Every year, fourth year students at the University of Western Sydney who are chosen for the AGideas brief put together two zines that is ultimately a compilation of the student’s manifestos, poster and a spread design. The zine, dubbed Burrow is then ‘given away’ at the annual MCA Zine Fair at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

My final spread was based on the notion of making choices and how the decisions you make define who you are as a designer. I have always had an affinity with Milton Glaser’s attitude towards work and money. He once mentioned in an interview that survival and money were never the real reason why he designed – he did it because he loved doing it and he was just glad it made him as much money as it has.

Design is Difference is a collaborative project between UWS, RMIT and AGideas based upon the question: “what difference can design make?”. As emerging designers, we were required to develop a written manifesto that represents our position on ‘design’. The manifesto was then visually interpreted as an A1 poster that was exhibited at RMIT University in Melbourne during AGideas week.

My manifesto was my realisation that design is not just an occupation but also a life-style, a culture and a commodity. After brainstorming some ideas on design as a group, ‘to sell’ was what resonated with me most. After all, everyone sitting in that room at that time was on a journey to becoming a designer – to make money in the future by selling their creativity to the general public. This idea manifested itself even further after I read both the 1964 and 2000 version of ‘First Things First’ manifesto. Both these manifestos push for designers to reconsider their project and client choices, which is something I personally value as a designer. The freedom and courage to choose projects to work on and clients to work with are the most important ‘privileges’ a designer can have. Money verse passion. Click here to read the full manifesto.

A concept magazine developed for Publications class at the University of Western Sydney. Students work together in a ‘studio’ environment to create a magazine publication titled ‘Sans’. For this particular edition the theme of ‘sans reality’ or ‘dreams’ was chosen. Students were required to write a short article and create a 6-8 page spread to accomodate said article. I chose to write about the surreal and dreamlike quality photos taken with a Polaroid camera tend to have. To read/see the full article/spread – click here.

Melbourne is one my favourites cities in Australia. It’s streets bustling with people and hidden laneways overfilling with countless restaurants, cafes, graffiti, fashion boutiques and vintage stores makes it an exuberant city that is overflowing with inspiration – especially for those creative types like myself.