The invisible women of Australian graphic design

Jessie Stanley was recently added to the online canon of women in Australian graphic design. Photo: Carmen Holder & Deborah Jane Carruthers.

6 min read

Despite high numbers in the profession, many women graphic designers remain alarmingly invisible. Designer and Lecturer in Communication Design Jane Connory outlines her research on the invisibility of women in Australian graphic design and the work needed to achieve more equitable outcomes.

This article was originally published on Parlour .

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I landed my first job as a junior art director straight out of university in the mid-1990s. My parents were as proud as punch and so was I. The atmosphere was extremely heady and exciting for a sheltered girl from Melbourne’s western suburbs. Deadlines were tight, lunches were long, and I was being paid to be creative. For a short naive moment, I thought I had made it – but it did not take long for the reality to sink in.

I began my career only three years out of high school with the expectation that my degree and polished portfolio would take me places. Yet it was the junior boys who were taken under the wing of the senior directors. They got all the benefits of the boy’s club and their careers took off, while I struggled to find women in creative positions of leadership to help me do the same.

For more than two decades my career progressed though jobs as a graphic designer in publishing, branding and illustration. Then I had children and shifted my focus to be an educator and researcher. It was there that I realised my students were still not being exposed to the achievements of women in graphic design. This lack of visibility of women who had made significant contributions to the industry put students at a disadvantage. It demonstrated that gendered inequity has not improved in decades.

This invisibility devalues women’s contributions and stifles self-efficacy among each student cohort. I knew women were present, as my network had grown to connect with many, but their achievements seemed invisible in the educational environment. It was this moment of realisation that led to my PhD, The View from Here, a research project that explored this invisibility and advocated for women’s equity and autonomy in the graphic design industry.

Counting to make it count

Demonstrating that women were invisible in Australian graphic design required more than just a hunch. Yet when I went looking for the data that measured it, it was not there. So, I went directly to the source and surveyed the industry to see who could name women who had made a significant contribution to Australian graphic design since 1960. Nearly 150 women were mentioned, but people on average could only name 1.62 women. The evidence began to mount.

The Postcard Project summarised findings from the Invisible Women Survey and used red cellophane to reveal and conceal different data sets. It demonstrated that people had difficulty naming women in Australian graphic design. Photo: Jane Connory.

I then examined the pipeline of female graduates pouring out of Monash University since 1970. Here I found that women were constantly in the majority and their numbers were increasing. By 2010, 71% of these graduates were women – a percentage that is mirrored across Australia’s higher education as well as in the US and UK.

The Slushy Installation was an interactive visualisation of the data demonstrating the pipeline of women graduating from graphic design qualifications from Monash University. Photo: Arun (Ernesto) Munoz.

However, this highly visible stream of female graduates is difficult to see in industry. I collected data from three award and Hall of Fame platforms that celebrate graphic designers. These included the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) awards, the Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) awards and the Australian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD) awards. Again, women were mostly invisible. For example, only 25% of Creative Directors awarded in the AGDA awards were women – and no woman has ever been inducted into the AWARD Hall of Fame.

The Anonymity Exhibition visualised the gendered data set of AGDA award winners as both a poster series and woven piece of generative art. Photo: Rikki Paul Bunder.

Reasons for invisibility

Establishing data sets that demonstrated the invisibility of women in Australian graphic design was interesting, but it did not reveal the reasons for the phenomenon, which are complex and layered. They are a bi-product of the patriarchal powers in play, but are also a result of women preferring to simply stay out of the limelight.

As a design discipline, graphic design has other non-gendered issues that mean graphic designers are often invisible. The industry has been known as different things since the 1900s, including Applied Art, Commercial Art and Visual Communication. This confusion, along with the rapid evolution of a graphic designer’s role, has caused much of this invisibility. Technology has been a major influencer of this change. The Mac and design thinking have influenced a shift from graphic design being an aesthetic practice to one with a social conscience.

Ultimately, graphic design communicates something about or for a client or their audience. It is that message or function that is designed to be visible – not the designer. Many graphic designers prefer this anonymity regardless of their gender. However, the platforms that graphic designers can use to promote themselves are often skewed towards promoting men. As previously mentioned, award and Hall of Fame platforms demonstrate many unconscious biases at play.

