Victorian Premier’s Design Awards 2027

Professor N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs AM is a highly respected Boonwurrung Elder, cultural leader, and spatial design collaborator. Her practice merges Indigenous knowledge systems, language reclamation, and spatial storytelling to advance both cultural revitalisation and contemporary design discourse. Her design achievements include co-leading public installations such as Ngargee Djeembana and shaping frameworks within the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab at Monash University, where she guides cross-disciplinary projects that reframe design through Country and community. Her professional activity spans decades of advocacy, education, and advisory roles, including as founder of the Boonwurrung Foundation. Carolyn has made an altruistic contribution by mentoring Indigenous youth, preserving oral histories, and advocating for the rightful place of First Nations knowledge in Australian culture. She has received national and international recognition, including being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. She is Elder Advisor Yiiramboi and Elder Advisor to Ilbijerri theatre and City of Melbourne Chair of public art. She designed the Masters of Architecture in First peoples ways of knowing and being at RMIT for international students and non-indigenous students.

Georgie Cleary is a Melbourne-based designer, creative director and co-founder of ALPHA60, which she established with her brother Alex in 2005. With a background in graphic design and a strong appreciation for art, film and contemporary culture, Georgie’s creative practice is driven by curiosity, experimentation and an unconventional approach to design. Her passion for contemporary art has led to collaborations with artists including Patricia Piccinini, Brendan Huntley, Mikala Dwyer and Kate Rohde, exploring the space between fashion and art through unexpected materials, forms and creative exchanges.

Paul Charlwood is an influential industrial designer based in Melbourne, recognised for his substantial contributions to design practice, education, and advocacy in Australia. He established Charlwood Design in 1993 and has since developed a reputation for innovative, sustainable yet elegant design solutions for consumer, and capital applications. Charlwood has been recognised with Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, numerous local and international design awards, as well as being admitted to the Australian Manufacturing Hall of Fame. Charlwood developed the Queen’s Baton for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, celebrated for its distinctive form and integrated technology. Charlwood’s work has been exhibited internationally, including in the Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Triennial: Why Design Now? and locally at the Powerhouse Museum and in the NGV’s Melbourne Design Now exhibition in 2013. Paul has served as State President and Director of the Design Institute of Australia and was inducted into the DIA Hall of Fame in 2026. Paul is also the founder of the best‑selling Melbourne Design Guide, a 350‑page compendium of local design culture.

Celina Clarke FDIA is a distinguished Australian industrial designer and a prominent leader in the contemporary lighting sector. In 1990, alongside co-founder Simon Christopher, she established ISM Objects in Melbourne, focusing on locally manufactured, high-quality lighting and architectural components. Over more than three decades of practice, Clarke has garnered global acclaim for her innovative and sustainable design solutions. Her iconic work, including the celebrated Madame Ruby lamp crafted from post-industrial waste, is represented in major cultural institutions such as MoMA New York, the NGV, and the Powerhouse Museum. Beyond her studio practice, Clarke is a fierce advocate for the creative industry. She served as the Chair of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards from 2016 to 2023. Her immense contributions to Australian design were officially celebrated with her induction into the Design Institute of Australia’s Hall of Fame.

Dhiren Das is director of Relative Systems, a dynamic collective focused on regenerative design across precinct strategy, human scale environments, design systems and circular materials at scale. Dhiren consults on major urban, mixed-use neighbourhoods and public infrastructure projects, joining forces with industry leaders to connect thinking across disciplines. Dhiren also collaborates with development teams and construction supply chains to enable industrial design, circular materials, reuse and whole-of-lifecycle thinking within complex projects. He is dedicated to shifting the way urban environments are imagined, built, experienced and re-made – towards realising future-focused environments that accelerate systems change.

Mary Featherston AM is an Australian interior designer specialising in design of learning environments. The focus of her research and practice is the relationship between young people, learning theory and the design of supportive physical environments in cultural venues and schools. She has collaborated with leading Australian and international educators, architects and policy makers to develop participatory processes and innovative physical environments. Her work has been widely awarded and published. As an activist Mary helped to develop new services for families and children: Community Child Care & Community schools in 1970s, Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange 1994. In 1982 Mary successfully campaigned for establishment of Australia’s first Children’s Museum in Museum Victoria. Mary is an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, in 2020 she was made a member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the arts, particularly to interior and industrial design.

