What role does communication design play in Naarm/Melbourne's hospitality scene? How might conditions of place influence these designed experiences? This studio will be led by Rachel Worcou, Designer at Local Peoples, who will share insights into her experience in the hospitality sector.

In this studio, we will analyse existing service models and food-led brand and product experiences (we will visit lots of food and drink places across Naarm/Melbourne), identify gaps and needs and consider how the landscape might shift in the future. You will meet with hospitality and food industry professionals and gain insights into current design practice methods and investigate future scenarios.

With a focus on Naarm/Melbourne, you will be offered the opportunity to respond to eastern Kulin and consider how hospitality offerings are/aren't crafted in response to place and how they might be designed to decolonise public futures.

Studio sessions will be a mix of mini workshops, class critique as well as guest visits and class excursions. There will be a focus on collaboration - students will be encouraged to build peer-to-peer skills, learn how to give and receive creative and art direction and develop abilities in client relations.

The 'Hospitable Futures' studio has been developed to help you actively research, analyse and synthesise the basic notion of hospitality and how it might transition into the future. We will do this by looking at ourselves as individuals and practitioners, find ways to unpack our own personal bias and articulate what we offer as designers and how this might shape considered experiences.

Students will have access to Industry Fellow Bec Nally, Creative Director of Public Journal as well as other experienced hospitality and place making professionals, with an opportunity to present their final submission and receive industry feedback.

Students will meet hospitality professionals and learn lay of the land and site visit techniques. This inquiry will lead to the development of conceptually driven and finely crafted folio pieces that push the boundaries of what is known in the current hospitality scene and consider future opportunities to innovate and design on unceded lands. Students will be encouraged to document each week's findings in preparation for the final SKO assessment.

This Studio has 3 iterative assessment tasks:

1. Hospitable Futures SKO (Studio Knowledge Object) 30%
2. Location Scout (Site Case Studies) 30%
3. Time for Seconds (Product Development)40%

Design : Building on Country by Alison Page,  Paul Memmott and Margo Neale

This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

Public Journal