As 2024 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to thank our incredible Good Design community for an amazing year. This year, we celebrated The Design Effect – recognising how creative ideas, collaborative efforts, and strategic design thinking creates positive ripple effects across businesses, industries and sectors. From transforming industries to changing lives, design continues to have a lasting impact for people, place and planet. 

Looking ahead to 2025, we’re excited to explore the next horizon of innovation and opportunity and share what’s next for the new year. 

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A Year of Design Impact

The 2024 Australian Good Design Awards, were a uniting moment for 2024. The Awards saw the world’s most innovative designers, creators, and thought leaders gather to celebrate the true power of design. This year’s event proved that design is not just about aesthetics – it’s about driving real-world change, whether by tackling sustainability, shaping future technologies, or crafting human-centered solutions, it’s about driving purpose, profits and prosperity for all. 

“The ‘Design Effect’ aimed to showcase how good design can start to reshape industries and transform the way we live. Good design leaves a lasting impact that goes far beyond the surface,” said Rachel Wye, Managing Director of Good Design Australia.

“The Awards showcased so many extraordinary projects across architecture, product design, digital innovation, and social impact – demonstrating that great design can be applied to every area of our lives, both work and play.” she added.

Among the many remarkable projects recognised this year, the Da Vinci 5 Surgical System by Intuitive stood out, earning the prestigious Australian Good Design Award of the Year. With over 150 enhancements and 10,000 times more computing power than its predecessor, the Da Vinci 5 Surgical System is not just about cutting-edge technology – it’s about transforming the everyday experience of surgeons, care teams and improving their patients’ outcomes.

“The Da Vinci 5 set a new benchmark for precision, safety, and comfort in the operating room, representing the future of healthcare design – where technology meets usability and patient care,” said Rachel.

“The Award of the Year is presented to just one project each year, so it really represents the pinnacle of design excellence and innovation. We’re thrilled that this year’s Award went to Intuitive, their collaborative creativity and solution-focused approach were exceptional and deserved to be recognised at the highest level,” she added.

From the Australian Good Design Awards to the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, and many more throughout 2024, we’re proud to lead the charge in celebrating and advancing the very best in design excellence.

Looking to 2025: New Categories and New Possibilities

We’re excited about what’s next. For the 2025 Australian Good Design Awards, we’re introducing a brand new category for Concept Design. The category will focus on ideas that have the potential to make a real, lasting difference. It’s about looking beyond the drawing board to solutions that could change the world for the better.

“We’re really excited to introduce the Concept Design category. It’s all about spotting the ideas that could become the next big thing – and shining a light on projects that are bold, forward-thinking, and have the potential to shape the future in meaningful ways,” Rachel shared.

Another major highlight for 2025 is the World Design Congress. Hosted by the UK Design Council, the 34th World Design Congress and WDO General Assembly will take place in London from 9-11 September 2025. The event will bring the global design community together to explore the theme “Design for Planet.”

This three-day gathering is going to be a powerful moment for sharing ideas, discussing challenges, and looking at how design can help tackle the environmental issues that matter most.

Good Design Australia is also thrilled to be launching the Good Design Podcast in 2025 – keep an eye out for more details in the new year. 

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2025 is shaping up to be another year of exciting possibilities. We can’t wait to see what new ideas, collaborations, and projects emerge as we continue to explore how design can make a difference. The ripple effect of good design is just getting started.  

“Design is about so much more than just making things beautiful – it’s about solving worthwhile problems, creating seamless experiences, and leaving the world better than you found it. 2025 is going to be another year of big ideas and bold moves and we can’t wait to get stuck in,” added Rachel. 

A huge thank you to all of our Good Design Community for being part of the Design Effect this year and we can’t wait to continue changing the world with you in 2025!

With a shared mission to amplify the transformative power of design, we are excited to announce our partnership with RiseQ Consulting. Their integrated services are designed to empower clients, helping them craft and execute impactful growth strategies, secure essential capital for expansion, and build robust channel partnerships to accelerate revenue growth. 

Together, we aim to support designers and their clients in navigating the landscape of growth opportunities, from growth strategy and financial advisory, to access to vital government research and development (R&D) tax incentives and grant funding programs.

At Good Design Australia, we advocate for design’s crucial role in enhancing quality of life, driving innovation, and creating sustainable solutions. This collaboration will help to support this vision, as RiseQ brings unique expertise that can help our design community grow, innovate, and stand out.

“By connecting our designers and innovators to RiseQ’s expertise in strategic finance and corporate governance, we aim to help support innovation, maximise potential impact and help create lasting value for founders and entrepreneurs,” said Rachel Wye, Managing Director of Good Design Australia.

“We are thrilled to facilitate connections between Australian design talent and expert consultants, enabling the discovery of growth opportunities, unlocking new pathways for creativity, and helping to foster positive change across various design disciplines and industries.”