When I interviewed women in Australian graphic design who had both judged and been awarded these accolades, the potential for change emerged. I developed a framework of gender equitable juries, which validated and connected jurors, and focused on clients, clear criteria and blind evaluations to begin creating equities on these platforms.

The #afFEMation.com website, designed by Jane Connory, increases the representation of women in Australian graphic design.

The way history is written and taught in higher education also systematically makes women invisible. The #afFEMation website was my contribution towards making heroes of women in Australian graphic design. This site features biographies, portraits, videoed interviews, galleries of work and inspirational quotes. It also visualises the social, professional and educational networks between these women in an interactive sociogram. Each profile can be shared directly to social media.

Unpacking the design process I used to create this site also resulted in a framework to improve gender equity in design histories. This framework consisted of systematic and consistent privilege checking, measured gender equity, validation of inclusion through triangulation, the rejection of referencing women only in relationship to men, and prioritising current authorship.

Heroic portraits of female graphic designers, Simone Elder (left), Sandy Cull (middle) and Fiona Leeming (right). Photos: Carmen Holder & Deborah Jane Carruthers.

During this analysis, I was cognisant of art directing the portraits to portray the women in a heroic light. I used heroic tropes of a raised chin and upward gaze – something common in male portraiture. Think of Barack Obama’s Hope poster campaign, Che Guevara’s iconic portrait, and even Superman’s power stance. The public is often uncomfortable with images of women showing power and strength. Only recently Australian Rules footballer Taylor Harris was violently trolled after an image of her mid-flight and fully extended, kicking a footy, was published online. Her visual force as an WAFL hero created an immediate backlash; however, this was reversed as a more empathetic audience applauded her efforts and career. This moment in time is now immortalised as a bronze sculpture positioned in central Melbourne. It acts as a reminder of the strength and abilities of women.

The View from Here exhibition sought to visualise the reach, impact and exposure of research by Jane Connory. Multiple projects lined the gallery walls and were each represented in a data visualisation. Photo: Joanne Manariti.

A visible impact

The View from Here was submitted as both an exegesis and an exhibition. The exhibition sought to visualise the exposure, impact and reach of all the advocacy work I had done during the research project. I could measure over 58,935 sightings of the work and showed them as a life-sized bar graph filled with ping pong balls.

The reach and impacts of projects in The View from Here were shown as concentric circles and pink circles shown at different heights. Photo: Joanne Manariti.

The show also demonstrated that my work had reached beyond academia and the graphic design community of practice to be mostly present in the wider social sphere – something that is not actively encouraged in most PhDs but should be considered as a viable metric. One of the projects with the most impact was an online article in The Conversation titled “Hidden Women of History: Ruby Lindsay, one of Australia’s First Female Graphic Designers”.

This was the most read article on The Conversation in the week that it appeared. Within four months of it being published, this article had been read 8,056 times, received 14 comments, was shared on Facebook 1,800 times, and was shared on Twitter 80 times. The popularity of this article demonstrated that the implementation of my Gender Equitable Histories framework did not affect the readability and cohesiveness of the narratives it generates. On the contrary, it suggests that referencing historical women on their own merits, and not solely in relationship to their husbands or families, is something that piques the interest of online readers.

Ruby Lindsay was one of Australia’s first female graphic designers in the early 1900s.

I entered this research project with a clear hypothesis that women were indeed invisible as graphic designers in Australia. I found this to be true, but uncovered many reasons for this. I worked hard to demonstrate how structures of power that enforce this invisibility can be rethought to create more equitable outcomes. However, I was also careful to respect the autonomy of women who chose to embrace the anonymous nature of graphic design. For every extraordinary woman I interviewed on this journey, there are thousands more who generate impactful work that we will never know.

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Jane Connory recently passed her PhD at Monash University, Art, Design and Architecture, which worked towards a gender-inclusive history of Australian graphic design. She was awarded a Master of Communication Design (Design Management) with Distinction from RMIT in 2016 and has been a practising designer in the advertising, branding and publishing sectors, in both London and Melbourne, since 1997. She has also lectured in and managed communication design programs in both the VET and Higher Education sectors since 2005. Alongside her research exploring the visibility of women in design, she is currently a Lecturer in Communication Design at Swinburne University, an Executive Board member of the Creative Women’s Circle and an Editorial Board member of the Exchanges Journal.

Published papers from Jane’s PhD, A View from Here, can be found here.

