Good Design Australia | Australian International Design Awards

Brandon Gien

Managing Director, Good Design Australia Chair, Australian International Design Awards President-Elect, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design

Brandon is Managing Director of Good Design Australia and Chair of the Australian International Design Awards. In 2011, Brandon was elected to the position of President-Elect of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), the first Australian to hold this position.

ICSID is a non-profit organisation that protects and promotes the interests of the profession of Industrial Design. It has members in over 50 countries and represents the interests of some 200,000 designers worldwide. Brandon will take over leadership of the world's most important organisation for Industrial Design in 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Prior to founding Good Design Australia, Brandon was General Manager of Design Strategy and Head of Corporate Services at Standards Australia, recognised by the Government as Australia's peak Standards body. Brandon was a Member of the Senior Executive Team at Standards Australia and had executive responsibility for a number of key divisions including Technology, Human Resources, Customer and Information Services, Corporate and Strategic Projects, Corporate Design and Branding, and Media and Communications.

With a background in management and Industrial Design, Brandon has transformed the Australian International Design Awards program over the past decade into Australia's peak design assessment and promotion body. He plays a key role in collaborating with design and creative experts from around the world and has affiliations with leading universities and design organisations across Australia and the globe.

Through his work on the ICSID Executive Board, Brandon has been instrumental in creating the World Design Impact Prize, a new prize to honour Industrial Design driven projects that make a positive impact on our social, economic, cultural and environmental quality of life.

Brandon studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Newcastle where he later graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design. He is completing a Doctorate in Environmental Design at the University of Canberra's School of Design and Architecture with a focus on design assessment methodologies used by design promotion organisations around the world.

Brandon is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) and a professional member of the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). He sits on the Advisory Board of the Design Research Institute of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) where he chairs the Design Challenge program.

Stephanie Pemberton

Program Director Australian International Design Awards Good Design Australia

Stephanie is Program Director of the Australian International Design Awards and has been integral to the direction of the Awards since 2002. Stephanie also acts as a spokesperson for the Awards and appears regularly on national radio among other media outlets.

Working closely with Australia's innovation and creative industries, industry associations and government bodies, Stephanie has fostered long term relationships and developed new initiatives and methodologies for the Awards. In 2008, Stephanie helped transform the Awards from a national to an international program, and introduced a new benchmark for excellence in design for sustainability. Stephanie also helped establish Good Design Australia in 2010.

Stephanie acts as a jury member through a number of Australian and international design awards including the iF Concept Award (2012, 2011), Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards (2010), China Red Star Design Award (2010), China Innovation Design Awards (2009, 2008), Korean Good Design Selection (2008), Queensland Premier's Design Prize (2010) and the Arts NSW Design Scholarship (2011, 2010, 2009). Stephanie was invited to appraise the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in 2009, and acts as a moderator and facilitator of the annual Australian International Design Awards.

Prior to joining the Awards, Stephanie was Regional Packaging Designer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Asia Pacific, followed by Senior Industrial Designer at Nielsen Design Associates. During her time as a practising designer, Stephanie played a key role in the development of a number of award-winning products including the Telstra Touchfone, Reach Powerbrush and Betachek G5 blood glucose monitor, winner of the 2003 Australian Design Award of the Year.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design with First Class Honours majoring in Marketing from the University of New South Wales, and lectures students at this and other educational institutions across Australia.