Stephen Minning of BrandCulture (Sydney) leads a team of eight acclaimed multidisciplinary designers.
WASHINGTON, DC – Stephen Minning,founder and managing director of one of Australia’s leading design and brand studios, will serve as Chair of the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards jury. He’ll lead a panel of eight other acclaimed designers representing a wide range of disciplines, from interactive experience design to architecture and wayfinding.
Minning founded BrandCulturein 2003, and since then the Sydney-based firm has worked with a broad range of blue-chip companies and public-sector organizations on branding, experience design and wayfinding projects. The multiple award-winning firm has partnered with leading architects, developers and interior designers on work for clients including the University of Technology Sydney,Coca-Cola, Verizon Business, Telstra, Qantas and the Australian Government.
Minning has led his company integrating digital technology into client projects, and says Experiential Graphic Design should embrace the “disruption” that technology brings to wayfinding and other core practice areas.
“New technologies are allowing people to access information previously only existing in print,” says Minning. “Journeys and experiences can now be enhanced with real-time information on mobile devices, beacon technologies are making contextual messaging possible, and technologies such as Near Field Communication and QR codes promote easy access to information and enhance accessibility for people with visual impairments.”
“The world is wide open for designers, who should be leading the charge to create true user-centered experiences.”
Since 1987, the SEGD Global Design Awardshave honored Experiential Graphic Design work that connects people to place by providing direction, content and compelling user experiences in the places where they work, play, learn, travel, shop and connect. It is the most highly regarded international design competition for experiential design in the built environment.
Minning will lead a multidisciplinary jury representing digital experience design, architecture and graphic design, design education, environmental graphic design and brand strategy.
“Experiential graphic design continues to be enriched by digital technology and that won’t change,” notes Minning. “But beyond that, it should always be guided by Design Thinking and solid principles of design for user experiences. We’ve gathered a jury that, through its exposure to many disciplines of design, will ensure these principles are represented in the winning work.”
In addition to Minning, the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards jury includes eight talented and innovative designers leading their fields in user experience design, architecture and digital experience design:
• Lonny Israel,Associate Director of Branding, Identity and Graphic Design for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (San Francisco)
• Marcia Lausen,Director of the School of Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and founder of the Chicago office of Studio/lab
• Eric LeVine,Brand Design Director at Gensler (Seattle)
• Paul McConnell,Director of Design at customer experience innovation firm Intersection (New York)
• Despina Macris,Co-founder and Managing Director of Dotdash, an interdisciplinary design studio focused on wayfinding strategy (Brisbane)
• Anna Sharp,Creative Director at public information design firm Two Twelve (New York)
• Traci Sym,Experience Design Director at Skylab Architecture (Portland, Ore.)
• Mike Garzarelli,Associate Designer at Comcast (Philadelphia) and 2015 student winner in the SEGD Global Design Awards program
The jury will evaluate projects in seven categories that represent the core of Experiential Graphic Design: Digital Experience Content, Exhibition, Interactive Experiences, Placemaking and Identity, Public Installations, Strategy/Research/Planning and Wayfinding.
Past winners in the SEGD Global Design Awards have ranged from media-rich interactive installations (including the environmental mediascape at LAX airport and interactive exhibits at the Eldheimar Volcano Museum in Iceland) to contemplative public art, complex wayfinding systems, retail environments, museum exhibitions, branded environments, design research and architectural signage.
Entries to the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards are due January 31, 2016, through SEGD’s online entry system.Winners will be honored during the 2016 SEGD Conference in Seattle June 9-11, 2016, and through SEGD media channels including www.SEGD.org and its Design Awards Annual (in print), with supporting social media. Submission guidelines can be downloaded from the SEGD website.To see the caliber of previous Design Award winners, take a look at SEGD’s extensive awards gallery online.
The 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards are sponsored by 3M.
About SEGD
Founded in 1973, SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design) is the global community of professionals who create experiences that connect people to place. Through educational programs, research, and publications, SEGD’s mission is to provide learning opportunities and resources for professionals involved in EGD, promote the importance of the discipline in establishing place, and continue to refine standards of practice for the field.