Jefa Greenaway is a founding Director of Greenaway Architects (est. 1998), an Adjunct Industry Fellow at Swinburne University, an Honorary Fellow of Design at Deakin University and is a registered architect in Victoria and NSW. He was a 2020 DIA ‘Hall of Fame’ inductee, signifying an outstanding contribution to Australian design. In addition, he was named in the ‘Qantas 100 Inspiring Australians’ and received the 2023 INDE.Award special prize ‘the Luminary’ recognising an individual whose entire portfolio represents a lifetime of design finesse and distinction. Further, Jefa was recently honoured for his pioneering efforts in Country-centred architecture, education and advocacy, becoming a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. Jefa was a co-author of the award winning International Indigenous Design Charter and sits on design juries spanning landscape architecture, placemaking, art and architecture.

Joining the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in 2012, Ewan McEoin is the inaugural Senior Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture. From 2021 to 2026 he was also Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the NGV. Ewan has been a lead curator of Melbourne Design Week for ten editions of the festival from 2016–2027. He has been a lead curator on four editions of the NGV Triennial (2017, 2020, 2023 and 2026) and has curated various group and solo exhibitions and major projects in his time at the NGV. Prior to joining the NGV Ewan spent two decades in design and architecture editing, writing, curating, strategy and publishing, he was long-standing editor of (inside) Australia Design Review, and co-editor and publisher of the Melbourne and Sydney Design Guides. Ewan was inaugural Creative Director of the Victorian State of Design Festival (2008, 2009) and Unlimited: The Asia Pacific Design Triennial in Brisbane (2010). Ewan is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, an adjunct professor of design at RMIT University and a member of the board of the Robin Boyd Foundation.

Tamsin O’Neill is co-founder of niche publisher Green Press and editor of green magazine, which was launched in 2007. green magazine is devoted to the best in Australian and international design, architecture and landscape architecture, with a strong emphasis on innovative, low carbon materials and solar passive design. green magazine is distributed in print throughout Australia and is complemented by a strong digital platform. Tamsin regularly speaks on issues relating to architecture and sustainability, including at Architecture Week, Sydney Design Week and at the Queensland State Library Think Outside series. Tamsin has moderated programs at MPavilion, Melbourne Design Week, Decor and Design, DesignBUILD, DENFAIR, the Green Design Show among others. Tamsin was a member of the shortlisting committee for the Land Art Generator international design competition and has been on the judging panel for the Tasmanian Design Awards and for the Victorian Design Challenge at the NGV. Over the past decade Tamsin has also curated a series of exhibitions and produced videos highlighting the work of local architects on topics including urban design, architecture and density.

Kerstin is the Founding Principal and Design Director on all projects undertaken by KTA, supported by a dedicated and skilled team. Her design excellence, project success and strategic thinking has been recognised through a raft of architectural awards at state, national and international levels. In recognition of her work and contribution to the profession and tertiary education, Kerstin was elevated to Life Fellow by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2017. In 2022, she was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in 2023, she was awarded the Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour, and in 2025, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Michaela Webb is the Creative Director and co-founder of Studio Round. After years in both high-craft and highly strategic design studios, Michaela saw an opportunity for a place that brings the two together – resulting in her co-founding Round. She still believes this coalescence of strategy and considered design drives results and delivers work with the strongest impact.

With over 25 years’ experience, Michaela has worked for some of the world’s leading brand and design companies, including Wolff Olins and Spin in London, and in 2016 was elected as a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Over the decades, she has been able to creatively direct a wealth of projects into much-loved destinations. Her knowledge of creating brands that understand consumer needs – aligning storytelling, identity and experience design, has resulted in valuable cultural and commercial outcomes. Michaela is committed to ensuring that design is part of the conversation across multiple industries, and clients from sectors such as lifestyle and hospitality, arts and culture, retail, and beyond draw on her expertise. She currently sits on boards for Melbourne Art Foundation and RMIT Design Advisory.