Design 21: Social Design Network

Russell Kerr is an Activist and Educator based in Melbourne, Australia. He creates hand-made, screen-printed posters for grassroots political organisations and social causes. Since 2006 he has been the Program Director at The Works, Communication Design For Social Change at RMIT University.

Russell has a Masters in Public Advocacy and Action from Victoria University and a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design with Honours from the University of Ballarat. Russell’s primary research interests traverse the areas grassroots visual communication, graphic agitation and social responsibility in graphic design education. His current PhD research investigates contemporary Social Design practice in the context of design thinking and meaningful engagements with social change. What does it mean to practice Social Design?

His research explores educational environments that engage with Social Design, investigating how graduates of new Social Design curriculums categorize themselves as ‘Social Designers’? What type of student will enrol in, and graduate from these programs and what kind of jobs will they want to move into?

Russell has extensive professional experience in the design industry, he spent three years working at one of Australia’s premier design studios Inkahoots before moving on to set up his own studio Transfer Press. Russell continues to practice design working with grassroots community organizations and creating street based art and screen-printed posters with political content. Russell’s work is in the permanent collections of the State Library of Victoria and the Centre for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles. Russell is a founding member of Australian Disruptive, a collective of graphic activists established to cultivate social change through graphic agitation.