About
Who is frankreative?
I have been a designer since childhood. Inspired by my mother and grandmother who sewed many of their own clothes, I took pleasure in designing and sewing clothes for my Barbie doll. I was absorbed into the glamour and luxury of the national fashion design awards on the television, and would draw elaborate dress designs before I packed away all my felt-tip pens in carefully scrutinised rainbow order. Some years later, while I was studying fashion, my designs were seen on the runway of those same Smokefree Fashion Design Awards, first as a finalist in 1997, and then being Highly Commended in 1998 when I also received special acknowledgment from the judge and renowned designer Akira Isogawa.
I spent more than twenty years in fashion, working in London, Melbourne and Wellington. My designs have been worn by global celebrities such as Kendall Jenner, Nicole Scherzinger and Bella Hadid, and shown at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Sydney and New York Fashion Week.
During the pandemic, when our collective perspectives narrowed, and communication from health authorities became vital, I decided to use my design talent to design for social good, hence my enrolment in the Bachelor of Design, majoring in Communication Design, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
Through my studies, I have focused on designing campaigns for social issues such as distracted driving, substance misuse, low digital literacy amongst older people, raising awareness of the need for hearing protection at music events, and Australia’s gender pay gap. As my endless enthusiasm to explore this new avenue of design confirms, I have never looked back.
frankreative on design
Visual communication design impacts every facet of my life, through discussions on film, intellectual exchanges about advertising, and appreciation of effective signage.
When taking a break from my work, I love exploring art galleries, going to the cinema, trawling design-book stores, and hunting for curios at markets.
My mind is always engaged and aware of how design affects my life, and I want to be part of positively impacting the lives of others through intelligent, thoughtful and creative design.
frankreative on discipline
Having learned about the history of communication design, including the work of those at the Bauhaus, Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Milton Glaser, and with great appreciation of the work of Paula Scher and Neville Brody to name but some, I enjoyed the discipline of adhering strictly to the rules, and allowing these conventions to influence my creative thought.
But with knowledge comes power—the power to upturn conventions to enhance the message. Through the use of expressive typography my work conveys complex meaning, connecting more deeply to the audience.
I love the discipline of typographic conventions, and I engage these to create clear—yet creative and unique—communication.