Renee Chung

Hi I'm Renee Chung, a double degree graduate in media communications (advertising) and design (communication design).

I have involved myself in many aspects of uni life throughout my five years at Swinburne, helping run the Swinburne Design Collective student club for four years, running events such as design industry nights and the 2019 GradX event, being involved in competitions like EACA's AdVenture Competition and undertaking a professional placement for a year at Swinburne's in-house studio, The Bureau.

I first came to Swinburne enrolled in motion design (I wanted to work on movies). However, I fell in love with strategic communication, changed design majors and decided my future was in creative advertising instead. My designs reflect my love for advertising and promotion as they're often bright, strategically thought out, loud and colourful. (I love rainbows!)

I love telling stories throughout my designs - that part of my media background will never go away. The two leading principles that shape my design thinking and communication are form follows function and the medium is the message. The thing that links them both? Empathy for the user and the context the design is seen or used in. And storytelling is just understanding journeys.

Design philosophy aside, I also have interests in biomimicry, sustainability, communication for behavioural change, nature photography and diverse cultures (including ancient cultures).

I have experience leading creative teams through ideation and development processes, bringing strategic communication and design together.

My goals after graduating are to apply for AWARD school in February 2021 and to eventually become an art director, then creative director.

More Than Honey Awareness Campaign

Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature Publication Design

Days Like This Perfume Packaging Design

2019 Advertising Capstone Challenge poster

Play and Grow - See Toys Differently campaign AdVenture 2019

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.