Choosing an e-commerce platform for your brand

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash

5 min read

So, you’ve started a creative business which sells your products or services online. Or perhaps you’ve been well established in the world of e-commerce for a while, but you’re looking to jump ship or expand. How do you distinguish between a good and a bad platform, and how do you protect yourself with safe sources to use? Angela Baker explains.

Online businesses trust e-commerce platforms

You can find a lot of creative businesses on platforms such as Etsy, selling hand-crafted items and unique designer pieces. For many creative businesses, these platforms are the means to reach out to people and grow their audience, ultimately turning their small venture into something bigger. But are creative businesses well-protected by e-commerce platforms they’re using?

The big four – Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento are collectively used by over 1.5 million e-commerce businesses.

The biggest e-commerce from these four is Shopify, uniting over 800,000 online businesses. Such a big number of users is a sign that Shopify, in particular, is a trustworthy platform, where an online business can strive and succeed.

It was so, until recently.

Shopify and Jeffree Star Cosmetics Drama

Last year, Jeffree Star, a famous YouTuber and the owner of Jeffree Star Cosmetics, collaborated with another YouTuber and friend Shane Dawson to launch an eye shadow palette ‘Conspiracy’. The creators expected millions of people to visit their online store, which used Shopify, and they contacted the platform before the launch to check if it was ready for hosting so many people.

When the time of launch came, shocked fans discovered that Shopify crashed because it couldn’t handle so many people. This forced Jeffree Star Cosmetics to delay the launch for several hours while Shopify tried to fix the error. One of the most frustrating thing with Shopify’s mistake was that people who added items to the cart and went through the payment verification didn’t get any confirmation that their purchase was successful. Because of dramas like this, online brands have started doubting the capacity of one of the biggest e-commerce platforms.

So, even if such a successful e-commerce platform like Shopify can let its users down, how do you identify a platform you can trust?

Let’s take a look at the signs that give away a bad e-commerce platform.

The Absence of Responsive Design

Consumers expect online brands to have responsive websites. According to the stats, 50% of all USA shoppers buy from mobile devices and 57% of all traffic comes from mobile devices.

Responsive website design is not a whim, it’s a requirement. And today, it’s almost inexcusable if you have unreadable, cluttered, badly designed website. A sign of a bad e-commerce platform is if it doesn’t allow brands to create websites with clean and responsive designs for both desktop and mobile versions. Since so many purchases are made from mobile devices, a brand could potentially lose half of its customers because it doesn’t have a responsive website design.

Bad SEO Optimization

Many first-time users of e-commerce platforms and young brands often stick to a default theme until they make enough money for a custom-made design. While a basic theme is more available and easier to use, it can cause serious issues if it’s not SEO optimized, like duplicate content, which Google is not fond of.

If the theme is not SEO optimized, brands can also have issues with URLs. For instance, one product can have two URLs, listed together with other products and separately in a different category. A product should always have one unique URL, otherwise, a search engine wouldn’t be able to list it properly in search results.

Low-Quality Interface

A sign of a bad e-commerce platform is difficult website maintenance and annoying interface. Let’s take a look at an example.

Many brands decide to have their blogs. Platforms like WordPress, which also hosts WooCommerce, offer e-commerce brands all the tools to create high-quality websites and blog pages - except for one. A decent editor.

While it has all basic SEO optimization tools, it’s bad in terms of proofreading and aligning the content (creating bulleted lists, subheadings, etc.) To proofread your content, you can use online tools like Grammarly, WowGrade or SupremeDissertations. WordPress also offers many plugins to edit and proofread content more effectively. However, the good ones aren’t free, and young brands cannot often afford them.

To compare, other platforms that host e-commerce businesses, like Wix and Magento, do have a great interface to create a high-profile website. So, look for the platform that allows you to create a responsive, SEO optimized website design, with a flexible high-quality interface that will be easy to work with.

Security Issues

The biggest concern for an e-commerce brand is securing the whole customer experience, from storing private information to having a safe payment process.

That’s why many websites have started using HTTPS encryption protocol, which is an extension of HTTP that allows:

• better security – HTTPS uses SSL cryptographic protocol, which secures any data between a server and a browser, keeping safe all the personal information

• better SEO value – Google prefers HTTPS because of its security

• increased customer loyalty – since your website is secure, customers would be more confident to make a purchase or enter their personal information

Today, you can hardly find an Internet user who would trust buying from a website that has a Not Secure sign in the address bar. The lack of proper security measures is a sign of a bad e-commerce platform. As an online brand, you want to create a positive experience for your customers, and making this experience secure is your priority.

