Solid Lines, Australia’s first illustration agency dedicated to representing First Nations creatives, has won the Indigenous Design Award at this year’s Good Design Awards.
Developed by RMIT researcher Dr Nicola St John and Emrhan Tjapanangka Sultan (Western Arrarnta, Luritja and Kokatha) alongside the Jacky Winter Group, Solid Lines consulted with many First Nations creatives to ensure culturally safe and supportive representation and a business structure that gives back to community projects.
The research project also received a prestigious Good Design Award in the Social Impact category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
“Solid Lines is addressing a really important issue and has incredible potential for industry-wide and cultural impact,” said the Good Design Awards Jury.
“We commend the deep co-creation process that brought onboard insights from a variety of vital voices and appreciate how they came together in the agency’s core values, questions and considerations.”
Solid Lines involved many First Nations creatives, who shared voices, values and experiences of working within commercial art settings to provide a foundation to build and develop the agency.
The agency also acts as a space to inform the design and commercial art community on the diversity of First Nations creative practice and how to engage respectfully and meaningfully within commercial settings.
“We want our agency to break down expectations of what First Nations art and design is and let our artists define their work for themselves,” said Sultan.
“As proud storytellers, our work is grounded by country, community, and cultural identity.
“Winning the Indigenous Design Award is a huge honour and recognises the importance of First Nations voices with the design industry and the important work Solid Lines is doing to support First Nations artists to be represented fairly.”
The Good Design Awards are the highest honour for design and innovation in the country and reward diverse projects across 11 Design Disciplines covering more than 35 Categories and Subcategories.
Each year, the Awards celebrate the best new products and services on the Australian and international market, excellence in architectural design, engineering, fashion, digital and communication design, and reward new and emerging areas of design including design strategy, social impact design, design research and up-and-coming design talent in the next-gen category.
