In 2003/2004 Ian McArthur initiated the COLLABOR8 Project to foster multidisciplinary projects online between design education programs in different institutions, and specifically across different cultures.
Having over 25 years experience as designer and design educationalist, Ian McArthur has held leadership roles in vocational and higher education in Australia and South East Asia. From 2001 - 2003 Ian was Program Director of Graphic Design, La Salle DHU International Design College (Dong-Hua University, Shanghai, China). He holds a Master of Design (Middlesex University, UK) and two education degrees (UTS, Sydney).
Ian's professional practice focuses on cross cultural design management and is based on a perspective that China, India, and Asia more generally, offer significant opportunities for design as a profession to maximise the potentials of collaborative practice, new technologies and design education in the global community.
Ian currently coordinates COFA Online's Undergraduate online program and lectures in the School of Design studies at The College of Fine Art (UNSW).
Rick is a Senior Lecturer in Design Studies at the College of Fine Arts, the University of New South Wales, Australia. In 1998, he founded The Omnium Project, an ongoing research initiative looking at online creative collaboration (OCC) particularly within visual arts education.
The Omnium Project now employs numerous people as researchers, designers, programmers and project convenors and Rick is more recently focusing his efforts on a series of socially aware online global projects to aid communities in developing countries. The Omnium Creative Network [OCN] is the focus of most of these new initiatives - http://ocn.omnium.net.au
Rick has also presented and published outcomes of Omnium's online work, both nationally and internationally, at many design and education conferences over the last decade as well as in peer reviewed journals and media publications. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Sydney, titled Drawing on the e-Collective: Exploring Online Creative Collaboration (OCC) within the Visual Arts.
C8 aims to involve a diverse range of students, researchers, tutors, special guests and mentors. for the COLLABOR8 Project will be announced as the project continues to take shape. If you are an industry professional or a design educator who would like to participate in the C8 project please contact COLLABOR8 Project Director Ian McArthur
Leong Chan established the Design Asia Project (DAP) which investigates the history of printing and visual culture in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. DAP focuses on identity, modernity and national experience as determining factors in the graphic communication of the Chinese diaspora from the region.
Leong is one of the founding research directors of the Australian Socio-Graphic AIDS Project (AGAP) and the South East Asian Socio-Graphic AIDS Project (SEAGAP). Both projects investigate the differing roles of governments and community organisations as influential factors in the design of graphic representations that characterise HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns used in Australia and South East Asia.
He is also joint chief investigator in the Omnium project which tests online modes of interaction (physical) and collaboration (social) for visual communication designers.
Leong is currently completing his PhD thesis, Envisioning the Nation: Representing Ideology and Identity in Singapore, 1965-2003, for submission to the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, UTS.
Erminio is director of strategy in Australia for FutureBrand, a leading international brand consultancy firm. Since the early 90s Erminio’s greatest professional passion has been creating knowledge and practices that previously didn’t exist. He has worked in Australia, Europe and China, leading world class projects across a broad range of marketing disciplines.
While living in Italy, Erminio's clients included some of the most iconic Italian brands: Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Ariston and Indesit. In Asia and Australia, Erminio has consulted for, among others, L’Oréal, Coca-Cola, General Motors and MasterCard. Erminio has also worked as a lecturer and researcher with the Istituto Europeo di Design and the Bocconi University in Milan, his alma mater, where he graduated in business administration.
Anab is a London-based designer and filmmaker, with a MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art, and first degrees in Communication Design from the National Institute of Design, India and Academy of Fine Art, Vienna. As a designer and research affiliate at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, she has developed service and product scenarios around emerging technologies ranging from Microbial fuel cells to RFID to see how they may become embedded in our everyday lives.
Anab’s work has received international awards including the UNESCO Digital Arts Award, Design for our Future Selves Award and Award of Excellence, ICSID and DuPont Inc. She has presented her work at Apple Computers Inc., Cupertino, Intel Research, Berkeley, Mattel Toys Headquarters, Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London.
Anab has worked for clients such as the InnovationRCA, Design Council, Colebrook Bosson Saunders, MRM Worldwide and Live|Work and is currently in the process of setting up her own design practice in London and India.
