I bring people together to embrace human needs, ethical considerations, inclusive practices and inspiring possibilities.
Through caring collaboration forged in trust, we create innovative, meaningful solutions that resonate, empower, and endure.
Curiosity, authenticity, and kindness are my core values, and you’ll notice them from the moment we start working together. These values guide everything I do as a designer, driving my purpose for creating positive, community-driven systems change.
With over 15 years of experience, including five transformative years at Portable, I've led initiatives that have delivered improved mental health services, equitable government policies, accessible educational experiences and enhanced processes to increase access to justice.
Through my work, I strive to bring diverse voices to the forefront, ensuring everyone's perspectives are respected and represented as we work together to improve interactions, experiences, services, strategies and systems.
I am a design leader, coach, and mentor. I share my knowledge and practices with my clients, peers, students, and the public. I take pride in nurturing the next generation of designers, helping them develop their skills, and fostering a shared responsibility for creating a better world through ethical design practices.
I'm passionate about using design to create positive change and address systemic challenges. I'm always eager to collaborate with like-minded individuals and organisations to push the boundaries of what's possible and create a more equitable and just future through design.
Feedback from my colleagues over the years.
“Adam, I am incredibly impressed at how you've been herding cats on this project. We are only in our first week and there are already some curve balls flying around. Thank you for creating space for the team to get across the project context, helping us get clear on project roles and responsibilities, allowing me time to get into the details of desktop research and trusting my approach and creating time and space to talk as a team about project scope and what it means for our hours breakdown.”
– Design Strategist at Portable (July 2021)
“Adam has been a fantastic lead and project collaborator to the point where it is difficult to pick specific examples. Always receptive to concerns from either role or project perspective, he has been invaluable in guiding project concerns and risk, being a fantastic sounding board and collaborative problem solver. A seemingly endless supply of patience and calm in the face of stressful situations and problems definitely makes me a much better practitioner.”
– Senior Design Strategist at Portable (November 2021)
“Shout-out and thank you to Adam for stepping in and leading on an impromptu all-staff presentation about the new performance development outcomes. Coming straight off the back of annual leave and illness, it would have been reasonable for Adam to want to focus on other things, especially when there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm or availability from the rest of the working group to contribute to this at short notice. But Adam stepped in with a smile, saw the importance of providing clarity to our team over needing a polished presentation and single-handedly created the agenda and deck (which turned out to be polished anyway), with no stress or worry (well, not visibly anyway). A great example of 'we're in it together'. Thanks Adam!”
– Head of Production at Portable (May 2022)
“Firstly, I wanted to express how enthusiastic and energising Adam is. He's brought a great energy to this project already. I know he wants to "get back on the tools" and you can see how much he is enjoying it! Secondly, I wanted to highlight that it's been really useful to shadow him and that I've got a lot to learn from him. From the way he articulates himself, communicates with the team and answers client's questions, to how he makes space for others and leads conversations, his conscientious manner and depth of expertise is shining through. In turn, it's helping me to be a better designer! Feeling very privileged to work with a Lead in this way.”
– Design Strategist at Portable (June 2022)
“I'd like to call out Adam's enthusiasm around using AI safely and ethically. He's playing a key role in setting the direction that Portable is taking, and consistently sharing good resources and engaging in fruitful discussions on the AI experiments slack channel. It's not going unnoticed. As someone who is playing around with this stuff as part of my projects, he's been great at keeping my practice aligned with best practice and the latest research in this space. Thanks for trying new things Adam, and for sharing this around for everyone to utilise.”
– Senior Design Strategist at Portable (January 2024)
“Adam has rolled into this project with his eyes open and heart aware. I've heard Adam mention specific reflections and observations from previous and recent projects that he's hoping to adapt, change or proactively plan-for on this project. While many of them are related to delivery, I hear Adam's deep reflections on ethics, power-awareness and wellbeing. I also sense they're hard earned reflections, with a lot of care and considered thought put into them. Thank you for sharing the new things you're trying out with us Adam. By doing this we are learning about you and building safety together as a team. This makes it safe for us to try new things too. This is a mindset we will need as we navigate this complex project. And I want to celebrate you encouraging this subtle yet important strengths-based practice.”
