Brandon, an industrial designer by profession, is also Executive Director of the Australian Design Council, and has spent the past 30 years advocating for the value of good design to improve social, economic, cultural and environmental quality of life.

Many people picture consumer products when thinking about good design, from cars and furniture to phones and houses, but it is equally important in social programs.

“Bad design costs dearly, whether you’re developing a new medical device or a program to address homelessness,” Brandon says. “Get the design wrong, and the price of failure can run into the hundreds of millions.”

In 2012, Good Design Australia, which traces its origins to the Industrial Design Council of Australia established by the Australian Government in 1958, introduced a dedicated Social Impact Award category to its flagship Australian Good Design Awards. 

It is one of the first design awards in the world to recognise the role of design in addressing societal challenges. Now in its fourteenth year, applications for the 2026 Social Impact Award are currently open.

"Over the past few years, the number of submissions in the Social Impact category have quadrupled," Brandon says. "We now get more submissions in Social Impact than in any other category."

But what separates a well-designed social impact project from one that simply has good intentions?

"Most social programs have good intent,” Brandon says. “What we assess through the Awards is: have they used a proper, professional design process? Have they considered the end user? Have they looked at deep levels of empathy to understand lived experience?”

He points to the 2025 winner of the Social Impact Award – and the overall joint winner of the coveted Australian Good Design Award of the Year – as a perfect example of a job well done.

“Deadly Democracy is a partnership between YLab, a youth sector consultancy, and the Australian Electoral Commission, and was created to boost civic participation and deepen understanding of democracy among First Nations youth,” Brandon says.

The program trained paid participants as community leaders and facilitators, empowering them with the skills, confidence and knowledge to design and lead civic engagement initiatives within their own communities.

Brandon points out that good design input does not have to cost a fortune.

“Many organisations might already have people in their teams with very useful skills,” he says. “I also encourage looking at the design profession and the value it can add to a project. It can make a huge difference in achieving great results and attracting funding and broad support.”

Applications for the Good Design Awards Social Impact Award are open now at good-design.org.