This year the EJ team worked on 118 projects in cities, regional centres and country towns in multiple states. Every one of them matters. But ‘best of’ lists being what they are, we’ve been challenged to name a few. Here they are.
What is your favourite piece of EJ work from 2019, and why?
Melanie: Energy Info Hub and the broader training partnership – it brought together the expertise of all the teams to create a beautiful, practical, user-based training package and information materials
David: Smoke in a Box. There was lots of good work, but this project represented the perfect storm of client appetite, practical opportunity, insights, strategy and a focused creative direction.
Eleanor: Maybe I’m biased but – CPRC Energy Info Hub was really great to be part of and be able to work across teams to research, design and deliver something meaningful.
Melinda: The Yarra Waste Revolution. Working with a passionate client to solve a big, real-world problem, and doing it with behaviour change and beautiful creative. What could be better!
Rhod: YSAS stakeholder engagement. We were able to work with clients and stakeholders to determine how the company could make a bigger difference. In the process, we met inspiring people and learned many new things.
Laura: The Yarra waste campaign, because we were part of a waste and consumption revolution!
Lucie: The Waterways of the West consultation with the CALD communities. I loved this project because of its empowering structure, collaborative nature and inclusion of marginalised voices that are often left out of planning and engagement. As English was a second language for most participants, the use of visual communication bridged the gap of understanding the complexity and dense information. In the end, it was beautiful to see the participants wanting to be a part of future engagement activities and that they had learnt about the waterways and Aboriginal culture for the first time.
Patrick: The opportunity to express a design sensibility at the scale of Energy Safe Victoria’s carbon monoxide awareness campaign was hugely inspiring.
What was your biggest, professional win of 2019?
Melanie: Not a win as such, but making progress on our social impact framework. We are getting there slowly but surely.
David: The continued growth of the design studio – both in colleagues and in the breadth of creative opportunities. As a business, the increase in larger, multi-disciplinary engagements. Really showing what we are capable of together!
Caroline: Returning to work after mat leave!
Trudy: Building the Health & Ageing team with my co-pilot, Chiara!
Elise: This has been one of the biggest years of professional wins for me. I never would have believed I’d be employed to use my illustrations skills for such a wide variety of campaigns, let alone be able to explore so many avenues of creativity.
Abby: Launching the ‘Be Sure’ campaign in April, and seeing it covered by every TV news station that night!
Lisl: Completing the Mental health first aid course and implementing the policy and guidelines at EJ.