The Design Institute of Australia (DIA), Australia's peak national body representing Australia’s designers, today released the additional nine out of eighteen jurors invited to judge the Designers Australia Awards 2022. The DIA's awards are the benchmark for Australian design excellence endorsed by Australia's only national industry body representing all the design disciplines. The international and locally renowned jurors Cameron Bruhn, Emma Elizabeth, Adam de Guara, Tuba Kocaturk, Dr Laura Kostanski, Shay McMahon, Abdullah M.I. Syed, and Karen Webster.

With applications for the DIA - Awards program closed, the Institute received 311 record-breaking entries this year for the Designers Australia Awards and its Graduates of the Year Awards program, and judging is soon to commence. Also, as part of the program, Fellowships and Hall of Fame nominations for 2022 are soon to open.

Juror, Tuba Kocaturk, Professor of Integral Design, Deakin University, School of Architecture and Built Environment commented: “The DIA's Designers Awards advocate the widening domain of design and influence of designers by moving away from the traditional concept of a tangible product to a mix of products, services, communication and people, as an integrated approach to creating new solutions and experiences while responding to complexities of life. The awards advocate a new set of categories that differ according to the transformative value and experience created through a transdisciplinary approach to design. Hence, the introduction of—place, use and interact.”

Juror, Karen Webster, Dean and Principal, LCI Melbourne commented: “"Design does not exist in a silo. Great designers surf across disciplines and cross-pollinate ideas, and the Designers Australia Awards represent this. Good design is about the designers' process and outputs—great design considers these with the additional layer of social empathy and providing value to the broader community, now and into the future."

The final list of jurors represents a broad cross-section of the international and local design community and includes:

The jury's primary role is to highlight the value of design thinking and problem solving, designer/s ethics, conduct and capabilities, and their processes.

The Designers Australia Awards recognise the need to identify designers and their design process, and support the breadth of the design disciplines advocated by the DIA (industrial, interior/architecture, service, fashion, graphic, textile, exhibition, furniture and jewellery design). They bring together Australia's broad design community to celebrate ethical, innovative, and impactful design thinking. The three cross-disciplinary categories—place, use, interact—replace traditional categories.

Winners will be announced at simultaneous hybrid celebrations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney on 3 August 2022.

For further information, please visit awards.design.org.au