“Having been the 2019 recipient of the DINZ esteemed Black Pin, it was an honour to be selected as a judge at the 2020 Good Design Awards Australia, for the Women in Design Award.
These awards are one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958. The ‘Women in Design’ award was set up only 2 years ago, created to address the significant imbalance of gender diversity of women in leadership roles in creative industries. As something we have championed in the NZ creative sector for a long time, it was an incredible pleasure to be invited to judge this very new award.
A privilege also to be selected alongside 5 other outstandingly talented women from around the globe, to form the judging panel Thankfully with the use of Zoom, we were able to come together to select the 2020 winner. Organising a suitable and respectable time of the day was no mean feat, as the 5 of us resided in various countries; America, Holland, Australia, Kenya, Australia and New Zealand.
Pre-reading of all the nominations was sent well in advance, so that we could each choose our top 10 shortlisted finalists, for the committee to coordinate.
Thankfully there were some clear standouts and all of the judges quickly aligned to whittle those 10 down to 5.
Women from all design sectors were nominated across Australia. I was blown away with the sectors they all represented; Industrial Design, Architectural Design, Human Centered Design, Social Innovation Design, Furniture Design, Interior Design, Homeware Design, Branding Design, Software Design, Digital Design, Health Sector Design and more.
After rigorous debate we selected the 2020 winner. But unfortunately, as she has not been announced yet, my lips remain sealed … for now! What I can say is we all collectively felt she is a very talented lady, and an impressive disrupter and gamechanger in her own category.
I was grateful to be a part of this judging process and to really see how creativity is making an enormous impact in every aspect of our daily lives. Australia - you have a whole lot of powerful women delivering to your communities on so many creative levels.
You may well be one small step ahead of us here in NZ, but I do know this movement is changing here also.