Ciara Croft

Ciara Croft is a recent design graduate with a passion for design that is unique and captivating. Her journey into the world of design began with a curiosity for aesthetics and storytelling. Armed with a passion for creativity, she’s excited to sink her teeth into the design world.

Ciara is not only driven to produce visually captivating designs, but also to guarantee their effective communication, resonance with audiences, and positive impact. She strongly advocates for the integration of sustainability and empathy into all design. 

Enamoured by the design process, she enjoys that each new project presents her the opportunity to expand her horizons, delve into new design realms, and gain insights into different design methodologies. She views her design journey as a colourful tapestry of exploration. She finds inspiration in various art styles, from minimalism to maximalism, and everything in between. This adaptability allows her to mold her style to suit the unique needs of each project.

Her greatest excitements in the design field include publication design, Image-making and typography. She’s positively buzzing about the possibilities of book design. She aspires to further her versatility as a creative professional, with a well-round and diverse skill set. Cooking and reading are her competing loves.

Art Direction and Photography for imagined client ‘Escape Room’

This project encompassed the art direction, photography and design of a print campaign to promote a new wine for imagined client, ‘Escape room.’

The scene was assembled with hand-crafted and acquired objects to resemble an ‘escape room’ scenario. This stylistic treatment aims to position the wine as a whimsical and playful new beverage.

‘Tender Buttons’ by Gertrude Stein Classic Reboot

Gertrude Stein’s experimental book of poetry ‘Tender Buttons’ is inspired by the cubist art movement and is broken into 3 parts; objects, food and rooms. Stein’s wordplay paints a series of vignettes that describe a landscape of disjointed imagery, devoid of narrative.

In this reimagining of the text, the words are divorced from the images, so that the reader might conduce their own meaning from the text, if any at all. Additionally, the size of the items within the containment allow for all the ephemera to be kept in view as the text is experienced.

Tender Buttons indulges in the satisfying way words sound. The use of die-cuts and negative space help the reader to absorb the poetry at a slower pace, and in turn better savor it.

Melbourne’s Best Loved Bookstores Zine

In the age of ebooks, audiobooks and kindles it takes next to no time to access the most popular titles in the literary sphere. While this might be decidedly convenient for the avid reader, the experience presented by these digital products is a far cry from the pleasure of a tangible, fresh off the press, bound and glossy-paged book. This exploration of Melbourne’s best bookstores implores you to revisit this sentiment. The zine presents the historical and current day relevance of 6 Melbourne bookstores and hopes to inspire a continued sense of enthusiasm for print media in an increasingly digital world.

‘Duendes: Folklore’s Sinister Earth Spirits’ Exhibition Posters

Duendes are elusive gnome or dwarf like figures that exist cross-culturally. They are difficult to characterise with certainty, due to huge variations in they way they are described. Curiously, they are not strictly mythical, in fact, Duende lore persists strongly into the present day. This project conceptualises an imagined gallery event held at ACMI, exhibiting interpretive works based on these mythical creatures.

‘Baring Life and Lifestyle in the Non-place’ Publication Design

Baring Life and Lifestyle in the Non-Place by Sarah Sharma argues that current theory on the non-place only considers the topic from the perspective of the consumer/traveler, considering the non-place as an asocial, apolitical or highly politicised place that bypasses locality. According to the author these assessments fail to account for the labor assumed by ‘bare life’ on which capital’s success is built. Sharma suggests that the Non-place shouldn’t be scrutinised under the logic of solely camp or solely spectacle, but rather that the non-place is subject to a unique type of bio-politics, in which the two notions merge. That is, the simultaneous investment and disinvestment of human life.

The publication design for this text by Sarah Sharma seeks to describe with a distinct visual language the authors novel ideas surrounding the ‘non-place’, primarily focusing on the tension and interdependence between bare life, and ‘bare lifestyle’ through image and typography.

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.