– Senior Design Strategist at Portable (May 2024)
“I was really impressed with Adam's engaging, approachable and encouraging facilitation style. I also wanted to call out that Adam really leaned into this project to support our new Producer and to ensure the workshop was polished, informed by the supplied pre-material supplied and a great use of the staff’s time. As Account Manager I was very grateful to Adam for taking this initiative beyond his normal project duties. This is an important client being both in a new target impact area and with personal ties to our senior leadership team, so I really wanted to acknowledge the support he provided.”
– Lead Client Partner at Portable (July 2021)
“Adam continues to set an example of leadership in the team. We're only two days back from leave and two examples I can point to. At our project retro on Monday, Adam shared candidly about his personal learnings on the project, and set a great example and tone for the team on how we can improve. He was also excellent at supporting the conversation in terms of a complicated client relationship, and balancing that with the supporting the team to help them succeed. I regularly see Adam hold the voice of his team and the client in his context and works with me and others to achieve the best possible outcome for all. Adam is a busy person, and he regularly communicates when he has time available and what he will do with that time, and continues to follow up afterwards. He's been communicating with myself and jumping in and offering his lead eagle eye when we need his support. This requires regular comms and as someone producing his projects it helps me greatly that he is so proactive about being clear with his time.”
– Senior Digital Producer at Portable (January 2022)
“Adam has been a ROCK through a big period of change. Design team turnover, org structure shifts... redefining what the role of a Lead might be, etc. I've seen Adam always offer his leadership in service of others, taking people management with amazing rigour and dedication. It's also been a real pleasure to see his work on the client partnership framework and seeing how we can work together to integrate some work I've been doing on what a certain client relationship profile might mean for how we practice service delivery. Also, in general, Adam's an excellent person to bounce ideas, opportunities, challenges with. He allows me to zoom in and out on diverse topics and is always perceptive, receptive, and encouraging. I see only a slice of what you do Adam, but I know how much of yourself you dedicate to being a great design leader and I really appreciate it.”
– Head of Client Partnerships at Portable (June 2022)
"Just wanted to highlight the power of feedback and let Adam know that his seeds of wisdom that he planted when he was my people manager are still flourishing. While reflecting yesterday in my 1:1 with my lead, it occurred to me that I feel like I have found "my voice" and feel more confident being bold with my insights and sharing my opinions. In large part that's thanks to Adam who really encouraged me to lean into this. Keep spreading the feedback love buddy! The way you present feedback is encouraging and you make it feel really achievable. Thank YOU.”
– Senior Design Strategist at Portable (January 2023)
“I know you have always been good at opening up conversations about quality and doing good work and doing it in the right way. This past week, I really appreciated your work on the Portable Newsletter, on the article you crafted for it, on the interview you gave to our marketing manager for it, and on the consistently warm, “can do” way you show up and collaborate. I know you have a lot on, so to have you bring forward your completion deadlines to accommodate the changed newsletter plan was really ace. You gave your time and cooperation in the interview, and also in reviewing and finessing it later. You were the one who asked if you could see the draft newsletter, and picked up on the image URL errors, as well as checking out things on LinkedIn. Additionally, today I was shown for the first time a Miro board that I was told you created - a template for proposal planning. It's fantastic and I love it and I wish I'd known about it earlier but I will now be promoting its use (and adaptation for any other parts of the business we want!).”
– Lead Client Partner at Portable (February 2024)
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I grew up in the meeting place of the Wiradjuri, Waywurru and Dhudhuroa peoples, in a place of many bulrushes called Wodonga, spending my summers on the rivers and lakes fed by the mighty river that was once known as Indi, Dhungala, Millewa or Murrundi.
I acknowledge, honour and respect the traditional custodians of the lands and waters where I have called home for most of my life, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and I acknowledge, honour and respect the traditional custodians of the lands and waters where I find my roots today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
I pay my respects to the elders of these lands and waters past and present. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
