Meaghan Sheehan

Communication Design (Honours)

Hi there! I’m Meaghan Sheehan, a recent graduate of Swinburne University, where I completed a Bachelor of Communication Design (Honours) on a Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Scholarship.

Throughout my studies, I gained hands-on experience in both in‑house and studio environments. I worked part-time as an in‑house junior design assistant and also completed a year-long placement at Cordial Creative. These experiences gave me a well‑rounded perspective on the design industry, expanding my creative and technical skill set.

I have a particular passion for publication design, which is reflected in my portfolio of projects. Looking forward, I’m excited to continue building my skills in web design and animation.

Forest Wanderings

Created for ISTD, this book highlights the joys of forest bathing through typography. Illustrations and imagery were combined to create visuals of forests – close-up and from afar.

Reveal. Conceal.

Using text from an essay about expectations to conceal our true emotions in workplaces, I used blue to represent the real emotions and red to conceal these emotions. The blue can be revealed by moving a sheet of red plastic over it.

Greenwashing: A Guide For Designers

This game was part of a greenwashing educational website I created for graphic designers. The game involved designing an advertisement while trying to avoid using greenwashing to promote the product.

Doncaster Hockey Club 50th Anniversary Yearbook

I got the opportunity to work on this book as part of my placement at Cordial Creative. I was involved in the concept development stage and also laid out the majority of pages.

Do It Solo

This risograph-style illustration was created for my publication, Do It Solo. The book featured restaurants and activities around Melbourne, to be visited alone by people wanting to gain confidence to solo travel.

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.