Thomas Horrigan

Communication Design (Honours)

Hi, I’m Thomas, a Swinburne communication designer of five years who studied in the Bachelor of Communication Design and transitioned into honours. What got me into communication design was the desire to better connect with people through creative expression.

I’ve always been fascinated by art and design–I enjoy challenging myself to discover and adopt new creative outlets. Whether analogue or digital, I get deep satisfaction from the creative process.

I’m a generalist at heart always eager to take on different creative tasks–I want to evolve with my practice. However, I particularly love working with photography and typography. I'm eager to build my career around them. I never settle for passable in my work, priding myself on never approaching any task the same way.

Through Swinburne's in-house design group, The Bureau, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work professionally with clients on a host of projects including brands, websites, events and publications. Beyond wanting to gain more practical experience in design, I want to remain academically involved with design. I firmly believe that practical and conceptual understandings go hand-in-hand in informing solutions to creative challenges. As I continue to expand my capabilities over my design journey, I hope to never lose sight of what makes design fun.

Little Landscapes

An annual magazine series exploring everyday surrounding through macro photography. Through this project, I’ve not undertaken anything new, but rather transformed something I was already doing into something personal to my identity as a designer.

The Line

The Line targets readers with a fascination for modern art and design, providing an immersive journey through the diverging ideas on linearity of Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Henri Poincaré. Drawing on modernist design, the book presents a three-way dialogue between the ideas of Kandinsky, Malevich and Poincaré.

Anaglyph Style Exploration

A self directed exploration of anaglyph visual styles through a series of nature themed posters.

Crémé

A series of a FMCG dessert designs contextualising the strict deadlines and rapid turnover of industry—undertaking disciplines of food styling and photographic art direction to produce a professional standard of work.

Land of Discovery – National Museum of Australia Discovery Centre

An exhibition design aimed at expressing the significance of storytelling in shaping our connection to land, culture and people through environmental storytelling and hands-on activities.

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.