Ethical Design Co. and clients continue kicking goals and hitting milestones.
EDCo. are humbed to announce that we’ve been awarded a Gold Indigo Design Award in the Website Design for Social Change category for our work on the Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH) website (case study here). In addition to Gold, we have received Silver in the general Website Design category, the same category that saw us receive Gold in 2021 for the Space Talent website (case study here).
You can visit the award-winning websites here:
The Indigo Design Awards are a renowned international design competition, and we are thrilled to have been recognised by the judges, two years in a row. We put our heart and soul into every project we do and being able to celebrate that work with a win fills us with gratitude.
MDGH are on fire themselves. Their CEO and Founder Mark Sullivan has been awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List, one of the highest civilian honours in Australia. His work, alongside his incredible team, is foundational in the development of new medicines to treat neglected tropical diseases. They take an innovative approach to developing new and improved treatments, helping to elevate the health status of affected communities in low- and middle-income countries.
Best logo design recognition
Online design community, DesignRush, have included our work on the SociAbility logo design in their recent best logo design article. We’re excited to show off some of our work to their community of 20,000+ individuals.
Going back to our digital nomad roots in Vietnam
Many of you who stay up to date with us at EDCo. are well aware that I was incredibly lucky to have spent many years working as a ‘digital nomad’ in different parts of the world in the years prior to EDCo.’s inception. When the wonderful Caitlin came on board in 2018 and we started this business, we spent some time in South America and then another 7+ months in Southeast Asia working on EDCo. and designing the kind of business that would work for both us and our clients. We wanted to focus on mobility, efficiency and low overheads that would enable us to be highly responsive and also affordable to our global clientele. We also felt that being nomadic whenever possible would help us on our sustainability journey as it will provide insight into what’s going on in society, environment and culture in places outside Australia. Put simply, we didn’t want to work or live in a bubble; physical stagnation kills inspiration.
About 2 years later COVID-19 started wreaking havoc on the world. We were very fortunate to have been quite prepared, given that we work as a distributed team and are very familiar with the WFH lifestyle. However, being in one place meant that the EDCo. dream of working from co-working spaces in far-off lands was no longer possible.
Fast forward to March 2022 and Caitlin was finally able to take a trip to the US where she spent 1 month working remotely and visiting family in the tropical Florida Keys. Now in May, both Caitlin and myself are back at it in Vietnam for 3 weeks. I write this from a gorgeous co-working space (Toong) in the bustling city of Hanoi. In July, our Junior Designer Shan will be working from Bali for a few weeks.
So… what’s next?
COVID-19 has taught us all so many lessons. For me, the greatest lesson was better understanding my own privilege as a global traveller and realising what it meant when that privilege was taken away by something out of my control. We’ve been able to have several conversations with local Vietnamese people about their own experience of lockdowns and how they have survived thus far, as a developing country, through a horrible pandemic. As we are all well aware (historically speaking), if any country knows how to get through adversity and show resilience, it’s the people of Vietnam!
From what we learned, a massive number of people survived the pandemic by moving inland to work in factories that export fresh flowers to places like Australia. I recall many campaigns during the pandemic in Aus urging Aussies NOT to buy imported flowers as it was ruining the local flower growing industry. While it’s ALWAYS important to support local, this is proof that things are never, ever simple. It’s a reminder to get all the facts and also continue to support our neighbouring countries who might not have as many options to fall back on during tough times.
There are so many lessons still to learn, and I will continue to ask questions and seek answers in places outside my comfort zone. I will keep my eyes open in both familiar and unfamiliar locations and continue to learn to be a more thoughtful, empathic and human-centred designer who can help design a better, more sustainable world.
Leave a Reply