Gert Sellheim (1901–1970)
‘Australian commercial art … will [evolve into] something that is quite its own … warming the cool English objectivity, toning...
Hall of Fame
Lynda Warner
Lynda Warner recognised graphic design was her calling in sixth grade. A school poster project introduced her to commercial art, as it was commonly...
Pieter Huveneers (1925–2017)
In a 1975 Design Australia profile titled ‘Design in Business’, Pieter Huveneers is pictured in a suit and tie, a corporate identity...
Annette Harcus
Annette Harcus is known for her visually elegant designs and as a strategic businesswoman. For nearly 40 years at the head of Harcus Design Pty Ltd...
Martin Sharp
Artist, art director, cartoonist, poster-artist, songwriter, film-maker, collaborator, agitator. Through graphic work and paintings, Martin Sharp...
Alison Forbes
Alison Forbes (1933–) was the first full-time independent book designer in Australia. In a pioneering career which paralleled the transformative...
Mimmo Cozzolino
Mimmo (Domenico) Cozzolino (1949–) occupies a unique position within the annals of Australian graphic design. His multi-faceted career has...
Barrie Tucker (1938-2018)
A few years back I was lucky enough to be on a judging panel for the 2010 AGDA Awards. There were over 2000 entries that year, so it was a long...
David Lancashire
Australian graphic design owes a debt of gratitude to David Lancashire’s Aunty Maude. Recognising her nephew’s appreciation for drawing, she...
Garry Emery
Garry Emery - Creative director and founder of emerystudio. With no formal education, Garry had a humble career beginning at age 14 during the...
John Copeland
There’s more than a whiff of Harrison Ford in the Copeland Story. In his early years he was whisked away from his UK birthplace on the Isle of...
Lance Stirling
Winning the Australian Youth Art Prize in 1949 was the deciding factor in Lance Stirling pursuing art and design rather than music as a career,...
Max Forbes (1923-1990)
Max Forbes was the consummate graphic designer. A natural exponent of Robert Pirsiq's 'quality' principle, he brought to his life and work an...
George Kral (1929-1978)
There was a time in the fifties and sixties, when Graphic Design was loose and undefined. Commercial Art was what we did, but other ways of making...
Eric Maguire (1923-2013)
Eric Maguire claims that his biggest contribution to graphic design was as founder of the Society of the Ambulant Cheese, an exclusive Melbourne...
Les Mason (1924-2009)
To some people in the industry, Les Mason is remembered as 'the wild man' of design. The big American who liked to work hard and play hard. But to...
Ken Cato
In 1946 Mr and Mrs Cato of Brisbane moved south, bringing their baby, not yet one year old, to the cold whistling winds of Melbourne.His parents...
Gordon Andrews (1914-2001)
Gordon Andrews is a pioneer in industrial and graphic design, a cultural hero who merits a place alongside those depicted on his banknotes. A quiet...
Max Robinson (1934-2018)
Congratulate and celebrate with Max at the AGDA National Awards Presentation Event in Brisbane on Saturday 16th October. Excerpts from an interview...
Bruce Weatherhead (1939-2011) and Alex Stitt (1937-2016)
Weatherhead and Stitt 1964-1973Weatherhead & Stitt was the place to be in the sixties. Everyone wanted to work there. Many ventured, few were...
Douglas Annand (1903-1976)
Something of a genius When kids of my age were growing up in graphic design in the late Fifties, early Sixties, there was only one master. This...
Richard Beck (1912-1985)
Biography by Anne-Marie van de Yen. Richard Beck (1912-1985) was an English designer who trained and studied in England and Germany before coming...
Geoffrey (1905-2000) and Dahl (1909-1988) Collings
Geoffrey and Dahl Collings were extraordinary people. They trained in Australia - he in Queensland she in Sydney. They met and married in Sydney...
Brian Sadgrove
The morning I rang Brian to see if he would accept nomination for the Hall of Fame, he was in the process of clearing out his Prahran studio to...
Harry Williamson
AGDA Spicers Paperpoint Hall of Fame welcomes 2010 inductee Harry Williamson Excerpts from an article by Max Robinson Most English kids when they...
Frank Eidlitz (1923-1997)
To say Frank Eidlitz was energetic is to damn him with faint praise. To say he was hyperactive is a serious understatement. To say he was manic is...
Arthur Leydin (1932-2010)
Arthur Leydin careened through the graphic design world like a rogue comet. Once you thought you had him firmly in your sights, he was gone again...
Lyndon Whaite
It's amazing how many of our finest graphic designers have been largely self taught. Gordon Andrews, Douglas Annand, Jimmy James, Arthur Leydin,...
Richard Haughton "Jimmy" James, (1906-1985)
It was the Australian art world's worst nightmare. A toffee nosed, upper class Pom swanned into Sydney to avoid the war, and took charge of the art...