So, when you create a business plan for your online brand, make sure that you choose an e-commerce platform that you can trust in terms of security.

Maintenance Costs a Lot

Online brands should be prepared for additional costs when it comes to website maintenance. But a good e-commerce platform shouldn’t charge you too much just to keep your website running.

Using e-commerce platforms can be quite pricey. “Using SAP Hybris as our e-commerce platform cost us nearly $10,000 a month when we launched our website because of additional charges, custom templates, and other premium features”, says Christine Baker, the head of operations at PickTheWriter. For a young brand, it’s a lot of money.

For instance, Shopify users are required to purchase third-party apps from Shopify’s app store even to perform some basic tasks, like edit a blog article. Although the average Shopify app subscription is $1-$3 dollars a month, it can cost you a lot if you use, let’s say, a dozen different apps.

Another maintenance issue that Shopify doesn’t allow personalized email accounts to support the customers, similar to support@yourstore.com. Stores have to redirect customers to other support channels to receive their complaints, which leaves an unpleasant experience. But brands aren’t the ones to blame for it.

Charging online brands for extra features isn’t a sign of a bad e-commerce platform. A sign of a bad e-commerce platform is pressuring brands to buy additional features just to run their website successfully.

Over to You

With online e-commerce platforms, it became possible for everyone to sell the products and grow their business. For creative businesses, e-commerce platforms can be a great outlet to showcase their craft, reach out to people and grow their audience.

But to choose the right e-commerce platform for your creative business, it’s essential to do your research. You need a platform that will allow you to create a responsive website that will ensure a positive customer experience for the consumers and a great user experience for you. A good platform should have high standards of security, but it shouldn’t cost your brand a lot to use it.

Another important point is that an e-commerce platform should be a facilitator for your brand, allowing it to grow instead of creating obstacles, as it did with Jeffree Star and the Shopify drama.

Hopefully, our article will help you make the right decision and find the e-commerce platform that will become the foundation for the success of your online brand.

Who is Debbie Millman?

The Creative Women's Circle will be presenting Debbie Millman at Melbourne's Design Week in March 2020.

2 min read

Who is Debbie Millman?

Debbie Millman, among numerous other things, is a huge hero of mine. She is an inspirational designer, author, branding guru, educator and podcaster who believes in making a difference through design. She is also a born and bred New Yorker.

As a woman who wears many hats, Debbie Millman will be visiting Melbourne for Melbourne Design Week on the weekend of March 14 and 15. Presented by us, the Creative Women’s Circle, Debbie will be sharing her experiences in the industry through the idea of Courage vs Confidence and hosting a workshop on Visual Story Telling.

As a podcaster, Debbie hosts Design Matters which has become the world’s most downloaded design podcast. Debbie has interviewed some of the biggest names in design since her show began in 2005. They include graphic design luminaries like Stephan Sagmeister and Paula Scher. She has also used her casual interview style to get to the heart of Eat, Prey Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert, feminist author and now fiancé Roxanne Gay and artist Marina Abramović’s creative processes.

Debbie Millman is the famed founder and talent on the podcast Design Matters.

Debbie is also an educator and runs a Masters in Branding at the School in Visual Arts in New York. Here she shares her knowledge gleaned from 22 years at Sterling Brands where she was president of the design division. She has worked for over 200 of the world’s top brands and written books to help students truly understand the process.

Branding is not the only topic Debbie has written about. Her published works also include more illustrative works like Self-Portrait as your Traitor and Look Both Ways. Her most recent collaboration is Leave Me Alone with the Recipes: The Life, Art, and Cookbook of Cipe Pineles. Cipe was an unsung American designer and educator who left a big impression on Debbie. One day Cipe’s personally illustrated scrapbook, full of family recipes, was found at an antiques fair. It was this book that Debbie with Sarah Rich, Wendy MacNaughton and Maria Popova (curator of the blog Brain Pickings) reinvented into a beautiful book that everyone can now cook from.

She is an inspirational designer, author, branding guru, educator and podcaster who believes in making a difference through design.

Debbie’s passion for writing and design critique keeps expanding and she is now the Editorial and Creative Director of Print Magazine. Founded in 1940, Print Magazine was the go-to for inspiration and information for many graphic designers, however it went out of circulation in 2018. It has been Debbie’s passion for design that will ensure it will rise again this year and is something to look forward to.

