About DesignFreo
DesignFreo is a platform celebrating design and designers in the port city of Fremantle / Walyalup and beyond.
We’re a not-for-profit founded by a group of local designers, makers and doers. We love design, we love our town and we care about its future. We’re interested in how design can bring joy to the everyday and also in how design can tackle the bigger issues facing our communities and planet.
Through events, workshops and exhibitions, DesignFreo creates opportunities to see what designers do, hear their ideas and join a broader conversation about why it’s important. Good design. Bad design. Who cares and why does it matter? Let’s talk.
The DesignFreo Team
We’re a team of committed volunteers, united by a belief in the value of design.
PIPPA HURST / VICE-CHAIR, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
DesignFreo brings together two things I love – Fremantle and design. Great design makes my day. Like my Orbitkey – genius! I’m interested in more-than-human thinking that doesn’t see us as separate from nature, because humans aren’t the most important thing on the planet.
MICHAEL TUCAK / CHAIR
For me, design thinking sits in a trinity alongside community inclusivity and proactive collaboration as approaches that can enhance and improve many things in life. I work across arts and creativity, science / innovation, and governance, having worked as a creative industries lawyer for many years. I spend most of my time in and around Freo.
EMMA BRAIN / SECRETARY
I live and work in Fremantle and regularly pinch myself about how lucky I am to call this place home. I work in communications at The Fulcrum Agency and part of my mission is to talk up the value of design, from useful objects through to our built environment. Great design is good for everyone.
REBECCA CLARKSON / TREASURER
I guess i’m a bit of a ‘city dreamer’ in that I can’t help but get involved in projects that seek to protect our city’s environment and unique heritage. As well as having a love for design and Fremantle, I bring expertise in community development, philanthropy, and stakeholder engagement to our Board.
CLAIRE MCGOWAN /
Design touches all of us – everyday. My studio, Detail, is a Fremantle-based PR and marketing agency that works across art and design, retail, hospitality, property and community. As passionate communicators, we share the value of design with a wide audience and believe design is for everyone.
LAYLA SALEEBA /
Good design ultimately makes us feel good. I’m passionate about honouring good design, and ‘quality over quantity’ every time! DesignFreo aims to advocate for and inspire us to look for good design in our everyday life. After a career in production and development of Arts events, I made the long desired move into interior design, and now live and work in North Fremantle.
JULIA APANASEVICA/ OPERATIONS, SPECIAL PROJECTS
I believe in the power of collective to cultivate meaningful change and social impact. I run Anfisa – a curatorial platform dedicated to promoting the work of emerging and established Australian artists. I am interested in exploring the intricate relationship between art, craft, and design.
