Lily Buckmaster

Lily Buckmaster is a Visual Communication Design student, where she explores creative storytelling through design, illustration, branding and photography.

Lily works to develop designs that connect with people, combining creativity with purpose. She believes that great design goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about communication, empathy, and creating meaningful experiences.

Through her studies at Swinburne University of Technology, Lily has honed her skills in visual design, branding, and creative strategy.

Outside of university, Lily works as a nanny for four boys, an experience that constantly reminds her of the value of curiosity, play, and patience. These qualities being integral in her creative work. Lily values creativity, empathy, and lifelong learning, and she’s passionate about helping others explore the world through imaginative and hands-on experiences. When she’s not creating or studying, Lily’s bringing creativity to life through play, whether that’s crafting with little hands or turning everyday moments into art.

Hey Batter Batter

The client, a small pastry chef business, required a complete brand refresh that reflected their personality while remaining practical and low-maintenance. The goal was to create a cohesive visual identity that could be easily applied across various touchpoints without ongoing design support.

Groovy Granny Festival

The project involved creating a concept for the Groovy Granny Festival.
It is a vibrant, tongue-in-cheek event celebrating bold and stylish Melbourne grannies. Set in the Carlton gardens beside the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and sponsored by Endota Spa, Chemist Warehouse, and more, the festival featured live jazz music, playful cocktails, and interactive activities like a “Bedazzle Station” for decorating walking sticks and accessories.

Table Manners

The project began as a photography series inspired by Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Stork, exploring themes of childhood, empathy, and the importance of table manners. It evolved into a playful concept centred around nostalgia and childlike fun, later developed into a children’s play that offered lessons for both kids and parents about embracing life’s messiness.

The Play Project

The client, an educational play program, required a full brand development that captured the spirit of creativity, learning, and community connection. The goal was to design a cohesive visual identity that felt playful yet educational, and could be applied seamlessly across both physical and digital spaces.

Jazz Album - Concept Artwork

This project explored experimental image-making for a jazz concept album, aiming to translate the emotion and rhythm of the music into expressive visual form. The process focused on texture, layering, and abstraction to capture the improvisational energy of jazz.

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.