In 2017 I got to meet Debbie in New York while researching my PhD on women in design. While I was certainly star-struck, it was great to find her so warm and welcoming. She has overcome a childhood of violence and abuse. She has set goals and challenged herself. She has achieved admirable career and personal success and is now at a place where she wants to share her secrets with other creative women. There is much about her to admire.

So that is who Debbie Millman is. We hope that you have your interest sparked and will see you at either her speaking event or workshop in March. 

- Jane Connory, PhD, Special Events Co-ordinator at Creative Women’s Circle

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Tickets on sale Thursday February 6, 2020:

Speaker event – Courage vs Confidence

Visual Story Telling Workshop

5 blog posts to get you started in 2020

Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

2 min read

Now that it’s January, many of us may be reflecting on the year that’s just gone, or looking towards new horizons. There are all sorts of things you might be thinking about in your creative practice. Do you take the leap and start a brand new endeavour? What can you improve with what you are doing now? And how do you start the year in the most organised efficient way?

So, this month we are revisiting the blog archives with some valuable tips, tricks, and reflections to help you along in the new year.

For getting yourself organised…

Andres McArthur

For getting started in January…

Lizzie Stafford

For changing careers this year…

Bec Mackey

For making things happen…

Dannielle Cresp

For understanding why desire and motivation pull us in different directions…

by Emily Willis

CWC Summer Reading

Photo by Krisztina Papp. Source: Pexels

Summer is upon us, and along with the festivities of the silly season, the summer days lend themselves wonderfully to some solitary reading time. Whether on the beach or in the bush, for improving the mind or just plain unashamed escapism, I love getting stuck into a book. It’s not something I get to do very often in my day-to-day. So when I get some time off during a holiday period, the lure of a good book and a well-worn couch is simply too hard to resist.

I remember that time in my 20’s where I read Alex Garland’s The Beach, on the beach in Thailand, reliving the story it in-situ like all the other tourists. Then there was that year I read all of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in one uninterrupted sitting, bleary-eyed but determined to get closure from a decade-long literary journey.

This summer, I’m working my way through A.S Byatt’s The Children’s Book. Set in Victorian England through to WW1, a famous children’s author writes a story for each of her children. I’ve been promised a tale of family secrets, betrayal, lies, and treachery and so far it does not disappoint.

I’m always out for new titles to try from friends and family who have given their seal of approval before it gets into my hands. So when it came time to put together this post, I called out to some people (including the trusty CWC board) to send through their favourite reads.

So, in no definitive order and with no particular genre in mind, here are 12 recommendations and why you should read them, without giving away too much. And if they don’t make your summer reading schedule this time, you now have one book to read a month for the upcoming year.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain

Susan Cain delves into the power and value of the introvert in a world that seems to worship the extrovert. But this is not just a beneficial read for introverts to learn that their approach has merit. It’s also an important book for extroverts to pick up to better understanding of the introverts in their lives.

Unpolished Gem – Alice Pung

Alice Pung’s memoir takes the reader through her childhood and adolescence growing up in working-class Footscray. She describes three generations of women - herself, her mother and grandmother - navigating through their worlds from war-torn Cambodia to suburban Melbourne . It is witty, vivid, nuanced and shows a girl’s experience of moving between cultures and identities in contemporary Australia.

How to be Both – Ali Smith

How to be both has an interesting way of telling the story of two very different lives that exist in completely different times, but the book subtly shows how we are all intertwined as humans. Ali Smith paints people in their purest form with their purest thoughts, which makes it a book that can really ground the reader.

This is Marketing – Seth Godin

This is the quintessential marketing book of the decade. Seth Godin speaks about the value of making connections with customers that last over a lifetime. It’s about the long term success over the short term buzz that people will quickly forget about. A solid read if you want to refresh your marketing approach or don’t have much experience with marketing.

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

Uprooted is a delightful read. It’s a high fantasy tale with roots in Polish folklore. Naomi Novik crafts an intricate world and her prose carries strong characters such as the heroine Agnieszka. It was one of the most highly lauded and award winning fantasy novels of 2016. Best thing is that it’s a stand-alone book, which can be quite rare in the fantasy genre.

