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In 2010 I received an ALTC citation award for outstanding contributions generating scholarly activities that enhance and in�uence student learning to extend beyond the classroom. Notably, for empowering design students by leading innovative and inspiring practicum experiences through integrating local, national and international professional industry practices into their lives and study:

Scholarly activities that have in�uenced and enhanced learning and teaching

For empowering graphic design students by leading innovative and inspiring practicum experiences through integrating regional community and industry-based engagement into their lives and study.

Summary of contribution and context: I inspire and in�uence students to learn in and beyond the classroom, and since 1999 I have made signi�cant and sustained professional contributions to teaching at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) that support and motivate students to become life long learners. I build innovative courses and projects that foster student development that are enjoyable, creative and challenging. I achieve this by stimulating their curiosity, independence and critical thinking through working with industry-based projects and associations, collaborating with other institutions, showcasing their work and engaging with the local community. For example, in my early years at USC, digital media was a new creative medium not recognized as a serious art form, particularly within the community and with local galleries. In 2001, I designed what has proven to be a very successful, innovative and thought provoking graphic design illustration course (DES214) that challenges and stimulates student learning through their critical engagement with the changing aspects of technology, their relationship with the computer, and the implications for human and cultural identity. I teach conceptual design techniques and practical knowledge of the technical aspects of creating large format digital artworks, with student outcomes exhibited in a gallery context. The students’ thought provoking images challenge and stimulate local school students and community, and many have purchased their work. I teach students fresh ways to improve their design skill-sets through encouraging independent design research, preparation, time management, and through strategies that give real-world experience in using visual and verbal communication skills. My innovation in developing relevant and engaging design courses has brought our student’s creative work to the forefront in the design area: they have gained recognition from regional galleries, the community, the media and the graphic design industry, placing them among the best student design practitioners in Australia.

USC workshop 3rd year students with designers from French Ill Studio interntional speakers at the Sunshine Coast Analogue/Digital conference, 2012

I am passionate about art and design education that support how students engage and participate in their learning through creative activities.

Criteria

USC student 3rd year typography design workshop with International Designer Ken Cato, 2010

I organise an annual student workshop with International and Melbourne based designer Ken Cato; founder of the prestigious international agIdeas conference held annually in Melbourne since 1991.

‘I believe that it would be one of the best experiences of my academic career, and in general, an inspirational experience towards my future. Ken Cato has some of the most recognisable designs as seen in everyday living and is truly a great inspirational designer. I believe that I would bene�t from the upcoming workshop, to inspire me, expand my ideas and explore some new possibilities to my design work. I have had past students tell me of the experience and it would bene�t both my remaining university work, and towards my career path’ (Lachlan, 3rd year design student).

Proud student poses with the agIdeas poster because her work is showcased

Livingston D., 2011. Inspiring Regional Design Students to Engage with Typography, poster presented at the AGIdeas 2011

International Design Research Lab, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 3rd -5th May 2011, AGIdeas Conference and published

in the online journal, Icograda Iridescence:(PeerReviewed) http://iridescent.icograda.org/2011/04/29/inspiring_regional_desi

gn_students_to_engage_with_typography/tag64.php

Inspiring regional design students to engage with typography

abstractThis poster discusses inspirational pedagogical moments that re�ect upon creative typographic experiences for regional design students from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). The student’s experiences are drawn from a 2-day letterpress workshop at Design College Australia’s (DCA) Letterpress studio held during Icograda Design Week Brisbane 2010, and a 4-day typographic workshop with International Designer, Ken Cato. The workshops provided for students an understanding of typography's evocative communicative power and how letterforms can independently standalone purely on their aesthetic value. Throughout their degree USC students learn orthodox ways of using typography. They are provided with a condensed history, learn to choose typefaces, are given an overview of the taxonomy of typographic forms, layout and grids and they learn to create a typeface. However, students are given little opportunity to investigate and experiment with the expressive potential of typography. This includes the manipulation of typographic systems as a critical element of visual communication. USC’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences play an active role in supporting workshops in which design students are able to explore experiential typographical concepts, including the opportunity to experience the craft of letterpress. It is important to expose students to a breadth of typographic practise, to seek alternative solutions beyond the technical and theoretical. The content and activities were based around typographic design by reworking the parts of a system—the alphabet. The workshops heighten the student’s creative and analytical process and are as much iterative as they are inspirational.

