Rachel Wye Appointed Managing Director of Good Design Australia

After a soft-launch at the 2023 Australian Good Design Awards, Good Design Australia is proud to formally announce that Rachel Wye has been appointed as its new Managing Director. With a transcontinental design journey and a fervent dedication to driving positive change, Rachel embodies the essence of innovation that defines its mission.

Rachel’s career trajectory underscores her belief in design as a catalyst for societal betterment. From the UK to Australia, spanning nearly 17,000 kilometres, her journey reflects a commitment to purpose-driven design aimed at shaping a more inclusive and sustainable world.

Aligned with Good Design Australia’s ethos of “Design for a Better World,” Rachel’s passion for meaningful transformation found resonance within the organisation’s community of like-minded individuals. Her tenure has been marked by a steadfast advocacy for recognising projects that contribute to a more equitable and conscious future.

Stepping into her role as Managing Director, Rachel brings a wealth of experience, a visionary outlook, and an unwavering dedication to advancing the field of design. Her leadership promises to propel Good Design Australia to new heights, fostering connectivity within the design community, showcasing excellence and driving systemic design-led change.

Delving into her experiences, aspirations and visions for the future of Good Design Australia and design as a whole, Rachel shed light on the transformative potential of design in driving positive change for both people and the planet.

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1. Your design journey has spanned almost 17,000 kilometres from the UK to Australia. What initially sent you down the design path and how did it lead you across the pond?

I don’t really remember choosing the design path – it was never really something I debated or had to choose – it’s just what made sense to me. I saw it as a tool – as a vehicle to create the change I wanted to see in the world and a way to create better systems, products and places for people to live, work, play and grow in. 

That was quite a different way of thinking about design back then. We were taught about form and function and given the technical tools you need, but a lot of design seemed to have a sort of elitism built into it. Now, I’ll be the first to defend the value of high-quality, authentic design, but I felt that design had a bigger capacity for problem-solving and for creating change. I wanted the definition to be bigger and I felt that good design should be for the benefit of everyone.

In my experience as an Industrial Designer, this seemingly unquenchable desire to make things better, to improve the world around you, to make something more beautiful or more functional or, in an ideal world – both – is innate to all designers. I was having a conversation with a friend (Jon Christensen, EY Future Friendly) last year at the Awards about exactly this. He was saying that if he wasn’t a designer, he wouldn’t know what to do. It’s as much a part of who he is, as what he does. I think a lot of designers feel that way. 

Now, how did I end up 17,000kms from home? The initial trip to Australia was actually driven by my bucket-list goal of swimming with great white sharks (now ticked off). After that I really wanted to find work that meant something to me and was going to be a useful stepping stone in my career. I remember finding Good Design Australia (GDA) and feeling excited – I felt like this company saw design the way I did and that was a first for me. 

The next day I went to the GDA office – CV in hand – and asked for a job, and a couple of interviews later I was in. But then, after six months of learning the ins and outs of it all, my visa ran out and I begrudgingly moved back to the UK with the intention of settling down.

A month or so later I got an email from Dr. Brandon Gien, the then CEO of Good Design Australia offering me a permanent job and a visa to come back. After a lot of debate and more than a few pros and cons lists, and a lot of hard conversations with family, I chose to take the leap and make the move to Australia permanent. In the end it was a gut feeling more than a logical reasoned decision – it just felt right. 

So that’s how I started. Though this year’s Awards will be my 10th Awards season, so the better question is probably why have I stayed (laughs).

2. It’s been said that Good Design Australia’s mantra of “Design for a Better World” is something that really resonates with you. Why do you think design has the potential to do so?

It is, and it’s a big part of the reason I gravitated to GDA and largely why I’m still here. Ten years ago, the concept of “Design for a Better World”, originally articulated and championed by the World Design Organization (WDO), wasn’t something you saw very often – certainly not in association with design awards programs. I see more Awards programs now re-orienting towards this overarching guiding principle and that’s great – the more, the merrier – the quicker we can get the whole industry to start truly holding themselves accountable for the change they want to see in the world – the better.

These Awards were always about something bigger – more than pure form and function, safety and quality. These Awards asked: does this project, product, system, space or place contribute to creating a better world? Does it give back to the world rather than taking from it? 

If we’re being honest, designers have historically been large contributors to the problems we’re only just starting to take accountability for and fix. The plastic packaging that dominates landfills and our oceans, the products that require scarce minerals and energy intensive manufacturing to produce and a fashion industry that accounts for 8.1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, to name a few. The simple truth is – as a designer, unless you commit to being part of the solution, you’ll inevitably end up being part of the problem. 

That’s why these Awards, this aspiration and this community of people all trying to actively do good is so important and so powerful. And why I’ve stuck around all these years. 

3. Throughout your career, you’ve spoken at numerous design forums and judged on design awards programs all over the world. What power lies in the gathering and celebration of the design industry?

I don’t know if it’s because I’m close to hitting my ten year chip at GDA or the lingering COVID-induced life re-evaluation everyone seemed to experience, but I found myself challenging the importance of what I spend my time doing over the last few years. Asking questions like: what is the value of awards? How important are they to achieving the change I want to see in the world?

I to’d and fro’d with it for a while actually and I went back to the basics. What was the goal? To create positive change for people and the planet. What was the biggest obstacle in achieving the goal? Designers or companies deciding they weren’t responsible for, or capable of pushing for better outcomes. How could I support that goal? By shifting the expectation of what is considered good design and empowering those that do the hard work. Through asking myself these somewhat existential questions, I felt and I feel – more than ever – that recognising and showcasing projects we consider to be good design, and celebrating the people and hard-work behind them, is not just important but essential in achieving meaningful positive change. 

