NEW: Women in Design Award

Published on: 5 March 2019

Good Design Australia is extremely proud to announce the new Women in Design Award, that will be awarded as part of the 61st annual Good Design Awards.

The inaugural Women in Design Award seeks to recognise and celebrate women who have made significant contributions to the industry and hopes to encourage a more diverse and equal representation within the industry and leadership roles in particular within the design and creative industries.

The call for nominations open on International Women’s Day, Friday 8 March 2019.

Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO, Good Design Australia says, “I’m really proud that we are doing our best to lead by example by not only establishing this Award but by balancing the genders on our Good Design Awards Jury and making that the norm from now on into the future.”

Rachel Wye, General Manager of Good Design Australia added, “We have created this Award to elevate the women that are pushing the creative industries forward, not only to celebrate the amazing work they are doing but also to give up-and-coming designers more role models to aspire to.”

Eligibility

The Women in Design Award is open to nominations. Nominees must be Australian citizens or women working and living in Australia. Nominations are also open to Australian women currently working overseas.

About the Award

The Women in Design Award was established in response to the significant gender imbalance within leadership roles in the design industry. This award seeks to recognise and celebrate women who have made significant contributions to the industry and hopes to encourage a more diverse and equal representation within leadership roles and in the design and creative industries in general.

Process

The Women in Design Award will be open for nominations from Friday 8 March.
Nominations will be accepted through an online form on the Good Design Awards website.
There is no cost to nominate and nominators can submit more than one nomination.
Nominations will close on 5 April 2019.
The Winner will be announced at the Good Design Awards Ceremony in Sydney on 11 July 2019.

Facts & Figures

70% of graphic design students are women; yet only 11% are Creative Directors. (1)
Girls consistently outperform boys in all spectrums of education, yet only 18% of the board of FTSE 250 businesses are women. (1)
The Drum’s 2015 list of the top 100 ‘designerati’ features 13 women. (1)
David Cameron (previous PM of the UK) has insisted that businesses over 250 publish their pay scales, yet 98% of design businesses employ less than 50 people. (1)
In the UK Design Council’s 2018 Design Economy research, the report found the UK’s design workforce is 78% male, 22% female. When looking at specific sectors only 5% of design workers in product and industrial design are women, while 83% of workers in architecture and built environment are male. (2)

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee for this Award comprises of Australian and international leaders in the design and creative industries.

Liza Chong, CEO INDEX:Design to Improve Life (Denmark)
Margaret Perry, Executive Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship UTS (NSW, Aus)
Sarah Weir, CEO Design Council (UK)
Councillor Jess Scully, City of Sydney (NSW, Aus)
Natalie Maher, Founder Kerning the Gap (UK)
Claire Beale, Executive Director of Design Tasmania (TAS, Aus)
Eunjoo Maing, Director of Design Education & Training, Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) (Korea)
Trish Hansen, Founding Principal Urban Mind (SA, Aus)
Michelle Berryman FIDSA, Senior Director, Innovation & Strategy, Capgemini Invent (USA)
Cheryl Fraser, General Manager at Sprocket (VIC, Aus)