Draft:Lucy Simpson

Lucy Simpson

Lucy Simpson (Born 1981) is an Aboriginal Australian Graphic designer based in Sydney, she is the Creative Director and Creator of Gaawaa Miyay Studio which is a First Nations lead studio focused on modernising the traditional artwork of the Yuwaalaraay people, Simpson’s works are mostly murals, sculptures and interior decor and usually contain imagery from her Yuwaalaraay heritage.

Education

Simpson Studied at the University of New South Whales (UNSW) and Graduated with a Batchelors degree in Graphic Design and Textiles in 2010, she would later return to UNSW and achieve an Adjunct Associate Lecturer certificate in 2016. While she studied her degree Simpson was active in a few societies, she was an Indigenous Cadet, a member of the indigenous women’s academic mentoring program, member of the UNSW Indigenous University sports team, an Indigenous CoFA student representative and a Studio Assistant for Textile students. Currently Simpson has been studying at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to earn a PHD in technology, while also doing some Volunteer work with the Indigenous Community Program involving mostly lecturing and workshops with the goal to allow for expression of identity and personal experience for all Australian cultures within school settings.

Career

Simpson originally worked as a Freelance Graphic designer in Sydney for 3 years before creating and leading her own studio Gaawaa Miyay in 2009 the creation of Gaawaa Miyay also lead to Simpson and her company being suppliers for Supply Nation who are an organisation that works with aboriginal business owners to connect one another to lead to more aboriginal people within the Australian business world, while also being a public member of the National Association of Visual Artists (NAVA) who are an organisation that are focused on bringing together many contemporary artists of all art sectors to advocate for improved conditions of work and openness within the art.

Commissions

Environmental Graphics

The Sydney design Award 2020 winning project Environmental Graphics was a project Simpson worked on in collaboration with both established energy provider, Ausgrid and Architectural/ Interior Architectual studio GroupGSA. The Projects main aim as established by GroupGSA was to represent energy and how its presents itself through nature, they also stated the collaboration with Simpson was due to her Unique imagery within her murals and textiles which would also represent the local aboriginal nations. The project was a complete workspace overhaul spanning 20 floors, being refurbished in a more sustainable and open architectural layout that GroupGSA designed while Simpson was tasked to design and create all the aboriginal inspired wall murals, ceiling paintwork, window décor and rugs. Simpson would also comment on the aim of her murals in this commission by stating they were to honour the seasonal systems and cycles of new life underfoot.

Nagaar

Simpsons most popular project Nagaar was a project Simpson made for City of Sydney’s site works creative hoardings program, a paid venture that’s used by Australian artists to advertise themselves to the Australian public potentially leading to bigger opportunities in the future. Simpsons Nagaar was shown off by this program in 2021, Nagaar is a Gamilarray Yuwaalaraay word that translates to hard/strong in English and was made as a massive mural painting with the pattern of the design being inspired by the inner bark of a Gulabaa/ Coolabah tree. The design aims to start a conversation about the importance of the First Nations people and their history, with Simpson also stating the name Nagaar was used to note the resilience of aboriginal people Additionally, Simpson was quoted saying “If you think about Aboriginal design, there was always a reason… It was always for a purpose, for a way of communicating or telling a story. But that one story was forever evolving and remaining relevant - never static or meant to last forever.”  Giving further incite on why Simpson deems it important to modernise aboriginal works.

Awards

2023 Shortlisted, NSW Architecture Awards, Small Project Category, Collaborative project with Claire McCaughan and Lucy Humphrey of Archrival

2022 Good Design Award, Best in Class, Aboriginal Culinary Journey (Breville)

2021 CODAawards, CODAworx International Top 100, Residential Category

2020 Sydney Design Awards, Graphic Design, Environmental Category, Ausgrid

2015 Australian Design Honours, Australian Design Centre

2014 Accelerate Participant, British Council

2009 Longina Phillips Textile Award, UNSW

Reading list

Australian Design Centre Article

Upcoming Designer Article

Design Files Article

Conversation with Lucy Simpson

External Links

Lucy Simpsons Website

Lucy's LinkedIn Page