Nathan McDonald

Communication Design (Honours)

I’m an adventurous, constantly moving, challenge seeking, graphic designer. I pride myself as always being keen to learn and try new things and constantly look for new experiences and opportunities to expand my understanding of the world.

This constant desire to try new things has led me to surround myself with a diverse range of activities, interests, clubs, and people. I’m an optimistic person who loves to do anything and everything.

I see design as a means of life that fits me perfectly, always learning, developing, and growing to try and be better.

VSRG Report

With the client Vehicle Safety Research Group, I had to create a visually pleasing and highly legible report which organises large amounts of data into simple tables. This was used for the 2024 report.

VSRG Branding

For the same client, Vehicle Safety Research Group, I had to create new branding to use for one of their subsidiary companies.

Album Cover

Given complete freedom to work on a project of our choice. I used the experience to explore one of my favourite albums at the time, JPEGMafia.

My goal was to redesign the album cover and create a new set of collectibles for the album. I aimed to play on his current style and create pieces of work that match his aesthetic but follow a different approach.

Crémé

Unilever required a ‘fresh brand’ and dessert product range which directly competes with brands similar to Sarah Lea and Peters. They aim to produce a middle-class luxury line which classes itself as an ‘upper tier consumer brand’.

Crémé was created to provide a higher quality range of goods while still maintaining affordablity and a supermarket-based scope. This task required us to do food photography, creating and photographing fake ice-cream.

The Myth of Sisyphus

ISTD is a final major project for the honours course. Lasting a year, and
using an external grading criteria, this project is highly regarded and
used by many universities across the globe.

I pursued this project using the brief ‘Line’, which explores typographic
design and the concept of a line. I approached this brief using my
interest in philosophy, specifically in ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’.

The 'line' represents the life of Sisyphus, constantly pushing a boulder up the mountain, for it to roll back down.

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.