Icograda inducts new Australian president

10th November, 2009

Russell Kennedy, Senior Lecturer of Visual Communication at Monash University and AGDA member and nominee, was recently inducted as Icograda President, at the Icograda World Congress, held in Beijing, China.

Russell is an academic and practitioner of graphic design and filmmaking. Before joining Monash in 1994, he was the pr incipal of Russell Kennedy Design, a corporate identity consultancy, and co-director of Onset Productions, a motion picture and documentary company.

Russell is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) and a member of both the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) and the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). He is a Regional Ambassador to INDEX: ‘Design to Improve life', the Danish Government's International Award program and an advisor to the City of Seoul for the Seoul Design Olympiad.

He actively promotes a network interface between design education and the profession. He often assists education institutions within the Oceania/Asian region and has conducted workshops with the University of Hartford (Connecticut, United States), Hongik University (Seoul, Korea) and the International Design Center (Nagoya, Japan).

In June 2002, Russell was invited to speak on design education at the inaugural Icograda Education Network (IEN) Symposium in Brno, Czech Republic. Since joining the Icograda Board in 2003, he has been active in the development of the IEN and the deployment and promotion of worldwide educational exchange initiatives. Russell initiated INDIGO, Icograda's international indigenous design network, launched in October 2007 at the Icograda General Assembly 22 in La Habana, Cuba.

When asked what his vision would be for Icograda during his tenure, Russell says:

"My father once told me: "There is a very good reason why windshield of a car is bigger than its rear view mirror." I guess what he was saying is that it is more important to plan for the future than it is to dwell on the past. I have always found this to be valuable advice for life... and business for that matter.

Of course, an occasional glance back is helpful, and in fact crucial, to ensure the safety of the driver and his or her passengers. Just as it is to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past.

The world is changing at an exponential rate. No organisation operates like they did 46 years ago. In fact no organisation runs like it did last year. If they do, then they are probably less successful and effective than they were, and that is provided they are in business at all.

Icograda is no different. Icograda has evolved over the years to embrace new membership categories and form alliances with those who share our vision. In 2007, at our last General Assembly, we broadened the definition of our profession from graphic design to communication design".

Russell believes Icograda is important as an international network for designers but also has a major role to play advocating the value of design to those driving the International agenda.

He says that this next term of the Icograda board will be one of the most challenging in its history, and his strategy will focus on three key areas:

> Global advocacy
> Unity
> Engagement

Russell's tenure as president of Icograda will be for the next two years .

www.icograda.org

> Read Russell's Presidents letter at the link below:

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PDF document, 157.63KB, 13 Nov 2009