Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis - ECU Access Only
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Stuart Medley
Second Supervisor
Jo Jung
Third Supervisor
Christopher Kueh
Abstract
The field of graphic design has continually evolved to encompass a wide scope of practices that can be incorporated into all stages of industry projects. Globally, these unique design practices have been recognised for their significance. Their applications to a broad spectrum of large-scale business and community sector initiatives has been widely documented. Research as to how such practices and skills apply in smaller project spaces, however, appears to be missing. Perth, Western Australia, is an isolated city which often does not attract large-scale business projects beyond the mining sector. As a result, graphic design projects based in Perth tend to be smaller in scale and diverse in application. These projects are often driven by specific outcomes, and graphic designers are typically hired by clients at the end stage of business projects to make artefacts, such as websites, business cards or brochures.
IDEO, a design firm at the forefront of design thinking practices internationally, contends that businesses will benefit greatly from integrating design’s core techniques and principles into all aspects of product and service development, as opposed to merely engaging “designers to make an already developed idea more attractive” (Brown & Katz, 2011, p. 381). Service design methods, commonly applied through a holistic interdisciplinary approach, are one way to diversify graphic design skills beyond the production of ephemeral objects. This research looks to explore how these holistic, human-centred service design methods might expand the roles and mindsets of graphic designers and their significance within the context of smaller, localised industry settings common to Perth.
To accomplish this, this thesis employed a range of qualitative methods, including ethnography, autoethnography and practice-led research approaches. The focus of the study was directed upon two graphic design studios in Perth and one service design studio in Melbourne, to establish an overview of the prevailing graphic design methodologies being used in local industry projects and determine whether creative practices undergo significant transformations after the integration of holistic, human-centred design processes - as are common in design thinking and service design methodologies.The study found that local graphic designers desire and need to change their practices to embrace a more holistic view of design. This view looks to place graphic designers among decision making from the beginning of any design project. It requires that design processes are put before designing artefacts, design methodologies before design methods, and investment in design instead of project-based contracts. It is within this proposed way of working that local graphic designers can gain greater significance for their discipline while engaging in project work that is more satisfying for themselves and more impactful for their clients, design users and society itself.
DOI
10.25958/37em-xq85
Recommended Citation
Mason, E. (2025). Unveiling graphic design significance with holistic, human-centred design: Diversifying the role for graphic design among local industry projects. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/37em-xq85