Jordie Gray

My name is Jordie, a graphic designer who genuinely loves what I do, which I'm told is rarer than it should be.

I believe design shouldn't feel like work. At its best, it clears your head of everything else going on in the world and puts a smile on your face. That's the standard I hold my work to, if it doesn't do that for me, it won't do it for anyone else either.

When I'm not designing, I'm in the water. Surfing has shaped how I think about creativity more than any brief ever has. Reading conditions, committing to a wave, knowing when to hold back and when to go all in. That same instinct drives my design process.

During COVID, when most people were baking sourdough or getting paid to play video games, I started my own surfboard brand, 150 Surfboards, and built the whole visual identity from scratch. That project taught me more about brand building than anything else I've done. Since then I've landed real-world experience leading a full rebrand for Cartridge World Australia, one of the country's largest franchise networks, and won a design competition at UrbnSurf Melbourne where my staff hoodie design was voted the best out of 20+ entries. Turns out people who surf for a living have pretty good taste.

I hold a Diploma in Sports Business from La Trobe University and a double Bachelor of Communication Design and Business, majoring in Marketing. Which basically means I can design it and then figure out how to sell it too.

Point Lonsdale Boardriders Club

This PLBC brandmark was part of a a full re-brand for Point Lonsdale Boardriders Club, built from the ground up. The design rationale was to create something that felt authentically local, so being tied to the lighthouse, the break, and the club's 60-year history, while being bold and polished enough to stand alongside our main competitors and the surf industry. Every element, from the merch graphics to the event site signage, was designed to flex across the full range of what the club does: competing, socialising, and celebrating surf culture on the Bellarine.

150 Surfboards

150 Surfboards is a self-initiated brand built around the full process of designing and physically constructing surfboards from scratch. Named after the house where every board was made, the project treated each board as its own design exercise, exploring different visual directions including bold typography, archival photography, and colour-blocked minimalism. The design rationale was rooted in the idea that no two boards should look the same, while still feeling like they belonged to the same brand through the consistent "150" mark and style.

Protect the Protectors

Protect the Protectors is a cause-based campaign created around the harmful impact of shark nets on Australia's east coast marine ecosystems. The design rationale was built on making an environmental issue feel visceral and personal by using stark black-and-white photography, bold typographic messaging, and animal-led storytelling to cut through indifference and prompt action. Every touchpoint was designed to feel like it belonged to a real-world campaign with genuine momentum behind it.

Apex

Apex Premix Cocktails is a self-created premium cocktail brand designed as part of a university packaging brief. The design rationale centred on positioning Apex in the upper end of the premix market. Using a dark, sophisticated palette, consistent brand architecture, and flavour-specific visual cues to create a range that feels cohesive on shelf while giving each variant its own identity.

Pulse

Pulse is a festival branding project built around a the 4-day EDM event held in Split, Croatia. The design rationale was centred on capturing the raw energy of electronic music in print. Using a glitching heartbeat motif, repeating typographic treatment, and a high-contrast black, electric blue, and magenta palette to create a visual identity that feels alive and loud even on a static surface. The system was designed to scale cohesively across a poster, brochure, and piece of merchandise while keeping the brand instantly recognisable across each format.

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.