Institutionalising Design Education and Design Promotion in Australia - From early British influences to wider international engagement

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dhado

Industrial design in Australia evolved from early, largely unnamed activities clustered around a rising nineteenth-century manufacturing sector into an established profession. The paper traces this shift to the growth of specific design education pathways and the backing of professional design associations. It follows how early industry “designers” received technical training from 1827 via Mechanics’ Institutes and related schools, and how WWII accelerated formal tertiary-level industrial design education and professionalisation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

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Institutionalising design education and design promotion in Australia

Abstract

Early training in Mechanics’ Institutes

Technical Schools, Schools of Art, Schools of Mines and Industries

RESEARCH 8 Institutionalising Design Education and Design Promotion in Australia: From early British influences to wider international engagement Dr Simon Jackson, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Abstract Industrial design has grown in Australia from a series of unnamed activities clustered about an emerging 19th century manufacturing industry into a recognised profession. This transformation largely occurred because of the emergence of specific design education and the support offered by professional design associations. Designers working for the early Australian manufacturing industry were given technical education in the areas of engineering, draughtsmanship and foundry work from 1827 onwards in Mechanics’ Institutes. It was from this technical base that the early ‘designers’ working for industry sprang. Technical Schools, Schools of Art and Schools of Mines and Industries all offered training for the designer before industrial design was finally offered as a course of study at tertiary level after WWII. Concurrent with this, professional associations arose to support the emerging industrial design industry in Australia. Nineteenthcentury precursors to “modern” design educationMechanics’ Institutes, Technical Schools, Schools of Art, Schools of Mines and Industries, Junior Technical Schools, Apprenticeships and Secondary School design educationwill be surveyed. As with many countries, WWII was a catalysing time for Australian industry as the country geared up production. At the conclusion of hostilities, Australia’s first specific Industrial Design course at tertiary level was born. The purpose of this paper is to show how industrial design activity in Australia has become a profession. An early British lead in both design education and professional design associations was soon broadened to include other international models, as the Australian design industry and Australian society generally, looked to countries other than the ‘mother land’. This paper argues industrial design activity was expanded in every way by the experience of mass-production of goods for the war effort, by new immigrants arriving in this country who often had skills lacking locally, and by the new opportunities offered by the post-war reconstruction programmes. Industrial design was formalised as a profession by industrial design education at tertiary level and the assistance offered to industrial designers by professional associations. Key words Australia, Bauhaus, Carnegie Corporation, Design Education, Imperialism, Industrial Design, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Ulm Early training in Mechanics’ Institutes Australian designer Gordon Andrews has recently reflected on his father’s experience of designing for industry in the 1920s, and his own industrial design work undertaken in the 1940s-1960s: “... in the days when my father was carefully and efficiently designing his products, the discipline had no name” (Andrews, 1993: 53) . As Andrews suggests, the industrial design discipline arguably had neither a professional identity nor enjoyed public recognition until around WWII. Supporting this contention is the fact that the first Australian industrial design course was offered at tertiary level in 1945 (Mein, 1946:57) . Despite this rather recent history, manufacturing had long been a strong part of the Australian economy, and early‘designers for industry’ were part of its success. For example, the Foy & Gibson company’s trade catalogue of 1923 reveals the diversity of pre-WWII Australian manufacturing: furniture, cooking utensils, laundry equipment, sporting equipment and musical instruments were all made locally. Many decades before the largest Australian cities established universities (Sydney in 1850 and Melbourne in 1853), Mechanics’ Institutes provided libraries and courses of lectures on science, literature, history, music and art. Large towns and cities in all Australian States had Mechanics’ Institutes. Formed o

FAQs

What key factors enabled industrial design to become a recognised profession in Australia?

The profession emerged through the development of targeted design education and the support provided by professional design associations.

How did early technical training shape the first Australian industrial “designers”?

Starting from 1827, Mechanics’ Institutes and related institutions offered technical education in engineering, draughtsmanship, and foundry work, providing a base from which early industry designers arose.

Why is WWII described as a catalysing period for Australian industrial design education?

The paper explains that Australia geared up production for the war effort and, at the conclusion of hostilities, the country’s first specific Industrial Design course at tertiary level was established.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dhado