The Women in Design Award seeks to recognise and celebrate women who have made significant contributions to the industry and hopes to encourage a more diverse and equal representation within leadership roles and in the design and creative industries in general.

The 2021 Women in Design Award Winner is Simon LeAmon, Hugh D.T Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture at the National
Gallery of Victoria. A designer, design educator and curator, Simone LeAmon has established a career as one of Australia’s foremost design professionals. Championing the importance of design and creativity, and the work of our creative communities for near to three decades, her field of influence extends beyond our shores.

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LeAmon’s accumulated activities have brought her global recognition and significantly, fostered vital understanding of the contemporary design scene in Australia in view of a broad international audience. In 2015, LeAmon was appointed the inaugural Hugh D.T Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture at the National Gallery of Victoria following two decades in design practice and education. The NGV department is the first of its kind for an art gallery in Australia and LeAmon has co-curated an extensive program of collecting, presenting and programming of Australian and international contemporary design with vigour, including the delivery of the annual Melbourne Design Week. Always focused on community and elevating the capacities and networks of designers and women in design at all stages of their careers, LeAmon has lectured across the disciplines of industrial and interior design, contemporary craft and new media. Since 1995 she has held positions at RMIT University, Monash University, Swinburne University, Box Hill Institute and Princess Nora University, Riyadh (20014-15) where she delivered professional development training to staff, leading Saudia Arabia’s first Industrial Design program for women.

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LeAmon’s role in fostering emerging design talent and the careers of Australian practitioners across Australia continues today through her work at NGV. She holds Adjunct Professor in the School of Design and the Social Context at RMIT University.