Rhodesia Saykao

Communication Design (Honours)

Rhodesia Saykao is an energetic designer from Melbourne who loves a challenge. Her strengths: strategy based designs, endless enthusiasm and long romantic walks with her dog. She will be finishing her Bachelor of Design, Communication Design (Honours) this year at Swinburne University of Technology. Rhodesia is currently working as a Junior Designer at Davidson Branding studio, where she completed her year of Industry Placement. Rhodesia has worked with well known brands such as the Formula 1, The Snowdome Foundation and Yumi's.

In her second year of university, Rhodesia completed a semester abroad in Paris, France at ESAG Penninghen. It was here that she developed a more rounded, global perspective to her design process, all while practicing and refining her French speaking skills. At the start of 2020, she also attended The Design Kid's 'Designer's Bootcamp' in Jaipur, India. The trip was led by Frankie Ratford and focused on personal development, self-branding and folio refinement.

Rhodesia loves people and loves to help others where she can, enjoying volunteering on school trips and national programs around Australia for the last six years. Her graduate folio showcases projects centred around people; who they are, encouraging behavioural changes, meeting what their needs are and creating memorable experiences for them.

Conceptual Honours Project, Erebos: Experience the Unseen

ISTD: The Tin Boat

Formula 1 Grand Prix, Grid Festival

Abes Wayfinding System

What's Your High Score Road Safety Campaign

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.