President’s Award:

Ros and John Moriarty for their commitment to the profession

The President's Award is presented to Ros and John Moriarty, founders of Balarinji, for their unique approach toward collaboration and inclusivity, respectful design processes and contributions, and overall enduring commitment to the profession over many years. 

Since 1983, Balarinji has been Australia's foremost Indigenous design and strategy studio, working to deepen the understanding of Aboriginal Australia for major projects nationally. There is much to learn from our First Nations people, who represent the oldest continuous creative culture in the world.

The DIA values Balarinji's profound contribution to delivering design excellence and authentic engagement with Aboriginal people, culture, art, stories and identity. Balarinji was established at a time when Indigenous design was rarely showcased or celebrated. Over almost four decades, Balarinji has developed an innovative co-design methodology that brings local Aboriginal creative practitioners and communities to the table for authentic storytelling, interpretation and a legacy of Place within some of Australia's most significant public projects.

Balarinji is known for many iconic and nation-building design projects, including the Balarinji-Qantas Flying Art Series between 1984 and 2018, the Rio 2016 Paralympics Australian uniforms, the 2000 Walk for Reconciliation official poster, and many more.

The Nation Brand Mark is a compelling narrative of humans, space, Place, identity and belonging presented via a process to realise collective storytelling, marketing and branding potential. The cultural magnitude of the new Nation Brand is immense as it marks a significant change in how we identify as a nation that embraces our rich 60,000+-year-old Aboriginal heritage. An exemplar of collaborative design processes in multiple domains, the designers wanted to create a unique and contemporary expression of such a loved and familiar symbol as the kangaroo in a way that reflects Australia as a future-facing nation. One of the brief challenges was to create a design that was sector-agnostic and likely to be used by many different Australian businesses in a global context. The kangaroo being meaningful to cultural identity in so many parts of Aboriginal Australia, Balarinji was committed to the symbol being a kangaroo. 

Balarinji is represented in the collections of the National Museum of Australia, the Powerhouse Museum, Flinders University Museum of Art, and the Centre for Contemporary Graphic Design in Fukuoka, Japan. The not-for-profit organisation Moriarty Foundation was initiated in 2012. 

We see things from a fresh perspective through Ros and John Moriarty's contributions. This shift in thinking driven by diversity and inclusivity is essential moving forward for all designers. The DIA values this truly prototypical approach toward design—an examination and celebration of values, respect, deep listening and processes towards diversity and belonging.

Category: Interact

Designers: Ros and John Moriarty