22/09/11 8:34 AMIridescent :: Journal

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(0)Inspiring regional design students to engage with typography

This poster reflects on the creative and inspirational typographic experiences ofregional design students from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Displayedare a selection of student posters, which were produced during a 4 daytypographic workshop with international designer, Ken Cato. The workshopprovided the students with a fresh understanding of the aesthetic value oftypography's evocative communicative power. The workshop brief revolvedaround a theme: Type in our Lives.

Posted In: Where is Design Practice at Today?Tags: agIdeas, design education, DesignLab, Icograda, typography

(0)Material thinking: nurturing creativity in communication design

As communication designers, material thinking informs both ideas andexperience. Particular kinds of thinking can only come about through theinteraction with manipulating materials through the hand. Students whodemonstrate evidence of play and experimentation with materials and approachtend towards a lateral course of inquiry, exploring and developing a variety ofsolutions to a question. Lecturers reflect on how students exhibit a creativeapproach to learning and the design process, by looking at the way they thinkand make their work.

Posted In: Where is Design Practice at Today?Tags: agIdeas, craft, design education, DesignLab, drawing, experimentation, materialthinking

(0)Reshaping perceptions

This poster showcases three years of collaborative projects between graphicdesign students from the University of Western Sydney, RMIT University, theUniversity of South Australia and the Wanganui School of Design. The projectsdeal with issues of sustainability and social responsibility in professional practice.

Posted In: Where is Design Practice at Today?Tags: agIdeas, Collaboration, design pedagogy, DesignLab, social responsibility,sustainability

(0)Graphic design thinking: innovative advantage

This poster describes Innovative Advantage as an exponential function ofGraphic Design Thinking being two sides of a single coin with two faces: TheDesign of Business and The Business of Design. Each gives a competitiveadvantage, but the ultimate value lies within the coin itself, not in either of thefaces. This value is termed “Graphic Design Thinking”.

Posted In: Where is Design Practice at Today?Tags: agIdeas, competitive business advantage, creative economy, design thinking,DesignLab

Dr. Debra LivingstonApril 29, 2011 at 12:17 PM

Georgia JanetzkiApril 29, 2011 at 11:48 AM

Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek and Russell KerrApril 29, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Jonathan BlackwellApril 29, 2011 at 10:45 AM

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Design Education and Diversity

Design Education and Innovation

Design Education and Cross-DisciplinaryCollaboration

Design Education and RegionalDevelopment

Where is Design Practice at Today?

agIdeas archaeology blendedlearning China Co-designCollaboration Communicationdesign community competitivebusiness advantage designeducation design practice designresearch design thinkingDesignLab Diversity drawingIndustrial Design Social awarenesssocial responsibility sustainability

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They helped advance critical thinking and by including experiential play with handcraft letterforms allowed them to think beyond the computer screen. Students who completed the workshops now design more e�ectively with type due to a new understanding of its intrinsic properties learnt from their practical experiences. They can now begin to master how type properties can be manipulated, and how that manipulation a�ects the properties of type in return. This poster focuses on the process, the mastery, and the outcomes of extra curricula undergraduate creative typographic workshops for design students.

Initiating these workshops make a di�erence to the perception and value of our students learning outcomes in a

regional university by having the opportunity to engage with international designers.

studioworkshop

USC 3rd year students at a workshop with international designers from French Ill Studio, speakers at the Sunshine Coast Analogue/Digital conference, 2012.Both students and lecturers bene�ted from fresh design strategies from the workshop.

I attended alongside students a Letterpress workshop in 2011 working with national and international delegates from the ICOGRADA Design Week in Brisbane, that led to an article ‘Nurturing Creativity: Typographic visual abstraction through the letterpress poster’, presented at the international Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking IMPACT7 Conference, Melbourne 27–30 Sept.2011

Nurturing Creativity: Typographic visual abstraction through the letterpress poster.

