AGDA state councils

AGDA QLD Council 2012

Tanja Hall, President
Tanja is the Director of JOLT, a Brisbane based visual communication design studio, and a long standing member of the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA).

Tanja currently serves in her fifth year as President of AGDA Queensland. She also serves on the AGDA National Council where she works alongside the Executive Director and other state representatives to deliver events, initiatives, education and professional tools to members and industry while increasing awareness of the value design contributes to business, education and culture.

Tanja has worked in the graphic design industry for over 24 years. Her professional career includes experience in both the advertising and design sectors covering strategy, brand identity and management, design and creative direction, having worked in partnership with clients including Brisbane City Council, Queensland Government, QMusic and Mirvac. She established JOLT in 1997 and the studio has been recognised with industry awards both locally and nationally. Tanja has worked extensively with affiliate companies in public relations, marketing, conference and event management, print and new media. She works closely with allied industry including education and key stakeholders. She has assisted with judging of professional design awards and been invited to sit on advisory councils for education and design initiatives.



Paul van Barneveld, Secretary, National President
Paul’s career in the graphic design industry has spanned close to 24 years, during which time he has worked with a wide variety of clients in many industries. He has managed his own graphic design and branding agency, Brave Creative, since 1997.

Working closely with clients to develop brands that go beyond just the visual image, Paul specialises in creating brands that define the personality of a business and how it will communicate with its customers through all touch points. The experience Paul has gained by owning his own agency and working with his clients on this level, gives him an aptitude and ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a business and identify where improvements can be made.

Paul is a long-term contributor to AGDA sitting on the Queensland and National Council for the past eight years. He believes in the value that graphic designers can bring to business and has worked closely with the executive members of each of the Councils to raise the profile of the Australian graphic design industry. Paul also represents AGDA through his appointment as a board member of the Australian Design Alliance (AdA), a collective body of the lead Australian design organisations with the objective of advocating the value of design to government and business.

Paul was recently voted to the position of AGDA National President where he will continue to advocate and represent our industry.



Michelle Miller, Vice President
(to March 2012)
Michelle is a Design Management Advisor at Suncorp, working to build design capability and help businesses and designers alike understand the possibilities of applying design within the business context.

Michelle graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia (USA) in 2000, and moved to Seattle to soak in the mountains, expressive clouds and rainy days, coffee all day and abundant creative energy. After a year or so of contract design work, she took on a role working on the Aladdin and Stanley brands at Pacific Market International. By 2008, as Associate Director of Graphics & Packaging, she had grown the in-house team of one to a full service graphic design department of six (plus a crew of contract designers and illustrators) responsible for branding, packaging, product artwork, illustration, photography and marketing collateral.

And then she took a departure. Fascinated by the movement to apply design processes and practices to the design of business strategies and services, she took a job in 2008 in Brisbane as a Design Advisor for Suncorp Commercial Insurance. Over the course of 3+ years at Suncorp, she has used design to contribute to strategies, customer experience research, change programs, a new service, a project pipeline and governance framework, learning and development programs, and more.



Neisha Phillips, Vice President
Most people would have met Neisha during her six year stint as a marketing representative for a well known purple paper giant, inspiring fellow designers on how to creatively combine paper and print in their work. Originally having studied and practiced as a graphic designer, she returned to the creative industry in 2011 by way of a joint venture opening ‘Creative Emporium’, a graphic design and letterpress printing studio in Brisbane. Now as your rather enthusiastic, Queensland Co-Vice President, Neish looks forward to keeping in touch with her fellow design peers and spreading the word about having fun, getting involved, being inspired and meeting other designers through AGDA!

Look out for Neisha... some days she is easily identified as a crazy blonde, wearing a Creative Emporium printing apron chasing her sausage dog Arnie around Petrie Terrace.



Dee McGrath, Treasurer
Dee has been working as a graphic designer since 1995, joining AGDA while studying. She has worked in multimedia and IT design, freelanced for many years, and is the design representative of a branding and communications team at the Queensland Brain Institute. Dee has a keen interest in helping to support the design industry - and is delighted to have the chance with AGDA Queensland.



Matt Blair
Raised on the Sunshine Coast, Matt grew up enjoying the great outdoors with an interest in natural landscapes. Matt relocated to Brisbane in order to complete a Bachelor of Visual Art majoring in sculpture. He later completed a Diploma of Multimedia and an Advanced Diploma of Visual Communication. He developed a passion for graphic design and print media.

Matt has been involved in design education for 10 years and is currently lecturing in Print Design at Southbank Institute of Technology.

Matt is married with two children and enjoys spending time with family and waterskiing on weekends.



