Lachlan Stutt

Hello, I’m Lochi.

I’m a communication designer who loves ambitious ideas, hands-on making and working with scale. My favourite projects are the ones that push boundaries, whether that’s a 2.5-metre-tall tower or the world’s biggest copy of 'The Old Man and the Sea'.

I’m drawn to the physical side of design and approach projects through constant prototyping and experimentation. I believe that design becomes more meaningful when it moves beyond the screen, when you can hold it, feel it and connect with it.

My practice is built on ambition, experimentation and a drive to create work that stands out. I get excited by projects that take risks, challenge expectations and invite people to interact. I set high standards for myself and my competitive nature keeps me motivated to meet them.

Now that I’ve finished my time at Swinburne, I’m excited to return to The Key Branding, where I completed a 12-month internship, and continue developing bold, innovative and engaging designs that capture attention and leave an impression.

ISTD – The Old Man and the Sea

In response to one of ISTD's briefs, I designed a special edition of Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea', celebrating the qualities of printed media while layering belligerent, critical commentary for the 21st-century reader.

Carbon Literacy Training – How Big's Yours?

In this group project, The Carbon Literacy Project tasked us with creating a campaign to engage students and raise awareness about their carbon footprints. Recognising the challenge of capturing young audiences' attention, our group chose to connect through humour, building the campaign around a tongue-in-cheek concept centred on a penis joke.

Design-Led Innovation Exegesis – Scale

Through research-led practice and practice-led research, incorporating prototyping, experimentation and critical reflection, I explored the impact of scale in communication design, presenting my findings with a set of large, overlapping posters.

Green's Jumbl'd – Dynamic Hero

Green’s were releasing a new range of products called Jumbl’d and commissioned The Key Branding to develop the concepts. The direction I took built on the product's combinations, linking them to an explosion of flavour that maximises taste appeal, balanced by a brand-led design featuring understated yet playful typography.

IcyPole Refresh – Jump In, Chill Out

At The Key Branding, I worked on a concept for IcyPole's brand refresh, pushing a restrictive brief through funky, bouncy fruit illustrations and an eye-catching, grainy texture while maintaining a clear hierarchy and use of DBAs.

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.