Some of her work can be seen at: www.anab.in
Lisa is a Lecturer in Graphic Design and the Unit Chair of the Graphic Design discipline at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design at Florida Southern College in Lakeland FL, USA in 2000 and subsequently worked in the advertising industry in the US before commencing a Masters in Design Studies at The University of the Arts London, Central St. Martin’s College in 2001. Lisa’s research during her MA was focused on cross-cultural branding strategies of large retail groups in the UK. On finishing her studies, Lisa continued working in the advertising and design industry in London from 2002-2003, specializing in branding and visual identity.
In 2003 she accepted a Graphic Design lecturer position at Raffles Design Institute in Shanghai, China. During her experience in China, Lisa was especially intrigued by the presence of western fashion advertising and its affect on the youth of Shanghai. Lisa has just recently completed a PhD entitled ‘Western Fashion Advertising in Mainland Urban China and its effects on the Self Image of Youth’ at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Australia in March 2008. Her research goal is to stimulate the creation of culturally sensitive visual communications in a world that is becoming increasingly over-run by the mass visual language of globalization. She has presented her research concepts at the ‘China East Asia Media-New Media’ conference at Queensland University of Technology and the Chinese Studies Association of Australia Bi-annual conference last year.
As a photographer, I worked freelance for many years in magazines, news and design. I now work mainly on my own concept based artwork, seen in galleries in London and China, and private collections in Europe, China and the U.S. This work is based entirely on ideas of how we see, view and use photography, sound and video as a tool in post-modern communication.
For the past 5 years I have been working in Shanghai, PRChina, for Raffles Design Institute, through Middlesex University London and Northumbria University Newcastle as degree programme leader for graphics, multimedia and photography. In video; I worked on a number of pieces: including one on London, that looked at the nature of one city by photographing another, in this case Shanghai, images from this were used by the Multimedia artists, D-Fuse in their China collection. (www.dfuse.com). In London and Shanghai I lectured on the use of the photographic image in design; showing how this is a powerful communication tool, alongside text and other graphic techniques.
At present I am working on a practice based PhD, which combines sound/music and the still photographic image. This involves collaborative work with sound artists, musicians and sonic performers. The focus of the research is looking at sound and image as a unified fused force. This research is on the cutting edge of both disciplines, developing new theories into both practices that will widen our understanding in aural and visual art.
Having been fortunate to work with designers: I have witnessed how design can be used as a creative force. Communicating, at times, difficult and complex concepts, into reasoned and direct information to a wide variety of audiences.
I am delighted to be asked to join the C8 team: it is very exciting to work with students, from such diverse and interesting cultures. And to help students: in bringing fresh ideas together, to produce exciting outcomes.
Angela Chang has researched & designed workshops for some of Australia’s pre-eminent projects with China as well as provided China business consultancies or in house workshops to valued clients, Angela has also presented at, or provided highly interactive public workshops for The China International Mining Group of Austcham, Beijing, The Royal Australian Institute of Architects NSW & Victorian Chapters, Australian Tourism Export Council, The University of Sydney’s Research Institute of Asia and the Pacific, Sydney Mining Club, Keymedia, Legalwise, THC Conferences, the Australian Chamber of Manufactures and International Association of Business Communicators.
Angela was the lecturer, on International Business Negotiations–China in the Masters of Commerce program at the University of NSW in Sydney in 2004. She was also recently part of a team working on the Business Communication, Practice and Ethics course in the Masters of Commerce program at UNSW.
Before starting Angela Chang Consulting 12 years ago, Angela was a management and adult educator, working for the NSW Government in communication and culture projects as well as in English as a second language (ESL) training. This included 6 years in organizational or staff development projects, in NSW workplaces.
Angela is the great grand daughter of Kang You Wei scholar and reformer who instigated what is famously known as the ’100 days of reform’ towards the end of the Qing dynasty. Her grandmother Kang Tong Wei was Kang You Wei’s first born child.
Angela was born and educated in Australia. She has a Master of Arts from the Faculty of Adult Education University of Technology Sydney. She has been visiting China regularly since 1979. She has lived in Shanghai and was a ‘foreign expert’ at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 1991 & 1993, teaching English business communication. She now regularly visits China’s eastern sea board cities on assignments, for ongoing research and to maintain her established friendships & networks. She is Mandarin speaking to para-professional interpreter level. Angela also speaks French.