Helen Brennan
Helen Brennan is a graphic designer and copywriter hailing from Brisbane. She has over twelve years experience ranging from in-house creative services to advertising creative direction. Helen balances her freelance and direct client work with her role as a lecturer at Design College Australia. She has been a member of the AGDA Queensland Council since 2009, and is a guest contributor to Desktop magazine.



Graeme Caplen
23 year old Graeme Caplen has rapidly established a strong reputation at the helm of social media communication and digital strategy.

His agency, Union Lane, has worked with brands and companies such as Brumby’s Bakery, Schoolies.com, The Ten Tenors, Office of The Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of Australia, BIGSOUND International Music Industry Summit, AGDA and ICOGRADA for Design Week Brisbane.

As a co-founder of www.floodaid.com.au he was heavily involved in the recovery efforts of Queensland’s summer floods of 2010/2011. He showed his skill at adapting strategies to deeply engage with an audience on many levels via the web, taking into account social trends and movements combined with current technologies and available resources.

Graeme is becoming heavily involved in the booming software industry, managing interests in projects aimed at big industry, under the guise of disruptive innovation.



Claire Hamilton
Originally a Design College Australia Graduate from 2000, Claire was employed as a graphic designer in various branding studios and advertising agencies throughout Brisbane, London and Hamburg. Over the years Claire has worked with large corporate clients such as Origin Energy, ISS, ESI Super/Energy Super, BT Group (UK), Waitrose, Europe Arab Bank, Workspace (UK) but also enjoys working with small business to help them grow from the ground up establishing them in the market through strong branding and creative strategy.

Now with over a decade of experience in print, branding and creative strategy, Claire heads up design studio Hamilton Creative. “I’m excited to be in a position to actively contribute to our industry through AGDA Queensland Council. For years I’ve attended AGDA and other industry events, mentored students and ‘stuck my nose’ in as much as possible. I’d really like to see our creative community join in on the conversation and collaborate to make our industry stronger, more valuable and even more enjoyable.”

Matthew James
Matt is co-founder and Creative Director of Left, Right & Centre, a Brisbane based design and development company.

A small and perfectly formed group of creatives, Left Right & Centre offer a healthy mix of thoughtful and relevant creative, cutting-edge technology and strategic thinking. Clients range from cultural, educational and charity organisations to government departments, multinationals and start-ups.

Since graduating from Central Saint Martins, London in the mid 90s (yikes), Matt worked for design agencies in both the UK and Australia. On moving to Australia in 2007 Matt took the plunge and set up his freelance practice, culminating in the forming of LRC in 2010. Outside of design, Matt, a proud Welshman, loves being run ragged by his young family and riding bicycles. Needless to say he sleeps well at night...



Leanne Mackney
Leanne Mackney is the Director at LAMP Creative, a graphic design studio specialising in strategically focused branding.

An Accredited Designer with the Design Institute of Australia, Leanne also holds a Bachelor of Design Studies majoring in Graphic Design, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

She has worked both in Australia and overseas alongside clients including World Expo 2008, Athens Olympics 2004, Health Department, Greek Government, Tourism Greece, Delfin Lend Lease, State Government, Local and Regional Councils and has partnerships with national and international marketing companies. After hours, Leanne teaches at the Queensland College of Art as a specialist branding lecturer.



Jason McKenzie
Jason McKenzie is a big fan of both good and disruptive technology and design and of usability and simplicity. He started in advertising and magazines and graduated into online marketing and brand management. At PwC, the world’s largest professional services organisation, he is a director of global online marketing. At home, he is on the state boards of Australia’s leading professional services marketing, interactive media and design associations: APSMA, AIMIA and AGDA. Jason also currently serves on Akamai’s global Customer Advisory Board.



Peter Rudlege
Peter Rudlege has worked as graphic designer since he completed his university studies in graphic design in 2003.

Prior to joining Dot Dash, Peter was engaged as a Senior Graphic Designer at EDAW AECOM. There, he worked on architectural/landscape projects with signage and wayfinding components.

In early 2011 Peter moved to Dot Dash in order to concentrate on specialising in the area of wayfinding strategy, and visual communication for the built environment.
At Dot Dash, Peter works closely with an interdisciplinary team of industrial, graphic and architecturally trained designers on medium and large-scale public and private sector projects.

He has been engaged on the delivery of the Brisbane Supreme Court Wayfinding Program, the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts environmental graphics and signage and the Sunshine Coast Regional Council Wayfinding and Signage Style guide. Peter is also a current member of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD).



Michelle Albert, Administration Officer
Michelle first worked with AGDA Queensland on the 2005 and 2007 National Conferences. In May 2007 Michelle took up the position of Administration Officer for the AGDA Queensland Council. She assists with council meetings, events and Queensland membership.