Leo Botvinik

My name is Leo, and I am a Communication Designer with a passion for telling stories in full colour. My ultimate goals are to create visually unique, emotional, and engaging designs that leave a lasting impact, simultaneously considering the fine balance between charisma and clarity within design.

As a bachelor’s degree student in Communication Design at the University of Swinburne, I feel confident that my work throughout my studies has left me with a strong, multidisciplinary foundation that will allow my future projects to contain a memorable and lasting impact.

Constantly growing, observing, and adapting, I want my works to express a sense of purpose, constructed upon the basis of a human-centred design approach.

With a love for the vivid and colourful, I find myself drawn to the idea of bringing a sense of life into any and all designs, giving each project its own distinct personality and individualism that truly brings its design to life.

TIDAL

TIDAL is a project that takes on the existing music streaming platform of the same name, and presents it in a new light, attempting to expand the platforms user base and ultimately amplify its impact on the world of music streaming.

'Virtually Nothing'

Virtually Nothing is a project that takes inspiration from the existing paper, Virtually Nothing: re-evaluating the significance of cyberspace by Andy Miah, set on expressing the eery nature of cyberspaces, their morality, and the effect they have on society.

Seasoned Traveller

Seasoned Traveller is a vibrant and graphic oriented website design for a fictional food festival, set to take place in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market. Bringing an uplifting atmosphere, this website hopes to encourage visitors to try new foods and soak in the diverse cultures of Melbourne.

Kidult Krunch

Kidult Krunch features the creation of three product variations for the same, fictional brand. Bringing a new take to the concept of cereal flavours for adults, K.K's considers an often overlooked target audience, reintroducing childlike flavours to adulthood.

April Greiman

Inspired by influential works of Graphic Designer, April Greiman, this brochure details the creation of her pivotal works that ultimately transformed the world of design. The stylistic choices throughout this project pay homage to Greiman's signature style, leading to the formation of a vibrant and lively final outcome.

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.