Held on 9 November at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, a DIA — Design Days Canberra event was presented in partnership with the DIA, the Alastair Swayn Foundation and the National Museum of Australia, facilitating a timely roundtable discussion amongst industry bodies. Dr Lyndon Anderson, Swayn Senior Fellow in Australian Design, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra, elaborates on the hanging nature of the design profession, and the role of Australia's peak design bodies. 

With the advance of new technologies, environmental challenges, global pandemics, and political upheaval across the globe, governments and communities are adapting to Change. Designers interact with a vast array of specialists from other professions as their design disciplines morph, evolve and respond to unprecedented levels of disruption.

Are our peak bodies equipped to represent the next generation of designers, to best advocate for the crucial role designers can play across the cultural sector and, more broadly, linked to the sciences and technologies as a vital stage in addressing Australia's contemporary challenges?

Moderator
Lyndon Anderson | Swayn Senior Fellow of Australian Design, National Museum Australia

Participants

Jodie Cunningham | Craft ACT CEO
Tom Skeehan | ACT Chair, Design Institute of Australia | Skeehan Studio
Cia Flannery | ACT President, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects AILA | Cia Landscapes and Colour
Alisa Moss | Director DJAS
Natalia Weglarz | Associate Planner WSP, former Board member Planning Institute of Australia (PIA)
Jane Cassidy | National Council Director & President ACT Chapter Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)
David Whitbread | ACT Chair Australian Graphic Design Alliance (AGDA)
Dr Catriona Quinn | Arts, Design & Architecture, School of Art & Design UNSW

Introduction

This talk was designed to be the first in a series providing each state and territory with an opportunity to add to the overall topic, the changing nature of the profession, collaboration, and the role of peak bodies. The speakers represent the design and architecture professions within the ACT and hold territory or national leadership roles within professional Institutes and peak bodies. The speakers primarily focused on the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of design practice and the need for collaboration amongst practitioners. The speakers provided a starting point for further discussion.

Peak Body membership: Is there a need to review disciplinary classifications, nomenclature, and definitions?

The DIA is Australia's largest multidisciplinary peak body, with membership options spanning twelve design disciplines. The twelfth disciplinary category is called ‘Other Design Disciplines’ and has, until recently, been available to a small minority of designers that work across boundaries or specialise in emerging fields of design that is not listed as a specialist discipline. Recently, DIA membership enquiries have revealed a growing interest in the ‘Other Design Disciplines’ group suggesting that an increasing number of designers are working across traditional disciplinary boundaries. In response to this, the DIA successfully introduced a new design award program with three non-discipline-specific award categories designed to allow designers to gain recognition for cross-disciplinary collaborations and projects that no longer fit within traditional disciplinary award categories.  

The speakers revealed that other professional peak bodies share similarities in terms of their membership groups working across disciplinary boundaries, including new and emerging fields of design.   The talk also revealed that there are growing similarities and cross-overs between peak bodies that represent design and those that represent craft. Craft ACT, for example, has membership categories in specific fields and a category called ‘mixed media; the latter, like the DIA, represents a growing group of individuals that no longer wish to be categorised by a single material, such as glass, or a specific field of practice such as industrial design. Peak bodies representing single disciplines of design, such as AGDA, also identified that members are widening their scope of work to include collaborations and practices requiring skill sets from adjacent professions such as Games, Film, Publishing, Web Design, Marketing and Communications. Whilst the AIA and AILA still represent single disciplines or fields of design; the peak bodies reported that their respective membership groups are equally exploring new and emerging territories of design, art, or other forms of creative practice.

Is this really a new phenomenon?

From a historical perspective, the notion of designers working across boundaries is not necessarily new. Dr Quinn emphasised that in the 1920s and 30s, the industry was overwhelmingly serviced by multidisciplinary practitioners who needed to remain flexible, versatile, and dynamic to make a living during an economic recession. During the talk, speakers confirmed that whilst this is still, on occasion, a driver for multidisciplinary practice, the nature of client briefs and the advent of new technologies presented opportunities and expectations for solutions that transcend traditional design boundaries. The term 'Multidisciplinary' suggests that a practitioner may work within numerous disciplines providing they are not constrained by legislation or regulation e.g. interior design and the state building regimes. In contrast, the advent of new technologies enables practitioners to transcend boundaries and create unique project-based client solutions that cannot be classified. 