AbstractFew letterpress facilities in design institutions have survived the evolving printing industry changes and new universities don’t consider metal or wood type as an essential learning tool for graphic design students. They see the traditional craft of letterpress as being “...caught in a romantic time warp, locked up in the form of decorative borders, wood type and poetry” (Rigley, Vol 57: 2010). Many schools cannot justify the �nances and space needed for such a craft including the di�culty of purchasing available machines, parts and experienced mechanics to keep the printing presses in good working order. Therefore, many students are not able to experience other ways of working with type, singularly dependent upon a computer, screen and software. To help students gain new perspectives, support individual creative needs, instill con�dence and enhance learning in making aware the typographic terms and designing physical layouts a workshop hosted by Design College Australia (DCA) partnered students with established designers. National and international practitioners imparted their experience of typography, layout and space, limited colour palette, design and style in which to make typographic posters using letterpress moveable type on vintage presses. This was an opportunity where national and international designers shared their knowledge and mentored students to guide their creative output, and to compare handcraft type with digital type. This article will focus on the craft, the making, the mastery, the process and the outcomes.

CONNECTED 2010 – 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DESIGN EDUCATION 28 JUNE - 1 JULY 2010, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIACrossover: urban and regional design students working collaboratively with industry professionals

AbstractThis paper discusses how successful cooperation with city and regional student-initiated projects positioned in ‘real’ vocation works in conjunction with their curricula, design sta� and selected industry professionals. A scheme developed by the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA), Queensland Chapter to develop a program to mentor and foster student learning has bene�ted from cross-institutional, cross-regional and industry collaboration.

The AGDA Queensland Student Council Committee, established in 2006, consists of interdisciplinary lecturers and design students from two colleges, Design College Australia (DCA), Brisbane; Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT) South Bank, Brisbane; and two universities, Queensland College of Art (QCA), Gri�th University, South Bank Campus; and the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast. Participating lecturers/teachers from each institution mentor design students ranging from �rst year to third year in developing and managing four to �ve industry related projects per year. These projects include undertaking cooperative creative graphics for the 2010 national K.W. Doggett Paper Merchants annual calendar. Using a face-to-face team-based method, students’ develop projects from the ground up. They combine marketing, graphic design and communication skills, thus bringing industry related issues and events to a broader student audience.

The collaborative projects the committee is involved with represent a wide and diverse range of design related events that predominantly connect students with professionals, including graduates who work in the industry. These projects have become annual events, and are very successful in engaging student learning with excellent attendances by professionals and students from urban and regional institutions.

As an international participant in theBrisbane Icograda Week Letterpress

workshop, Barral, shares his philosophyand knowledge as a typographic artist,

alongside students (Figure 2). He believes that ‘design must seduce, shape, and more importantly evoke an emotional response’

(Barral, 2010).

Figure 2. French Designer and delegate for Icograda Week held in Brisbane 2010, Fabien Barral discusses his latest typographic project ‘sentences posters’ e.g. ‘Designers are meant to be loved not to be understood’, Design College Australia (DCA) letterpress workshop: Photograph by Debra Livingston, 2010.

I play a strong leadership role and nurture a culture of design through being a long-time member of the national industry body, the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA). In 2006, I was a founding member of the Brisbane AGDA Student Council. We collaborated with other institutions to mentor and foster extracurricular practicum learning through connecting students and recent graduates with their industry.

Fig. 3. Student designed 2009 poster for One on One event,supported by AGDA Queensland Council. (Caption: If you’re astudent you will know the value of meeting design professionals. Socome along to our second annual AGDA Queensland ‘speed dating’event. Meet design industry professionals, pick their brains and get achance to interview them before they interview you. Don’t worrythere won’t be an awkward moment—its not that sort of date).

Fig. 1. The student One on One event. Talking with Professionals is one of the most successful projects students undertake as a part of the AGDA Queensland Student Council Committee projects. It is now scheduled as an annual student/professional event.

Fig. 2. Student designed poster ‘Get a leg up’, for the 2008 Oneon One event supported by AGDA Queensland Council. (Caption:

How many people can you do in one night? Mix business withpleasure and meet some of the design industry’s �nest in AGDA

Queensland’s �rst ever ‘speed dating’ professionals event. Spend afew minutes chatting with designers, art directors, creative directors,

photographers, studio managers, copywriters and more. Who knows,you might meet your future boss!).

6pm, Wednesday, November 19Riverside Receptions, 50 Oxlade Dr, New FarmVisit the One on One event page on Facebook

for further details.

Get a leg up.How many people can you do in one night? Mix

business with pleasure and meet some of the

design industry’s �nest in AGDA Queensland’s

�rst ever ‘speed dating’ professionals event.