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

As a professor of genetics, the protagonist Don lives an orderly predictable life in an academic setting. The Rosie Project explores the romantic and comedic errors of a man with undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome as he looks for a wife. It’s funny, empathetic and beautifully written.

Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan

The book is always better than the movie, they say. So if you’ve seen the film and liked the bling, extravagance and crazy rich relatives, check out Kevin Kwan’s original words. And if you like this book, you might as well stay for the sequels. It’s a witty trilogy full of drama and couture, and it’s a whole lot of escapist fun.  

Women of Letters: Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Michaela McGuire & Marieke Hardy

This is a part of the Women of Letters series of book that is curated by Michaela McGuire & Marieke Hardy. It champions the lost art of letter-writing and showcases the humour, sentiment and wisdom of these notable Australians. This is a great non-fiction option to dip in and out of when you have a bit of free time. 

Stardust – Neil Gaiman

Another book that’s been adapted to film, Stardust is Neil Gaiman’s much loved fairy tale about a young man who seeks to capture a fallen star. A wonderful book that is not too long, it is sweet, funny and a cheeky departure from reality.

Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

If you want an uplifting story that will make you want to hit the running trails after an overindulgent Christmas, then this is for you. Christopher McDougall’s tale begins with him looking for answers to his running injury woes, which leads him on an incredible quest to discover a hidden Mexican tribe who run 100’s of kilometres, often barefoot. McDougall makes a great case for the simple pleasures of running.

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Set in 1969 on the North Carolina coast, Where the crawdad’s sing is a story of a woman, Kya Clark, who defies her circumstances to create her own success. It’s a coming of age story intertwined with a bit of crime. A movie adaptation is currently in the pipeline, set to be produced by Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Levy Neustadter.

Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth – Phillip Pullman

This is the second book of the The Book of Dust trilogy by Phillip Pullman. It is part of the His Dark Materials universe, now a HBO show currently on Foxtel. The His Dark Materials universe has always walked the line of young adult/adult fiction with a rich tapestry of fantasy, character building and deep philosophical themes. This new book explores the world and perspective of the protagonist Lyra (Belacqua) Silvertongue as an adult in college who witnesses a murder. A great read for fans of the broader series.

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So there you go, hopefully some of these provide your summer with some solitary indulgence.

Happy holidays to you all, and see you on the other side!

Katherine Masiulanis and her creative practice in landscape architecture

Katherine Masiulanis a landscape architect and the director of Leaf Design Studio. At the heart of her practice is a combined passion for design and storytelling and in addition to site-based designs, her work extends into Interpretive design and Public Art (when she’s lucky!). Katherine has a lovely partner who is studying for his PhD, and a seven year old son, so she’s currently also the family breadwinner. Here she is - on getting into her field, her projects, and creating a career around life and family.  

What do you have on your desk at the moment?

Quite a few playspace projects, and unusually for me, a private garden design.

I have a moth orchid from a friend which is currently blooming, and a selection of my pottery and basket-masking. I love making things, but then I need to find homes for them, so my pens and other plants are housed in a variety of odd vessels.

How would you describe your career so far and how did you get into this industry?

Serendipitous.

I actually started at Uni in Mechanical Engineering, then moved to Industrial Design at Monash University after two years, somewhat by accident. When I came out, I couldn’t get a job directly in the industry, so worked for a couple of years as a design draftsperson, for a playground manufacturer.

It’s a bit like putting Lego together, which can actually get dull eventually. After a couple of years I applied for a position with a Landscape Architect, not actually knowing what one did! Thankfully she employed me, and gave me lots of opportunities, responsibilities and scope to learn on the job.

Since then I’ve worked in a range of consultancies and for local government before starting my own practice nearly 4 years ago.

George Pentland Botanic Garden playspace, Frankston. Winner of the AILA Victoria playspace award 2019.

What are some of the most important/ topical issues you tackle in landscape architecture?

We deal with outdoor spaces - so doing what we can to combat climate change is a huge one, whether it’s revegetation or trying to save existing trees; planting for biodiversity or to combat the urban heat island effect; planning communities for the future; or choosing to use recycled and low impact materials in our designs.

There has also been an increased focus within AILA (Australian Institute of Landscape Architects) in the last few years on genuinely engaging with the traditional owners of the land, and respecting country.

Shelter at Marysville Heart, designed while at Urban Initiatives.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in your career?