This talk also touched upon emerging fields of design that do not require practitioners to have gained a traditional education in design. Areas of design, including Experience Design and Service Design, are growing and vibrant but not currently serviced by the DIA or any other peak body. 

Why is it important to correctly classify the design community?

During the talk, two different but equally compelling reasons to correctly categorise designers were tabled. The first relates to the work of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). ANZSCO is responsible for creating data sets related to the labour force to ensure government funding for industry training is allocated correctly, that skilled migration focuses upon the right fields of skill shortages, and that labour market statistics are available for further analysis, such as wage and productivity comparisons, economic impact, and size of the sector. The DIA has formed a working to respond to ANZSCO’s recent proposals and revisit how it categorises and collects data. The talk reemphasised that this is an opportunity for all Peak Bodies to submit and that discussing the possibility of joint proposals could be viable.

The second reason to correctly classify peak body membership groups relates to one of the primary reasons designers pay membership fees; insurance, professional indemnity, networking, knowledge sharing and professional development. Professional bodies must ensure that the professions are best represented, which means ensuring that they fully understand and support contemporary practice's fluid and dynamic nature. 

Is there scope for further collaboration between Professional Bodies?

The speakers were unanimous in their view that the design professions increasingly depend upon collaborations and that designers are more likely to work across traditional boundaries. It was also evident that some practitioners are members of more than one peak body. Questions for the future or further workshops and talks could focus on the extent to which there is scope for peak body collaborations and what this might look like. For example, within the ACT, the AIA and AILA are incredibly proactive and engaged with the Government via formal committees that are perhaps unique to the ACT. The committees include a group that focuses on design advocacy, and to date, this has included the AIA, AILA and Engineering Australia. During the talk, the AIA representative invited the DIA to join this group, suggesting that if the DIA further invested in Canberra, the Design Advocacy Group would benefit from their participation. 

Questions and areas for further investigation.

The ACT workshop confirmed that views shared by the DIA are consistent across the design sector and evident within all peak bodies representing the profession. As such, the speakers provided a springboard for a series of further talks in other states and territories. Some topics that emerged included design education and inter-peak body collaboration.

The speakers touched upon the extent to which design education, in its response to ensuring the next generation of designers is workforce ready, could or should be broadened or remain discipline-specific. Educators also play a role in the name and description of design disciplines, which should reflect needs of the design sector.  Further discussion would be necessary.

The question of collaboration between professional peak bodies and institutes could form the basis for a series of dedicated workshops or talks with expert speakers from across the sector. The level of complexity and the changing nature of the design profession, plus the extent to which external challenges, such as climate change, impact practice, may require governing organisations to rethink their role, level of autonomy and potential to collaborate.

The DIA — Design Days Canberra event is the first of a series of industry roundtables taking place across the country and aims to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration through partnerships and community, encouraging debate, knowledge sharing, learning and connection with the broader ecology of design practice and networks.

Upcoming 2023 roundtables will take place in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

Dr Lyndon Anderson is the 2022–25 Swayn Fellow of Australian Design. He hopes to showcase the work of important past and present Australian designers and help the next generation of designers find their voice. An expert in design education, research and advocacy, Lyndon has extensive experience and networks in design practice with professional design industry peak bodies and the Australian university sector.

Lyndon was the Executive Dean of a large multidisciplinary Faculty of Arts and Design and Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching. He holds a PhD in Design and Fellowships with the Royal Society (NSW), the Design Institute of Australia and an Adjunct Professorship with the University of Canberra.

Lyndon is keen to establish links to industry, government and Australia’s peak industry bodies for professional design, landscape architecture and architecture.