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Supporting our design community 

At the core of RiseQ’s mission is the belief that creating value, rather than merely trading it, is essential for making a tangible difference in the world. This philosophy underpins our partnership with RiseQ, where we are dedicated to supporting meaningful ideas and impactful solutions.

“We get an enormous kick out of helping founders and entrepreneurs build successful products and businesses,” said Ben Berthon-Jones, Partner at RiseQ.

“In today’s landscape, successful ventures require three critical pillars: strategic finance, strategic marketing, and domain expertise.”

Acknowledging the remarkable talent within the design community, Ben points out a significant opportunity to assist.

“We recognise the astonishing domain expertise present in these businesses and individuals within the good design community and see a significant opportunity to help them enhance their corporate governance and financial funding strategies to maximise their impact.”

This emphasis on strategic finance is crucial for the design community because it helps creative minds turn their brilliant ideas into thriving businesses. 

“By enhancing corporate governance and funding strategies, designers can confidently tackle market challenges and ensure their impactful solutions reach those who need them most,” added Rachel Wye.

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Strengthening foundations for market success

We are excited to enhance community access to government R&D tax incentives and grant funding through our partnership with RiseQ. By connecting our design community with their expertise in commercial advisory, growth strategy, and execution, we aim to encourage our community to gain the support needed to improve their growth strategies and effectively pursue capital-raising efforts. This partnership will help bring innovative ideas to life while maximising available incentives.

Ben Berthon-Jones emphasises the importance of ensuring these incentives are utilised effectively.

“It’s always worth a conversation to make sure R&D tax incentives are being used properly. On top of that, there are lots of other non-dilutive funding out there, literally hundreds of state and federal grants that change all the time,” said Ben Berthon-Jones.

RiseQ also offers outsourced CFO and Bookkeeping services, empowering businesses to establish solid financial foundations. They understand that not everyone can afford a full-time CFO, so they offer a cost-effective solution that delivers expertise right when it’s needed.

“In addition, we engage in growth strategy work, focusing on how to take a product from concept to cash generation.”

“We guide businesses on entering new markets and can provide insights on setting themselves up for acquisition. We help clients understand the three to five-year journey required to make themselves attractive for acquisition.”

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From ideas to investment 

This collaboration will help the design community attract investors by creating effective documentation that highlights their products’ unique strengths. Using a growth lens, RiseQ develops concise business plans that outline a clear path for sustainable growth and new opportunities.

“Our approach is an integrated growth strategy methodology. It doesn’t matter where you are in your business journey, new or established; you could be a designer with an idea for a product, thinking it’s fantastic.” 

“You consider what you want to achieve, what value you want to create. Then, you identify your market and what success in that market looks like. What’s the problem this idea solves? What do you need to do to achieve your goal and win with this idea?”

“It’s an interesting iterative process, and you go through it a few times before coming up with a strategy. From that, you cascade down into a business plan and a financial model.”

“At the end, you have a formalised roadmap that makes you investable and backable.”

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A partnership for lasting impact

Good Design and RiseQ see this partnership having great potential and longevity – supporting designers and businesses well into the future.

“Our goal is to help entrepreneurs succeed and build phenomenal businesses. Where that really aligns nicely with Good Design Australia is through our international network. RiseQ enables entrepreneurs access opportunities for capital, connections and contracts across the globe,”  said Ben Berthon-Jones, Partner, RiseQ.

“Ultimately, what we want to do is build up a global infrastructure that supports entrepreneurs from their first day to a successful exit.”

“And Good Design Australia provide a unique opportunity to connect with really great ideas and the teams and individuals behind them,” he added.

“We want to be a funnel to shoot Australian design and entrepreneurship out into the world and help it shine.”

“We’re thrilled to be able to provide this opportunity to our Australian design community, it will help them to grow, innovate, and differentiate themselves in the market. We hope the partnership will not only support, but also help to grow the Australian design sector.” added Rachel Wye.

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A new era for Australian design innovation 

The partnership with RiseQ not only enhances the resources available to designers but also underscores the significance of good design in driving innovation.

“Design is where the blue sky thinking comes in,” said Ben Berthon-Jones, Partner, RiseQ. 

“If we can play a tiny part in helping highlight and sustain the growth of this industry, then that’ll be really rewarding, and we’ll have a lot of fun along the way,” he added. 

“The partnership between Good Design Australia and RiseQ could be transformative for the Australian design community. By linking the design community with RiseQ, we’re aiming to help support innovation, nurture sustainable development, and help to create a vibrant environment for impactful ideas to thrive,” said Rachel Wye. 

Whether you’re a new or established business navigating a challenge or eying an opportunity, we would be pleased to connect you with RiseQ. If you are designing or developing a new product or service and want to inquire about how to accelerate your project by accessing funding and applying for an R&D grant, please contact us.