Honouring our Hall of Fame and Fellow inductees at the Robin Boyd House
Words by James Harper, Chair, DIA Hall of Fame Committee
DIA President Gavin Campbell FDIA, Hall of Fame inductee Alison Forbes and James Harper, Chair, DIA Hall of Fame Committee
Since the program's inception in 1996, 137 design leaders from all design disciplines have been inducted into the DIA Hall of Fame. After a break of almost three years, it was such a pleasure to be at the beautiful Robin Boyd Walsh Street house to acknowledge the DIA Hall of Fame Victorian inductees for 2022. They are Prue Acton OBE, Jefa Greenaway, Jenny Grigg, Robert Backhouse FDIA and Alison Forbes. At separate events in their states; Dorothy Erickson in WA, and Robert Geddes FDIA, in Queensland were also recognised.
The DIA Hall of Fame is an enduring record of the Australian design industry's pioneers, ambassadors and contributors. It showcases Australia's design visionaries and leaders and celebrates their significant contribution to Australia's economic development and cultural identity.
The inductees have been awarded based on their significant design and industry achievements; generous contribution to the design industry and the broader community; and their awards, acknowledgements and recognition at a national and international level.
The Robin Boyd house is a remarkably fitting venue to be making this presentation to Alison Forbes as she visited the house whilst Robin Boyd and his family lived there. She also designed the original cover for his seminal work 'The Australian Ugliness' and his autobiography ‘Robin Boyd, A Life’ (1995).
On the night, the DIA also acknowledged respected Victorian Fellows who had not been inducted yet (2021, 2022) for their contributions to the profession. Congratulations, Mardi Doherty FDIA, director, Studio Doherty, Mim Fanning FDIA, founder and principal interior designer at Mim Designs, and Adele Winteridge FDIA, director at Foolscap Studio.
I thank the DIA Hall of Fame committee: Michael Bogle, Joanne Cys LFDIA, Paul van Barneveld FDIA, Geoff Fitzpatrick OAM LFDIA, and Hall of Fame member David Lancashire.
Brooking Harper were sponsors on the night.
Top left to right: Gavin Campbell, James Harper, Jefa Greenaway, Mim Fanning, Tiffany Treloar accepting on behalf of her mother Prue Acton, Jenny Grigg, Rob Backhouse, Adele Winteridge, and Mardi Doherty.
Prue Acton
Prue Acton OBE is a legend of Australian fashion and textile design. She completed a Diploma of Art, majoring in Textiles, at RMIT in Melbourne in 1962 and 1963; at 19, she started her label in Flinders Lane. Her bold and colourful designs tapped into the changing era and mood of the new wave of independent young women. During the 1960's she was often referred to as "Australia's golden girl of fashion" and was the first Australian female designer to show her fashion range in New York. Prue has received several awards during her career, including three international awards for Olympic Opening Ceremony Uniforms, five Australian Wool Board Awards, three David Jones Awards for Fashion Excellence and four Fashion Industry of Australia Lyrebird Awards, as well as receiving an OBE in 1982. Prue returned to her first love of painting in the 1980s and now works as a professional artist from her home in Daylesford.
Jefa Greenaway
Jefa Greenaway is a nationally recognised architect, interior designer, academic at the University of Melbourne, Honorary Fellow of Design at Deakin University, design advocate and a regular design communicator. As a co-founder and director of Greenaway Architects, he seeks to reveal layers of history and memory anchored in Country whilst demonstrating the value of people-centred design, which interrogates one's philosophical or ethical underpinning and design responsibilities. He designed the award-winning Ngarara Place at RMIT University and collaborated on such projects as the Koorie Heritage Trust, the North East Link, and the Marvel Stadium upgrade. For thirty years, he's also championed Indigenous-led design thinking, mainly through co-authoring the International Indigenous Design Charter and as Regional Ambassador for Oceania of INDIGO (the International Indigenous Design Network). He was co-creative director for Australia's exhibition at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale and sits on numerous boards that intersect with art, architecture and cultural heritage.
Jenny Grigg
Dr Jenny Grigg is a graphic designer and lecturer in the School of Design at RMIT University. Her professional career includes positions as Art Director at Rolling Stone Magazine Australia and MTV Australia, Creative Director at Harper Collins and Senior Designer at Pentagram in London. Continually active in book design, Jenny has designed for Faber and Faber, Granta Books, Peter Carey, Paul Auster and Eleanor Catton and is currently the art director for Giramondo Publishing. Many design awards have recognised her achievements in the field, including a 2011 State Library Victoria Creative Fellowship. She researches design history and material literacy in graphic design ideation.
Rob Backhouse
Rob Backhouse is Chairman and Head of Design at the international design and architecture practice Hassell and has been instrumental in shaping the company's ambitious design culture. His global, award-winning projects range from the world's largest and most complex workplaces to residential developments and one-off residences. Now working on his PhD at RMIT University, Rob loves the visceral, tangible impact great design has on people every day – and the potential it has to transform a business or change an entire city. Rob is an eloquent advocate for the value of design and has participated in, and chaired juries for the Australian Interior Design Awards, received a Gold Medal in the 2017 Interior Design Excellence Awards, and is a Fellow of the International Federation of Interior Architects / Designers.
Alison Forbes
Alison Forbes is the first full-time independent book designer in Australia. As a pioneer in this field, she designed hundreds of titles over more than five decades, many of which occupy a most significant position within the development of Australian culture. Her books include Alan Marshall's novel; I Can Jump Puddles, for which she won the 1955 Australian Book Publishers Association Book of the Year award, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) and The Land that Waited (1967). Alison considers herself a Book Designer in the total sense. She thoughtfully planned every aspect of the beautifully illustrated history, art and garden books she designed, sometimes doing her picture research and being credited as a co-author on several occasions. In 1989 she was presented with the Australian Book Publishers Association's inaugural Award of Honour 'for her continued and outstanding contribution to Australian book design and production. In 2016 she was inducted into the Australian Graphic Design Association's Hall of Fame.
Two other Hall of Fame inductees were acknowledged at separate events in their states; Dorothy Erickson, Jewellery Designer and Design Writer from WA, and Robert Geddes FDIA, Industrial Designer and Design Advocate from Queensland. For Dorothy and Robert’s citations