Having a child was challenging within a traditional consultancy. I think there was an unconscious prejudice, as they were outwardly welcoming and flexible; and yet I was reduced from running multiple projects to taking the minutes and running none.

Now I run the business, and all my own projects - and get to choose which ones to work on! On the other hand - there is no-one else there to take up the slack if I’m ill or would like to travel, so that’s a juggle.

There has been (and continues to be) a challenge in specialisation. By that, I mean that when you become skilled at one area of design, it can be hard to break into other areas. I have a great deal of experience in playspace design, and while I enjoy those, I’d like to be taking on more varied work. Variety makes me happy.

What do you do in your ‘down time’ (and do you have a guilty pleasure)?

Outside work, I am a serial (and sometimes parallel) enthusiast. I tend to get quite involved in a particular creative pursuit, and then move on. At the moment it’s ceramics, textiles and to some extent watercolour painting.

Enthusiasms of the day have included bellydancing, writing (I’ve published three books, some short stories and poetry), guitar, and ephemeral art.

How do you balance work/ life?

I typically work three days a week. I look after my son, make things, and do life admin on the other days. It gives me the flexibility to work a little more if I need to, but also to keep sane.

When I started the business, I was still working at Council, and trying to write a book, and it was really too much. I had a sort of ‘mini breakdown’, where I felt I wasn’t doing anything properly, and ended up with shingles, which was a wake-up call!

It made me reassess my priorities, and acknowledge that I can’t do everything at once. A little humbling, but definitely a step in the right direction. Now I carefully manage my workload, and don’t hesitate to say to clients that I can’t take on projects when I wouldn’t be able to service them properly. Reputation is so important in business, so I’d rather be honest up front than let someone down.

Castlemaine Botanical Gardens playspace, Castlemaine.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to break into the industry you are in?

There are so many Landscape Architecture graduates out there at the moment, so I imagine it must be hard. It can be really valuable to know how things are really constructed, so if you can do some time with a Landscape Construction or horticultural company that’s great.

I’ve also seen people starting out getting stuck CAD drafting with little opportunity to take responsibility, which is a lost chance for employers.  It’s so important to have people who have an ability to be proactive and run with projects independently, as they are the reliable backbone of a company. I find that mentoring people and seeing them blossom is terrifically rewarding.

Kinetic bird sculptures, Public Art installation at Cardigan Village, Ballarat.

Website: www.leafdesignstudio.com.au

Book: How to Grow A Playspace co, authored with Elizabeth Cummins of Bricolage Design, published worldwide by Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

Jo Watson and the process of writing

Jo Watson is a writer, artist and all-round creative person who grew up and still lives in Melbourne. Before settling down to work in television as a writer, she did lots of different jobs: waitressing, movie popcorn maker, chambermaid, bar tender to name a few.

We chat to Jo about her writing, the creative process, and the Kickstarter campaign for her delightful picture book ‘Larry Leadbeater.’

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How did you get into creating picture books?

Looking back, I was always a writer. In primary school, I wrote huge stories and drew the pictures for them. But somewhere along the way, I took on the idea that writing wasn’t a sensible pursuit.  Fortunately, I found work in television, where you get to be creative and collect a pay check. I lucked out with “breaking in” in Melbourne. I went to L.A. to work in the television industry there and found breaking in impossible. That experience definitely humbled me and knocked me around a bit. But I learned so much about how to sell myself, how to verbally pitch a story and how to create stories that are specific enough to have universal appeal.

It’s taken me a weirdly long time to realise I’m a creative person. The thing that finally hammered it home was learning to draw. I love being a beginner at things -- I find that early learning curve really exhilarating. I stopped drawing in grade 3 and started again when I was 39. I had a lot of catching up to do! I was one of those people who said “I can’t draw to save myself”. But there’s a difference between “can’t draw” and “don’t draw”. Drawing is a skill you can learn just like writing, cleaning toilets or making popcorn. I spent a year studying foundation visual art subjects at Melbourne Polytechnic. After that, it was a lot of practice and a lot of YouTube. Screenwriting is often referred to as a visual medium. So I’ve found moving into picture books a natural and joyful progression.

You’ve just kickstarted a campaign for a new children’s story ‘Larry Leadbeater’. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Sure. Larry Leadbeater is an adorable but rather fussy fairy possum who seriously needs a new home. After losing his 300 year-old tree, Larry’s in quite a pickle. Fortunately, he’s not alone. A trip to the city and a new friend - the bold and resourceful Clementine - set Larry on a course to change the world… in a most surprising and unconventional way!

