Meet the School of Communication and Creative Arts

Today we speak with Tonya Meyrick: Course Director for the Bachelor of Design and Senior Lecturer in Screen and Design. Tonya speaks to us about her amazing creative practice, favourite Deakin experiences and offers her best advice for students looking to enter a creative career. 

What do you teach at Deakin? 

Tonya: I teach Visual Communication Design. I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication & Creative Arts. I’m also Course Director of our Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication), Bachelor of Design (3D Animation), and our Bachelor of Design (Digital Technologies). My teaching practice encompasses typography, branding, studio practice and user experience design.

How would you describe your creative practice?

Tonya: There are two sides to my practice. In summary, the convergence resides with digital engagement, typography, education and design. Part of my practice investigates how cultural properties engage communication design via brand strategies to reach audiences in new ways. This includes developing critical frameworks to chart the way such properties engage typography to express, explore and celebrate a community activity, a place, a history or event.
The other side of my creative practice is concerned with notions of liminality, dislocation, culture and altered representations of place. Here, I explore the perception and act of memory, theories of decay and sites of experience. With these themes I develop static and moving mark-making, graphic and image based proposals salvaged from articles experienced in the everyday such as street and road signage, textures, maps, and GPS coordinates.

Who has been your biggest influence on your career to date?

Tonya: Tricky question! I am blessed to have had a number of influential mentors at different stages of my career thus far. This includes Wilma Lambert @ The Lambert School. Professor Anthony Cahalan @ ANU. Dr.Ted Colless @ Uni Melb. Professor Simone Taffe @ Swinburne, and Associate Professor Meghan Kelly @ Deakin.
However, to be completely daggy, if not brutally honest, I’d have to say my mum Wendy. She has a veracious intellect. She’s an artist, calligrapher, and philosopher, a realist, and a pragmatist. She is my pillar of strength. She keeps me sane and she makes sure I keep true to myself.

What do you consider your greatest achievement in life?

Tonya: I am incredibly proud of much I have achieved. Being presented with two consecutive University Teaching Excellence Awards was quite remarkable in 2018 & 2019. Another key stand out would have to be, my curation of the United Nations, World Ocean’s Conference Exhibition, Our Oceans, Our Islands, Our Future, held at the UN Trustee Council Chambers, in New York 2017. Supported by the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme. The exhibition showcased sustainable ocean commitments being promoted through partnerships at the Oceans Conference. Working with the Global Island Partnership, Governments of Seychelles, Palau, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, Micronesia Challenge, Caribbean Challenge Initiative, Seychelles Blue Economy Vision, State of Hawaii, Indian Ocean Commission was an honour. The exhibition demonstrated the power and leadership of islands uniting together in strong partnerships to implement Sustainable Development Goal 14 and build a resilient and sustainable future, for our oceans and for our Island Earth.

What has been your favourite Deakin experience?

Tonya: Graduation. I love seeing the students receive their hard earned degrees. The energy, dedication, and motivation our students put into their studies all pays off when they don their gowns and receive their awards. It is a privilege to be part of their journey and I am so proud when they walk on to the stage after their 3+ years of intellectual tenacity and perseverance.

How would you describe the Deakin learning experience for students?

Tonya: Engaging and challenging. As Albert Camus said, “You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.” The learning experience at Deakin is tailored to today’s students who are ready to embark on tomorrow’s solutions for problems we haven’t yet encountered. Staff work alongside students to enable them to reach their potential. This sees learners embedded in contemporary practice, aligning with industry outcomes with the latest technology at their fingertips. Our learning experiences are vibrant, inclusive, en point and real world.

What is your best advice for someone looking to enter a creative career?

Tonya: Never lose faith. Keep going, through the rain, the hail, the snow, the floods, the droughts, and the pandemics. Just keep going. If you believe in yourself, others will too.

What is it like teaching and studying your discipline online?

Tonya: Our approach to teaching and studying online is to engage learners with the right content, in the right ways at the right times. Our Faculty, School and Deakin Design knows the challenges of juggling life and study commitments. Working with students on various platforms for their studies means as educators, we can provide learning opportunities that are achievable and future proofed. Anything worthwhile, is never meant to be easy, but with guidance, encouragement and expertly constructed learning options anything is possible.

Dr Tonya Meyrick teaches across Deakin’s Bachelor of Design