in its audience and operational budget. He is passionate about the social, cultural and economic value of art, craft and design and has worked in senior curatorial and commercial management roles in the visual art, craft and design sector in Australia for over 30 years, including stints at the Australian Design Centre, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Gallery of Australia. He has curated numerous exhibitions focused on contemporary Australian craft and design and has remained active in mentoring and supporting emerging artists, designers and creative entrepreneurs over the past two decades.
• Emma Williamson
Emma Williamson co-founded The Fulcrum Agency, a creative consultancy founded in 2018 that leverages community and social outcomes through evidenced-based design, strategy, advocacy and research.
This new platform evolved following two decades in practice as Director of CODA, a multi-award-winning West Australian architecture practice that produced work across all sectors. The Fulcrum Agency builds on this experience, working to position architecture and design thinking at the fore of decision-making in communities.
Emma is passionate about the architectural profession and spent nearly a decade as a lecturer at Curtin University in the Department of Architecture and Interior Architecture. She was the inaugural Chair of the National Committee for Gender Equity for the Institute of Architects. She is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University and holds positions on the Western Australian and South Australian State Design Review Panels.
• Gene Bawden
Gene Bawden is Head of the Department of Design at Monash University, Faculty of Art Design and Architecture. As a communication designer and academic he has over 25 years experience in Design and Design education. Gene is also co-director, with Nicole Kalms, of one of the Faculty's Design Research Labs, XYX Lab | Gender and Place. XYX is a lab dedicated to implementing design’s vital role in mitigating gender inequality in contemporary urban environments. He has played a pivotal role in ensuring the Lab’s rigorous academic research richly informs its outward facing, design-led communication interventions.
“For a research-led design practice based in academia, the DIA Designers Australia awards provides a unique peer review platform; demonstrates the value of research to industry; helps build recognition; and drives the establishment of subsequent collaborations. We also deeply value the awards' ethical underpinning, acknowledging solutions that address sustainability, equity, inclusion and social justice.”
—Gene Bawden, Head of the Department of Design at Monash University, Faculty of Art Design and Architecture.
The Designers Australia Awards were initiated in 2021 after finding an industry void and recognising the need to identify designers and their design process. The awards support Australian emerging and established design communities, both individuals and collectives, and the breadth of the design disciplines advocated by the DIA (industrial, interior/architecture, service, fashion, graphic, textile, exhibition, furniture and jewellery design).
The three cross-disciplinary categories—place, use, interact—replacing the traditional categories and bring together Australia's broad design community to celebrate ethical, innovative, and impactful design thinking.
The Awards are partnered with Dulux Venetian Plaster, Smeg, Wood Solutions, Brickworks, and The Australian’s WISH magazine.
The National and President’s Prize winners will be celebrated on 26 October.