Although it’s a work of fiction, the story’s based on the real-life travails of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum, affectionately known as the “fairy possum”.

Where did you get the idea for Larry, and what made you decide to tell that story?

The year I started working on Larry Leadbeater, my kids were coming home from kindergarten with a burning desire to do what they could, in their own way, to improve the planet. They really led by example and got me thinking about how I could use my skills as a writer and an artist to have a positive impact. I was and still am inspired by young people, around the world, stepping up to safeguard our planet. I wanted to write a story that captures their undaunted enthusiasm and sense of purpose.

Are the characters inspired by anyone/ anything in real life?

 Clementine got her name from a girl who went to my son’s kindergarten. I really liked her drawings.

What inspires you to write?

I find writing extremely difficult. I’m not sure what drives me to keep doing it! I have gotten better over the years at discerning which ideas have enough “va voom” behind them to keep me engaged over the long haul. Sometimes it’s a really interesting character flaw, or it could be the concept or something that sparks a strong emotional response. In the case of Larry Leadbeater, it was the ridiculous irony of Victoria’s state animal emblem being pushed to extinction by state-sponsored logging activity. From there, the work was making sure the story stood up without the message. It was very important that the plot and characters be just as engaging as in a purely entertainment-driven story.

One other important reason I write is to get ideas for the next story. I find writing begets ideas. It’s probably my brain going “ooh, this is hard, let’s think of something else shiny and new instead”. I write down those ideas in different folders I have labelled for different mediums – television, film, books or picture books. I always like to have more material than I can possibly use.  

Tell us about your creative process.

The nuts and bolts of it are: start early, take regular food breaks, exercise 3 times a week. What I do outside of the writing is just as important as what I do when I’m at my desk. If I force myself to overwork (which I do, often, and it’s rarely a good idea) the quality of the work declines and my mental health goes to bits.

I like to finish each day by writing down one or two really specific, microtasks to be resumed.  For example, if I’m writing it might be: “brainstorm 3 settings for this scene, pick one”. If I’m illustrating it might be: “add texture to the rocks”. It helps the next day, when I sit down, to know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. It eliminates a lot of anxiety and lost time because for the first few minutes, I’m not thinking, I’m doing. Then the thinking part comes naturally. I recently heard someone call this strategy “parking on the hill”.

What has been the most challenging/ rewarding aspect about this project?

The method I chose to use for rendering the illustrations was incredibly time intensive. I thought it would get quicker as I went along. It didn’t. So logging the hours and trying not to get impatient was tough. The rewards are all the new tricks and techniques I’ve learned – far too many to list here. I got a kick out of learning to edit and sound engineer a video for the Kickstarter campaign.

What made you decide to use Kickstarter?

Because Larry Leadbeater is sort of a social enterprise, in that I want to direct a lot of the profit toward conservation organisations, it made sense to publish in a way where I had more control over the profits. Publishing independently means financing the cost of production yourself. It’s more work but it also gives you greater control. Kickstarter is one piece of the finance puzzle. It’s a great way to get the book out there, start selling and finding an audience early.

What has been the response so far?

Fantastic! The project is now 140% funded and steadily climbing with 2 weeks to go. I researched crowdfunding best practices before I created my campaign. I made sure my campaign content ticked all the boxes as best I could: things like quality video, a compelling “why” and good photography are all really important. Another key element is trying to get your campaign 30% funded in the first week. I did a lot of groundwork, telling people about the project, emailing people and so forth and was able to get the project 30% funded in the first three days. Larry Leadbeater has been selected as a “project we love” by the Kickstarter platform, which helps send more traffic my way. The response has been overwhelming. I feel very fortunate.

What’s next on the horizon?

I have another picture book story that I’ll start pitching around. I want to set up an online store for my artwork. And next year I’ll be getting ready to exhibit Larry Leadbeater’s artwork at the Gallery at the Dock in Melbourne’s docklands. Another learning curve for me!

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to break into the industry you are in?

Put as much effort into showing your work as you do into refining your skill or craft. Also, being a creative professional has many challenges… so don’t feel guilty about enjoying the perks. If you need to have a nap after lunch, do it!

To see more of the book visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larryleadbeater/larry-leadbeater

or follow Jo on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/see.jo.watson/