Jane Connory

GradX 2020 1.5 Degrees

Swinburne University of Technology’s online graduate exhibition.
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The School of Design at Swinburne University of Technology proved its agility by pivoting our face-to-face graduate exhibition to a completely virtual and digital platform during the COVID19 pandemic. It was branded GradX 2020 1.5 Degrees.

The innovative solution combined web and interactive technologies to ensure continuous accessibility for a global audience, international and local networking opportunities for graduates and elevated levels of engagement.

It also launched Swinburne's 1.5 Degrees Manifesto—our commitment to addressing the impact of global warming, climate change and sustainable future design solutions in our teaching and research goals. Together Dr Gergana Rusenovo and myself directed the design, build and marketing of the platform that showcased 370 graduate portfolios to an audience of 2.2k.

Interdisciplinary spaces on @Studio and Mozilla Hubs—leading virtual platforms—presented 3D, motion design and static posters in fully immersive experiences, including seas of icebergs and spaces above the clouds. Visitors spent as long as nine minutes exploring each of these spaces which is a full 4 minutes above the average visit to UK sites.

This large audience during the two-week event held from 22 November to 4 December 2020 was an improvement of the previous year's attendance by 700 people. The online event drew together 14 diverse areas of design and design qualifications, from PhD candidates to undergraduates, from Communication Design to Architectural Engineering. An online publication that was also available to print on demand was also available. Fourteen events, ranging from workshops, industry panels and after parties celebrated the graduates' achievements to 740 attendees.

A student committee engaged in cross-disciplinary work integrated learning to design the branding, a new type face, the user experience, motion design and virtual spaces, liaising with staff and industry professionals. The associated GradX social media handles created a community of support for graduates during an isolating year—the highest reach of a single post being 503 people.

The website is financially sound as it will be permanently archived and rebranded as each new year’s graduates are exhibited. Over 250 new users continue to visit the site each week both locally and from countries like the United States, China, and Canada.