Elliot Sando

Elliot Sando is a multidisciplinary designer who builds visual worlds for brands, musicians, and cultural projects. He’s drawn to design's ability to shape the way people understand ideas, blending psychology, storytelling and visual form to shift how we see the world.

He’s worked across branding, publications, album artwork and event identities, often mixing digital photography with raw sketches and experimental typography. His recent projects range from gatefold vinyl packages to festival identities shaped by music, movement, and a healthy amount of late-night sketching.

When he’s not deep in InDesign's menu searching for an obscure setting, Elliot can be found DJing, bike riding, rock climbing, or hunting for the perfect techno track to soundtrack his late night InDesign sessions.

Navigating the Terrain of Feeling Publication

On being affected: feeling in the folding of multiple catastrophies is an article by Andrew Murphie which addresses how contemporary issues such as climate change, social change and a ‘third media revolution’ affect both living and feeling. The article addresses the connectedness as well as the multiplicity of these issues. The goal of this project was to visualise the concept of maintaining a strong connection to nature through times of global turmoil. A muted earthy colour palette was used to evoke a sense of groundedness and introspection.

ClearFlow Trek

ClearFlow Trek is a packaging concept for a water bidon designed for bike-packers exploring remote areas. The water-resistant packaging doubles as a functional filtration system. Once emptied, it can be filled with layers of rocks, sand, and gravel to filter water on the go. The graphic design visually represents this filtration process through layered textures and clear instructional elements.

Rene Wise - Moving Pressure

This hypnotyic techno album layers minimalistic synth grooves with percussive drums. There are no lyrics in the album, however, the message is embedded within the rhythm, repetition and sonic textures, rather than words. With Moving Pressure, Rene Wise suggests that music can shape the spaces and energy around us. This album drags the listener in to an immersive soundscape which serves as a place listeners can inhabit rather than pass through.

Gods of The Jungle Relaunch

This project reimagines Gods of the Jungle for a contemporary young adult audience through a visual identity that explores the tension between nature and technology. The design system contrasts organic and mechanical elements across print and digital touchpoints, including an exposed-binding publication representing natures ability to tie the natural and technological worlds together. The key objective of this project was to reinterpret a classic story with a modern aesthetic that reflects its core theme of coexistence and conflict between natural and artificial worlds.

Dairy Farmers Australia Rebrand

This brief asked us to re imagine the brand and identity of an existing corporation. I choose to do Dairy Farmers Australia as their current branding was very outdated and clunky. What makes a good brand identity isn’t just good looks and appealing graphics but instead visuals extensions of a brands core values. I wanted the design to feel approachable and simple, implementing these philosophies in my rebrand to achieve a timeless result that would not look outdated in a couple years time.

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.