Experience

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  Architectus

  • Melbourne, Australia

  • Education Environments Strategist

    • Jul 2017 - Present
    • Melbourne, Australia

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  Loop and Socket

  • Design Research and Practice

  • Director

    • Mar 2016 - Present
    • Design Research and Practice

    Loop & Socket provides research-based design strategies for learning environments. The definition of learning environments is very broad including not just the formal learning settings such as schools and universities, but also informal learning settings such as workplaces and zoological gardens.Loop & Socket projects include: developing and facilitating spatial literacy workshops for primary school teachers; collaborating with teachers and families at Clifton Street Children’s Centre to design and build an outdoor learning landscape; and translating Royal Melbourne Zoo’s education brief for the Forest Harvest Learning Space into a functional design brief that the design team could work with.

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  Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

  • Lecturer in Physical Learning Spaces: Effecting pedagogic change in schools

    • Feb 2016 - Jun 2016

    This is a single semester capstone subject taught to Masters of Education and Masters of Teaching students.

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  Swinburne University of Technology

  • Prahran

  • PhD Research Candidate

    • May 2007 - Nov 2015
    • Prahran

    Research supported by an Australian Research Council grant for a Linkage Project entitled The School: designing a dynamic venue for the new knowledge environment.

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  Clifton Street Children’s Centre

  • Northcote

  • Outdoor Play Space Designer

    • Apr 2011 - Dec 2011
    • Northcote

    Design and redevelopment of the main outdoor play space (approximately 450 square meters) at Clifton Street Children’s Centre, a community co-operative in Northcote. This project was an opportunity to put research theories into design practice and includes a covered amphitheatre, a climbing mound, a sunken sandpit, a cottage garden, herb and vegetable planter boxes, a tepee, an undercover stage, a network of paths, a dry creek bed with a hand operated water pump, and a large mud patch.

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  Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology

  • Sessional Tutor & Occasional Guest Lecturer

    • Mar 2001 - Jun 2007

    Face-to-face and online course delivery of an undergraduate subject Design History and Critical Discourse. Working with first-year students in communication design, interior design, industrial design and multi-media design, and third-year students in communication design. Leading tutorial discussion, providing one-to-one consultation, assessing students’ work, and occasional guest lectures.

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  Fishtin Design

  • Fitzroy

  • Designer/Director

    • Jan 2001 - Jun 2007
    • Fitzroy

    Set and Costume commissions include:Ten theatre productions staged by Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Riverina Theatre Company, Theatre @ Risk and Black Bird Productions, four smaller productions staged at Chapel off Chapel in Prahran, La Mama in Carlton, 45 Downstairs and the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, and the Warf 2 in Sydney, and the Heroes float for the 2003 Moomba Water Festival Parade Model-making commissions include scale models of:The flying tram and opening ceremony stage for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Gamesand the Melbourne Town Hall organ commissioned by the City of Melbourne, currently on display in the Melbourne Town HallCommunication Design commissions include:Design and creation of characters and graphic assets for online digital animations M-Ville and Who Gave Fifi the Box? for Austereo Media & Entertainment Company, and Toby Danger PI for Old Bull Productions and Film Victoria

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  School of Applied Communication, RMIT University

  • Melbourne

  • Lecturer

    • Feb 2004 - Oct 2006
    • Melbourne

    Online delivery of two Masters of Design subjects Fundamentals in Communication Design and Language of Design Communication working with students from around the world leading, web-board discussions and assessing students’ written and visual work.

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  Chris Perks Design

  • South Bank

  • Communication Designer

    • Aug 1997 - Oct 1999
    • South Bank

    Food packaging for brands including Coles, Chemmart and National Foods.Signage design for Barley Square and Gippsland Shopping Centres.Typographic design and materials testing and engraving for the commemorative pool Melbourne Immigration Museum.

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  Cowan Advertising & Design

  • Prahran

  • Communication Designer

    • Feb 1996 - Aug 1997
    • Prahran

    Packaging design for Kmart Performer and Homemaker brands.Style manuals for The Age and the Kmart brands Performer and Homemaker.