Spend a few minutes chatting with designers,

art directors, creative directors, photographers,

studio managers, copywriters and more. Who

knows, you might meet your future boss! AGDA

members $5, non-members $20. Free entry if

you join AGDA on the night. RSVP essential by

Monday 17 November — One on One Facebook

page or qld@agda.com.au. Limited numbers.

An AGDA Queensland student council initiative

Design: Jodi Holte-Smith

Reframing the Authentic: photography, mobile technologies and the visual language of digital imperfection .Lisa Chandler and Debra Livingston

AbstractPhotography’s emergence from the early nineteenth century enabled new ways of viewing the world and experiencing time, space and events. It led to the creation of new visual conventions, a�ected notions of truth, realism and authenticity, and established a visual language distinctive to the medium. Digital mobile technologies have extended the potential of vernacular photography through the introduction of small, �exible, a�ordable devices that allow even the relatively unskilled to create impressive images that can be easily transmitted and shared. Photo-software for mobile devices is generous and forgiving, allowing the user to crop, correct and enhance images at a single touch. However has this capacity to readily achieve photographic precision created a glut of visual sameness when images can so easily be captured, perfected and replaced? This paper examines some ways in which artists and amateur photographers have sought to counter the hyper-reality of digital �awlessness – not through traditional media – but by employing iPhone and iPad applications such as Instaplus, Picfx and Camera+ which simulate the visual language of analogue photography. It considers how the visual signi�ers of analogue photography including the random, serendipitous possibilities that it enables have been encoded in digital form to allow users to create an aesthetic of digital imprecision and analogue nostalgia. Visual signs of memory, age, time, place, medium and substrate can be combined to generate a simulacrum of analogue authenticity, allowing the creator to feel that they have produced something distinctive through the image’s creative imprecision. The tension between this synthesis of the authentic and visually constructed photographic processes is investigated in this exploration of the visual language of digital imperfection.

Although, Polaroid �lm is no longer produced, nostal-gic digital replications can be found as combined �lters and borders on mobile technology photo apps, as shown in image 9. Here, visual signi�ers of the Polar-oid process are evident in the rectangular border marked with the viscous stains of remnant developing chemicals.: Photograph by Debra Livingston, 2012.

In the early 1970s, the popular cross processing (Xpro) technique was an experimental practice in which colour �lm was deliberately processed in chemical solutions intended for di�erent types of �lm. Hence, the washed out and saturated hues appearing in the resulting photographs. This process was often used for fashion and band photography. These e�ects have become increasingly widespread as favourite �lters used by ‘Instagrammers’, including replicating the characteristics of 1970s �lm. This series of colour portraits pays homage to the 1970s experimental cross �lm processes without the toxic chemicals. The portrait series uses analogue �lm, scanned and imported to the iPad and digitally reprocessed using Instaplus and Instagram. Image 5 includes a replica-tion of the darkroom hand border whilst images 6–8 incorporate imitations of the rough border a Polaroid transfer produces.

Image 5 – Portrait 1. Debra Livingston Image 6 – Portrait 2. Debra Livingston

Image 7 – Portrait 3. Debra Livingston Image 8 – Portrait 4. Debra Livingston

I am an active, research-led practitioner exhibiting creative work that is recognised nationally and internationally through awards and in private collections.

This was awarded First Prize for the Museums Australia Multimedia and Publications Awards 2006 (MAPDA) (category: National Design Award for Exhibition Invitation).

The Mayor and Councillors of Moreton Bay Regional Council have the pleasure of inviting you and your partner to the official opening of two exhibitions running simultaneously in the gallery

6pm for 6.30pm Friday, 29 August 2008 Pine Rivers Regional Art Gallery

Exhibition Dates: Wednesday, 27 August to Saturday, 11 October 2008

RSVP & Enquiries: 3480 6666 by Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Workshops: 3480 6941 for information and bookings Walter Stahl: Saturday, 27 September and Wednesday, 1 October 2008 Debra Livingston: Friday, 3 October 2008

Pine Rivers Regional Art GalleryUnit 7/199 Gympie Road, Strathpine (parking off Mecklem Street)

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 11am–4pm. Free admission

digital spectre a 3D experiencea photographic exhibition in 3D by Debra Livingston

document|monument & Anstralia Suite photomedia works by Walter Stahl

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Page 1 of 2http://www.usc.edu.au/University/NewsEvents/News/2006News/livingston.htm

Advertising and design industry honours lecturer17 November 2006

University of the Sunshine Coast art and design lecturer Debra Livingston knows that sometimes it’sreally good to be BAD.

