The DIA’s Australasian Graduate of the Year Awards (AGOTYA) is a keenly sought after, portfolio-based awards program for final year design students and recent design graduates in Australia and New Zealand.
The program is now in its second year, with this year’s winning entries exhibited as part of designEX 2013 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
All AGOTYA entrants are selected by their design institutions and submit three portfolio design concepts and a statement of design philosophy for judging by DIA-appointed designers. Fifteen tertiary design institutions from Australia and New Zealand submitted entries to this year’s AGOTYA program.
The major overall prize, the AGOTYA ‘Award for Excellence’, was awarded to a textile designer – Lillian Baker (Massey, NZ) – the second consecutive year a textile designer has won the top award.
The judging panel comprised Cameron Bruhn, FDIA Editorial Director at Architecture Media, Geoff Fitzpatrick LFDIA, AGOTYA Judging Panel Chair, and Ian Archibald FDIA, President of The SIDA Foundation. According to the judges, Lillian’s submissions displayed ‘an exceptional level of creativity and the work [was found] to be very accessible and highly relevant for the entrant’s markets’.
‘I strive to let the materials and the process of making tell their own story and for our future to benefit from the small decisions we make every day,’ explained Lillian. She also emphasised that ‘taking time to design with care, giving thought to the future, looking to the environment for inspiration, and making things with my hands and my heart,’ was integral to the development of her work.
‘I’m interested in the materiality of textile process and the interaction between hand, colourant and cloth,’ she explained.
Lillian designed a range of textiles inspired by both the urban landscape and the natural environment, with her work and materials reflecting a social consciousness for her surroundings wherever possible. Lillian won a prize pack of $750 including sponsorship by Artichoke Magazine, a NZ Colourways Forecast Workshop ticket from Colourways and a Dulux Colour Pack.
For more information about the Design Institute of Australia visit www.design.org.au
