Message Stick - Forging the Future of Work
Design Strategist & Project Manager • University of Sydney in partnership with Message Stick · 2024 · ADP GradShow Winner — EY Award
I co-developed an EY Award-winning growth strategy for Message Stick — an Indigenous Australian-owned ICT company — positioning them as a thought leader in the future of hybrid work. The deliverable was a comprehensive four-phase strategic framework, a design language system, and a commercial roadmap spanning 24 months.
Recognition & Impact
EY Award
Best Project — USYD School of Architecture, Design & Planning 2024
Message Stick
Indigenous Australian-owned ICT company partnered with the University of Sydney
Discovery
We conducted deep contextual research into Indigenous Australian knowledge systems and intellectual property protocols, engaging directly with Message Stick's leadership throughout. In parallel, user-centric research into hybrid work pain points — through affinity diagrams and journey mapping — identified network congestion, ergonomic inconsistency, and the absence of place-based thinking as the dominant friction points for distributed Australian teams.
Design Decisions
The conceptual centrepiece was The Living Songline — a key visual drawing on the Indigenous concept of the songline as a navigational system connecting people, places, and knowledge. This became the strategic metaphor that gave the entire framework coherence and gave Message Stick something only they could own. The Realms model reframed hybrid work environments as purpose-built, specialised spaces — home office, boardroom, focus room — each optimised for a specific mode of work and connected through an integrated ICT framework. I personally authored the commercial strategy, marketing roadmap, and partnership development sections of the four-phase deliverable.
Featured In
Special thanks to
[Group mates] Lachlan, Thendrl, and Michelle / [Educators] Rohan and Kat