The power of gathering with like-minded people and celebrating what is good and all the amazing things we have already achieved is not to be underestimated. Focusing on where we’re going and the change we can make, rather than being dragged down by what stands in our way is incredibly powerful. It gives energy and direction to the cause and having a community of like-minded people to learn from and lean on, provides the much-needed support required to push through complex challenges.

Every year the industry gets together for the Australian Good Design Awards Ceremony, to celebrate the people and projects that have been recognised for design excellence. And every year people tell me that they left full of ideas and a new found energy for their work, wanting to fight harder for more sustainable outcomes and push back against purely profit-driven design decisions. That tells me that not only do these Awards serve as a source of inspiration and create genuine community, they also motivate progress and growth and shift behaviours – which is invaluable. 

4. What’s something that really excites you about modern design? Are there any trends, opportunities or advancements that speak to you about the future of the industry?

There’s lots to be excited about in design at the moment. In terms of trends – AI is a very hot topic and there’s some strong opinions both ways. As for my two-cents, I don’t think AI is intrinsically good or bad, I think how it’s used and how we allow it to be used that will determine the outcome for each use scenario. It’s a strong example, but a knife is neither good nor bad, it has the potential to be both. The intention and the way it’s used determines what it becomes. 

I was recently in Tokyo for the World Design Assembly, listening to two very opposite sides of the argument, Ana Arriola-Kanada, co-Managing Director of IDEO Tokyo – who is by her own words, an AI optimist – and Tim Ingold, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen – who encouraged us to consider a renewal of more human ways, rather than jumping head-first into a new Digital AI Age. 

What they both agreed on though – which I also feel strongly about – is that any adoption or implementation of AI will require “deep human intervention”, to help steer and navigate how this new technology proliferates into the future. I would extend that guidance to “deep design-led human intervention”. Good design practice will be essential to ensuring that AI works to support a more human world, rather than a more digital one.

I think the concern amongst many people surrounds AI’s self-learning system. Without strict, well-educated and deeply empathetic and human guidance it has the potential to develop in damaging ways and it could be hard to course-correct.

There are so many unknowns around AI, but what is certain, is that with the new tools AI creates, we will be able to create new ideas, products, systems and services at a rate never before possible. With a rapidly changing world, it has never been more important that what we choose to create, to produce, to put out into the world, is design-led.

That means design with purpose, humanity and integrity, design that holds the needs of people and the planet rather than profit, at the centre of our decisions. It’s an exciting new frontier for what is possible in the world of design and new technology always presents huge opportunities to create change – as designers it is now our responsibility to make sure that change is for good.

5. What does it mean to you to be entrusted with the leadership of GDA? Can you share with us your initial thoughts and emotions upon receiving this appointment?

Honestly, it’s a little daunting. GDA is not just an Awards program or a company, it’s a community that represents thousands of designers both here in Australia and around the world. We want to make sure we do them justice and provide them a platform they are proud to be part of – to showcase the amazing work they do. It’s their dedication to meaningful solutions and positive change that allows us to do what we do. 

It’s not an easy gig either. Designers are notoriously the most scrupulous bunch of humans on earth, and their opinion means everything to us, so we set ourselves a very high-bar every year. It’s also important to us that we practise what we preach and that means continuing to find new ways to push the boundaries of what these Awards do, represent and serve. 

All that said, I consider this job a genuine privilege. The people within our Good Design community are all outstanding humans and I couldn’t be more grateful to be immersed in a group of people with so much drive, creativity and warmth. 

6. What are your goals and vision for the future of Good Design Australia? 

GDA builds on a proud legacy that has been around for more than 66 years, constantly evolving alongside the design profession to ensure that the important work being done by designers is recognised in all areas of our society. 

To continue this trajectory, we further expanded the Awards this year, launching what I believe is the world’s-first Policy Design Category. This category not only highlights that good design is truly cross-disciplinary, but also cross-sectoral. Our intention is to help raise the awareness of the role that design plays in GOOD policy. It’s exciting because well-designed policy has enormous potential to facilitate meaningful change at-scale.

There are lots of things that I want to do, some will be new initiatives and some will be building on our existing initiatives. Already this year we have announced a partnership with Airseed – an Australian company tackling huge areas of ecosystem restoration. For every entry submitted in the Australian Good Design Awards, we will be committing a percentage towards the reforestation and restoration of landscapes around Australia. 

We also launched a new Special Accolade, the Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design, in partnership with the Pataki Family, which aims to inspire, recognise and support design solutions that have the potential to improve the lives of people living or working within the healthcare system – an area that unfortunately so often gets overlooked. 

Another small but useful new feature of the Good Design Winner’s Index is the ability to view all of the projects won by a particular company – just click on the company name. We have some other exciting projects in the works, but you’ll have to wait to hear about those later in the year. 

Looking at the big picture of what I want to achieve, my overarching aims are to:

• Build a more connected design community
• Continue to showcase design excellence as a beacon for what is possible
• Elevate and tell the stories of the award-winning projects and design teams
• Help to support meaningful systemic change through design
• Reinforce Australia as a leader in design

As I look forward, I’d like to also look back and acknowledge the incredible leadership GDA has had for close to 30 years. Dr. Brandon Gien’s commitment to GDA over the course of his tenure has been inspirational and leaves very large shoes to fill. I’m looking forward to building on the strong foundation that has already been established and am stepping into this new role with an enormous amount of optimism, for what is possible, for what we can achieve together and for the positive change that I know we can make. 

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The 2024 Australian Good Design Awards are open now, with submissions closing at midnight Friday 3rd May. Join the Design Effect movement and push not only the world of the design, but our society, environment and future forward.

Submit entry