Simon McIntyre is the Online Course Coordinator (Postgraduate) at the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has co-operatively pioneered learning and teaching approaches for fully online art and design education since 2003, and has helped establish an internationally recognised quality online learning reputation for the Faculty’s online learning and teaching unit, COFA Online.
Simon has since drawn together educators, researchers, and creative professionals to focus on researching the development and design of sustainable and effective online learning programs through the development the COFA Online Course Author Fellowship Program. The program provides cross-disciplinary staff training and support in curriculum development and teaching approaches specifically for the online environment, and has resulted in an 92% rate of student satisfaction with online teaching, and a 91% rate of student satisfaction with COFA Online course design in 2007 (Results from 2007 COFA Online course evaluations). COFA Online runs up to thirty fully online courses in a wide variety of art and design disciplines. For a full list of available courses, please see the COFA Online website.
Simon’s research has culminated in the co-development and supervision of an international, fully online
Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design program for COFA.
In 1995, Andy Polaine co-founded the award-winning new-media collective Antirom in London and worked with clients such as the BBC, Levis Strauss and Co. and The Science Museum as well exhibiting several interactive installations and performances around the world.
Andy was also a producer at dotcom giant, Razorfish, in the UK before moving to Australia where he started the interactive department of visual effects company, Animal Logic. He was a Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media at the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, and formerly the Head of the School of Media Arts. His doctoral research examines the underlying language of interactivity through play theory.
Now living in Germany, Andy has been a Guest Professor at the Bauhaus University and continues to work as a lecturer (both online and face-to-face), interaction designer and writer. As part of his work with the Omnium Research Group at UNSW, he co-convened an online community called The Omnium Creative Network that focuses on social awareness and ethics in creative industries. He has published over 150 articles and papers and regularly speaks at a range of conferences and institutions.
His blog can be found at: http://www.polaine.com/playpen
In her six years as a designer Amelia has worked with clients ranging from retail and FMCG industries, to technology, finance, and hospitality. Some of her better known clients have included Hilton, Maersk, Nokia, Motorola, JVC, ICBC and Pernod Ricard. Her ability to speak English, Mandarin and Indonesian is a key factor distinguishing her as a designer who can seamlessly pull together Western and Eastern design aesthetics. Prior to joining The Brand Union Shanghai, Amelia was the head of the creative team of a design agency based in Beijing. In 2007 she led that design team in creating and developing signage systems for a 1.2 million sqm shopping–entertainment complex near Beijing for the Berjaya Group. Her specialties also include corporate identity design and publication design.
Amelie graduated with a BA (Hons) in Visual Communication from Middlesex University UK. She has also spent several years as the Programme Coordinator & Lecturer for Visual Communications at Raffles Design Institute Beijing. She is a keen believer of design process that combines beautifully with good music, books, and coffee.
Alex is an industrial and interaction designer. She attended the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea after a B.A. in Industrial Design from the Université de Montréal. She has been involved in projects for clients such as Nokia, Motorola, Droog design, Thinglink, Jaiku, Blast Radius and Blyk. Interested in the next generation of technology-aided product design she is the co-founder and CEO of technology and design consultancy Tinker.it, based in Milan and London.
ZhaoWei is an Assistant Teacher in the Visual Communication Design Department at the College of Fashion Art and Design at Dong Hua University, Shanghai, China. She holds a Masters and a Bachelor's Degree from the College of Fashion Art and Design at Dong Hua and in 2006 made a presentation titled "Analysis & Comparison of Art & Design Foundation Education Between The Eastern And Western" at The Teachers’ Symposium held at Donghua University.
Kawing is a student completing his Bachelor of Design degree with Honours at the College of Fine Arts, the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is originally from Hong Kong and has been residing in Sydney for the past 5 years.
Having to experience two different cultures has allowed Kawing to question what a designer should consider in terms of cross-cultural visual communication design. Most recently, he has finished his honours research paper with a focus on "bilingual typographic" design with both Chinese and English, by making investigations into Swiss typography as well as the under-developed Chinese typography.
Kawing majored in Graphics, Jewellery & Object Designs when he undertook the multi-disciplinary design course at COFA. He is aiming to develop his professional practice in Australia with a strong focus on typographic design.
