Kieran
Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) (Honours)
Turning a placement and class competition into a full-time design career.
When Kieran discovered he had a passion for design, it was the guaranteed industry experience that made Swinburne a no-brainer. But he went above and beyond, completing not just one, but two career-starting professional experiences during his Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) (Honours).
‘If you can come out of university with six months of industry experience, or just some time working in a professional setting – that can really put you above a lot of other people.’
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‘If you can come out of university with six months of industry experience, or just some time working in a professional setting – that can really put you above a lot of other people.’
Kieran , Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) (Honours)
Small team, big opportunities

Kieran spent the second year of his degree with Satelight Design, a lighting design studio.
‘Often in a small team you do get a fair bit of responsibility, and you can get thrown in the deep end. I was the only industrial designer there. So, things like renderings and imagery for the website fell to me,’ he said.
And along with this responsibility came real opportunities for Kieran to showcase his talents as a designer. Though only an undergraduate placement student, he was entrusted to design a light feature for a high school science department. The light, designed to look like a DNA double helix, now hangs proudly at the school.
From the classroom to showrooms
The following year, when Swinburne industry partner About Space challenged Kieran’s honours class to design a desk lamp in under a month, Kieran was armed with a year of experience in the lighting industry and a real project already in his portfolio.
Brief in hand, Kieran quickly got to sketching and pulling lights apart to see how they’re made. About Space requested the design included their Yosh glass whilst still demonstrating artistic flair. Kieran integrated the glass into a design simple enough to have met the time constraints, but also evocative of a warmth and comfort that satisfied his creative vision.
‘It was easily the best subject across my degree,’ Kieran said, ‘because you got to actually interact with professionals and get feedback from people who see designs every day … It gave you a benchmark as to what's expected when you graduate.’
Although it was stressful to design a product from start to finish under such a time-crunch, Kieran’s grateful for how the process emulated the realities of professional product design.
‘What it did prepare me for was … when you're at university, you’ve got 12 weeks to do a project. In the workplace, sometimes you've got 20 minutes to come up with [a] presentation.’

Kieran presented the Sol Lamp to the judges, bracing himself for some honest feedback. But About Space loved his concept. They put his design into production and it’s now a product on the market and in their showrooms.
So much more than just a university assignment, the Sol Lamp has landed Kieran nominations for both the Vivid Emerging Designer Award and Design Show Australia’s Next Top Designer. And Kieran credits it with launching his career.
Now designing for a living, Kieran works in research and development for the furniture company, Schiavello. He’s also in high demand as a freelancer, squeezing every bit of designing he can into his working life.
Want to see your designs hitting the market, too?
Check out the Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) (Honours).