Dorothea Chen

Communication Design

As a communication design student in my final semester, I've built strong foundations in packaging, publication design, and branding. My academic path has been driven by an interest in blending creativity with strategic problem-solving to create compelling and important designs. Throughout my studies, I've had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects ranging from corporate branding to interactive web design, allowing me to apply theoretical concepts in real-world settings.

My prior internship with an FMCG company's design department helped me improve my ability to connect effectively with customers, grasp their vision, and provide creative solutions that are consistent with their brand identity. As I prepare to enter the workforce, I am eager to pursue new possibilities where I can use my design skills in projects that demand a combination of creativity and practicality. My ambition is to continue growing as a designer, keeping up with the newest trends and technology, and using design as a tool for successful communication in our visually driven world.

Max Co

My capstone project. I branded Max Co as a chocolate dessert bar. From designing a logo to the final stage of the project, I've put a lot of effort into it. I love the visualization of the pop-up truck. Branding this brand aims to increase its popularity and rebrand it into a strong and memorable brand identity. A chocolate bar café for a cozy, home-feeling, and Instagram-friendly stop for every one.

Yusaku Kamekura

This project requires the design of a six-panel brochure that constructs a story around and displays the key aspects of a designer's work to appeal to a contemporary design-aware audience.

Eat That Chips

These three boxes introduce pre-press techniques common to many print-based design projects. It creatively explores aspects of identity and communication and the communication and specification of production requirement pre-press techniques common to many print-based design projects.

Ultra Australia

This project is to design a printed multipage guidebook for the music festival. It aims to explore and experiment with typographical form as a primary communication device. The innovative use of visuals and information has been used in the guidebook for map design and other parts of the guidebook.

Annual Report (S.L.V)

State Library Victoria has a yearly annual report. Hence, this project is to create a distinctive, impactful, and innovative publication that effectively communicates the organization's core ideas and values through visual narrative while engaging its audience through its original approach to image-making and layout.

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.