10:15—11:15AM
GREAT DESIGN ISN’T ENOUGH. HOW TO
KEEP
IDEAS ALIVE.
Great ideas don’t die. They’re killed. Learn how to use storytelling, structure, and strategy to ensure your creative idea survives beyond the first presentation. With real-world, client presentations and practical techniques, Ellena will help you build decks that persuade, present with impact, and make your bold ideas unkillable.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Discover your voice: Find a presentation style that feels authentic to you.
Locate your north star: Ladder up to one clear idea
Storytelling and structure: Make your creative solution impossible to deny.
Create a survival pack: Build presentation decks that live beyond the boardroom.
ELLENA MILLS— HEAD OF DESIGN, HOWATSON & CO
Ellena is Head of Design at Howatson+Company, bringing expertise in traditional print advertising, digital design, and branding. She has delivered impactful work for a range of clients, including Allianz, Qantas, Asahi Premium Beverages, Specsavers, and AFL, and led the rebrand of the iconic triple j. In 2022, her work earned her recognition as the #4 Designer globally by D&AD.
Ellena has served as a judge at prestigious national and international award shows, including AdFest, AWARD, and D&AD New Bloods. She was recently announced as a juror for the D&AD Packaging Design Jury in 2025.
BELL— CREATIVE DIRECTOR, RE BOARD MEMBER,
AGDA
SHANNON
11:15—11:45AM
WIN MORE PITCHES WITHOUT PITCHING CREATIVE WORK
Pitching remains a controversial issue in our industry. Too often, the process places an unfair burden on studios, asking them to do speculative work for free or at a rate that significantly undervalues their strategic and creative product.
In this ambitiously titled talk, Shannon Bell will discuss AGDA’s recent engagement with the City of Sydney to refine their process for appointing an agency for the New Year’s Eve visual identity. In consultation with industry, AGDA developed new guidance for appointing work that better supports studios and clients in making the big decision to partner up.
THE POWER OF BRAND
TO
TRANSFORM BUSINESS
Milk talk about their journey with Blunt, working in partnership to transform them from a purely functional product into a global brand that balances technical excellence with deep emotional connection. This presentation explores the strategy, creative execution, and the impact of this shift on brand perception and market expansion.
STRATEGY & MANAGING DIRECTOR, MILK
ANTHONY HOS— DESIGN DIRECTOR, MILK
NICK HILL— CREATIVE DIRECTOR, FOR THE PEOPLE
1:45—2:45PM
HOW TO BUILD BETTER BRAND CASE STUDIES
At For The People, we believe people deserve better brands. Which begs the question, how do you demonstrate this and build better ‘case studies’?
Every organisation is made of people, and made for people – yet it’s surprisingly uncommon for brands and case studies to reflect that inherent humanity.
Building better brands comes from getting closer to people, so too, should better case studies. People aren’t just the simplistic personas that marketers often distill them into. And so better brand case studies should be as beautiful, soulful, and textured as the people they’re for, include genuine voices of the community, and have specific and measurable results that express that human connection and commitment to the brand idea and ultimately demonstrate the meaningful change the brand can have for people and business.
To put these principles in action, we’ll take you through a practical framework that ensures our case studies reflect the humanity behind the brands we build.
3:30—4:30PM
LIVE DESIGN IMPACT—HOW MICHEAL HILL REDISCOVERED ITS ROMANCE.
Michael Hill Jeweller creates contemporary fine jewellery to mark life’s most meaningful moments. But after decades of discounting, the brand had lost it’s romance. Seen as downmarket and outdated, the brand was fatigued, overly masculine and mass. However, the business’ ambition was to break out from this discount retailing to become a premium jewellery brand.
Successfully repositioning the brand would increase market share and find new growth in higher-value customer segments. But to do this a complete transformation was needed. So, we were tasked to create a whole new identity. One that would move them into a more aspirational, premium space and bring the sparkle back to an iconic brand.
& DESIGN BMF
LINCOLN GRICE— HEAD OF ART
4:30—5:15PM
DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVENESS: DRINKING THE KOOL-AID WITH A PINCH OF SALT
Getting results in the real world of branding and design can feel like a dark art—a blind swing at blending aesthetics with accessibility. Surely, getting people to actually walk in the door, buy some crisps, book a flight, or purchase a ticket isn’t the responsibility of a designer...is it?
In this session, Lincoln Grice, Head of Art and Design at award-winning creative agency BMF, will explore the intersection of design and effectiveness—how to balance feeling and formula, fresh and familiar, data and dreaming, and guidelines and gut. Through real-world examples from experiential brands, you’ll see how thoughtful design choices can drive real commercial success.
You’ll learn how to apply science and behaviour change principles to design, creating work that not only captures attention but influences action and delivers measurable results. And maybe even add a touch of salt to your own own Kool-Aid.
5:15—5:45PM
CLOUDBURST: SUSTAINABILITY AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
In this talk, David asks you to consider sustainability and the environmental impact of both your print and digital output, including screen design and Ai issues. True sustainability. All sorts of environmental issues. Facts and figures. It’s about the real costs of the Cloud … There are many environmental implications for how we use our screens, searches and Ai. Then there are the impacts of hardware and software. The real costs of the Internet of Things, supply chains, WiFi and our constant connectedness.
David Whitbread recently self-published the third edition of The Design Manual which covers the environmental impact of design decisions across all projects.