Especially when BAD stands for the Brisbane Advertising and Design club, a professional association ofabout 700 members which recently named Debra as its BAD Person of the Year.

Debra has been the club committee secretary for the past two years and the longest-serving committeemember after first getting into the BAD books in 1999.

She is renowned for cheerfully attending every committee meeting in Brisbane during that time, despitethe 200km round trip, and for extending BAD’s influence into regional areas such as the Sunshine Coast.

The award-winning designer with a passion for photography said she was thrilled to accept the award,particularly because she was the first academic in the club’s 36-year history to receive it.

“It’s actually recognition from the industry itself, which constitutes a large advertising and designindustry in Brisbane,” she said.

“It certainly is an honour to be recognised by the industry as being one of them and to receiverecognition and I have made many wonderful friends as a member of the committee and club."

BAD club co-president Shane Murray of George Patterson Y&R copywriters said there were manyreasons why Debra won the award but he summed them up by describing her as an "all-round absolutebloody legend".

"There’s no-one more deserving of the award and, when we put it to the vote, she won hands down," MrMurray said. "I would say it was because of her generosity in spirit and in time and because she is eversmiling, ever positive and ever willing to help."

Student Voice: ‘Debbie also played a signi�cant role helping me choose a career in advertising, something that I had never really considered until she took me to my �rst Brisbane Advertising and Design (BAD) meeting outside of class. Despite my obvious shyness, it was here that she introduced me to some key industry contacts. Following this, she helped line up a mentorship at a leading advertising agency in Brisbane, which later led [sic] to my �rst job. During this time, I also gained acceptance into the Australian Writers and Art Directors (AWARD) School, an industry school run in each state. At the end of the course, I was adjudged the winner for Queensland’ (Graduate, Lisa 2010).

‘‘… in her endeavours to raise the standard of regional advertising Debbie grabs any opportunity to enlist student help and obtain regional exposure for BAD events and initiatives. Her passion for teaching, creativity and the environment has seen her win numerous awards and industry accolades and of course—many appreciative students, colleagues and friends’ (BAD Awards publication, 2006). ’ (BADC Awards Annual 2006).

18/03/11 12:13 PMSupporting rural and regional education | Australian Learning and Teaching Council

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Australian Learning andTeaching Council

Promoting excellence in higher education

Home Media Archived Media Releases October 2010

Supporting rural and regional educationSupporting rural and regional educationDigital design students at a regional university are being givenhands-on experience while simultaneously helping their localcommunity.Dr Debra Livingston, a lecturer in digital design at the Universityof Sunshine Coast (USC), is one academic recognised by theALTC for her efforts to integrate regional community andindustry-based engagement into her curriculum. She received aCitation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in2010.“I believe it imperative for our design students to be activelyinvolved by connecting and participating with their local community,” she says.With teacher support USC students complete designs for community projects and showcase theirwork via exhibitions in regional galleries.“Hands-on integrated work practice enables students to learn to interact and work with a client,and begin to understand the process needed for designing from the beginning of an idea toproduction output,” Dr Livingston explains.In their final year, students are involved in a professional project or internship course. This year DrLivingston was proud to place all her students locally, with projects ranging from promoting theLions Club Maroochydore Markets to branding for a new cooking school.“As lecturers in a regional university we need to think laterally in order to give regional students thesame or equivalent learning experiences as our city counterparts,” she explains. Her approach hasobviously paid off with two USC students achieving commendations for their designs in the recentnational Southern Cross Packaging Awards.Importantly the Sunshine Coast community also benefits from the students’ learning experiences.“Showcasing design student exhibition work allows a younger generation of school students, whoare thinking about design as a vocation, to gain a glimpse into their career path,” Dr Livingstonsays.“Exhibiting student work over the last nine years has also seen a growth in interest in thecommunity and broader regions for employment and purchasing student work,” she adds.The ALTC is committed to supporting regional institutions and programs through its suite of awardsand grants programs.

Posted on 19 October, 2010 - 15:04