RMIT Design Archives

21/05/2026

Game On! Typotronic Revisited

In 1998, designer Stephen Banham (Letterbox) and architect/macromedia specialist Peter Hennessey (Drome Pty Ltd) created Typotronic – an electronic game that challenged kids to spot and build words from Melbourne’s iconic signage, from Pellegrini’s and Flinders Street Station to the American Donut van and Dinkum Pies.

After disappearing into digital oblivion, Typotronic is back. RMIT’s Born Digital Cultural Heritage Lab has brought the game to life again through digital emulation – complete with original sound effects (yes, including tram dings 🚋).

📍 See it in action
RMIT Design Archives Gallery Window
154 Victoria Street, Carlton
🗓️ Melbourne Design Week | 14–24 May

Presented by RMIT Design Archives and the RMIT Born Digital Cultural Heritage Lab. AusEaaSI is supported by the Australian Government through the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grants. Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Visit the website to find out more about this transformative project.

Image credit:
Game On! Typotronic Revisted in the RMIT Design Archives Window. Design by Stephen Banham . Image provided by Stephen Banham.

19/05/2026

Event cancellation

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we regretfully have to cancel tomorrow's Melbourne Design Week event, Born Digital: the architectural archives of Bernard Joyce and William Nankivell.

We are sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause.

Please keep an eye on the RMIT Library Events page for other events in the RMIT Design Archives, and we look forward to seeing you at some time in the future.

18/05/2026

Join us during Melbourne Design Week for a unique insight into the preservation and interrogation of born-digital cultural heritage collections.

RMIT University’s Born Digital Cultural Heritage Lab is emulating original CAD files from the architectural archive of Bernard Joyce and William Nankivell – now accessible again through this transformative project.

Pictured is a CAD file created in 1996 by the architectural practice Nankivell Kelly and Missingham (NKM). In 1995, NKM practice won the commission to design the Warragul campus of Central Gippsland College of TAFE (now TAFE Gippsland). As a result of this transformative project we are now able to view these CAD files.

In this interactive MDW session, RMIT University's Professor Sarah Teasley and architect Greg Missingham will discuss the NKM practice, its early adoption of computer-aided design, and the significance of these records. There will also be an demonstration of the emulation process, and related original architectural drawings and records on display.

The event is made possible by RMIT’s participation in AusEAASI, a program of research with the common aim of providing access to cultural significant born-digital artefacts held in archives and collections across Australia. AusEaaSI is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grants: The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections.

Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. Please book via the MDW website.

Date/s and Location: Wednesday 20 May at 11:00am.
Bookings: Melbourne Design Week website, link in bio.

Image and image credit: CAD file showing design for Central Gippsland College of TAFE: West Gippsland campus Development Project, Warragul, c. 1995-1996, Gift of Peter Nankivell, Sarah Hicks and Priscilla Nelson 2011.

13/05/2026

Game on for Melbourne Design Week

Typotronic, a 1998 electronic game by Stephen Banham (Letterbox) and Peter Hennessey, has been rescued from digital oblivion by RMIT’s Born Digital Cultural Heritage lab.

Once again, players can explore Melbourne’s typographic landscape—from Pelligrini’s to the American Donut van—complete with original tram ‘dings’.

See and hear an emulation of the game being played in the RMIT Design Archives Gallery Window on Victoria Street during .

Presented by RMIT Design Archives and the RMIT Born Digital Cultural Heritage Lab. With thanks to Professor Sarah Teasley, Caroline Choong, Erik North, and Stephen Banham and Peter Hennessey.

AusEaaSI is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grants: The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections Access & The Australian Emulation Network Phase 2 – Extending the Reach.

Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Date/s and Location: Melbourne Design Week 14 to 24 May

RMIT Design Archives Gallery window, 154 Victoria Street, Carlton.

12/05/2026

It was a pleasure to welcome Maggie Edmond, AM, and students from the Melbourne School of Design to the RMIT Design Archives last week.

Maggie spoke about her work on Caroline Chisholm Terrace (1977-1979), an elderly citizens development financed by the Housing Commission of Victoria. Located at 402 Corrigan Road, Keysborough, the project extended Edmond & Corrigan’s partnership with the Parish of the Resurrection. In 1976 the Parish agreed to lease a parcel of land on its boundary to the Housing Commission Victoria on the condition that Edmond & Corrigan would be consulted on the design and landscaping of the housing, ensuring strong links with the existing parish buildings and landscaping.

Maggie conducted surveys and interviews with elderly residents which directly informed the design. Standard Ministry of Housing layouts and dimensions were modified to promote social contact between residents—for example kitchens oriented to the front and the inclusion of a communal BBQ area—an early instance of a collaboration between government architects and a private architectural practice.

The development comprised 27 affordable units (21 bed-sitting room units and 6 one-bedroom units, described as ‘Darby and Joan’ units in the documentation.) The landscaping was undertaking by Peter Avery of Environmental Involvement landscaping, to harmonise with the existing landscape on the adjacent church properties.

Good luck with your thesis research, everybody.

Image credit:
Maggie Edmond and Melbourne School of Design Students, 2026, RMIT Design Archives. Photographer Simone Rule.

06/05/2026

Join us on Wednesday 20 May at 11am during Melbourne Design Week for a unique insight into how we are preserving and accessing born-digital cultural heritage.

We will be diving into the CAD files and archives of architects Bernard Joyce and William Nankivell, whose residential, civic and commercial work helped shape Australian architecture.

Researchers in RMIT University’s Born Digital Cultural Heritage Lab are working with the RMIT Design Archives to view and manipulate CAD files in the Joyce Nankivell architectural collection from the early 1990s for the first time. The CAD files form part of the practice’s extensive archive that is held at the RMIT Design Archives.

Professor Sarah Teasley and special guest architect Greg Missingham will be in conversation as part of an emulation demonstration and collection viewing.

Pictured is volunteer, Kristofer Peralta, Master of Architecture (Distinction), RMIT University 2025, cataloguing CAD files in the Nankivell & Joyce collection.

The event is made possible by RMIT’s participation in AusEAASI, a program of research with the common aim of providing access to cultural significant born-digital artefacts held in archives and collections across Australia.

AusEaaSI is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grants: The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections Access (LE220100057) & The Australian Emulation Network Phase 2 – Extending the Reach (LE250100051).

Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Image:
Kristofer Peralta, cataloguing the digital files in the Nankivell & Joyce Archive. RMIT Design Archives 2026

01/05/2026

This perspective drawing of the Kenyon House, Croydon is currently on display in the RMIT Library, as part of a celebration of the Library’s new digital display of books from the Peter Corrigan Special Collection.

The Kenyon House in Croydon, Victoria was the first architectural commission by Peter Corrigan in 1964, then a fourth-year architecture student at The University of Melbourne. The completion date is noted as November 1974. In 2021 the Maroondah Council confirmed a permanent heritage overlay for the property given its local aesthetic, rare, technical and associative significance.

This perspective of the residence was drawn by Brian Burr. Burr also studied at The University of Melbourne, completing his Bachelor of Architecture in 1964. Burr would go on to become an internationally recognised architectural illustrator being awarded the William J. Mitchell Chapter Prize in the 2016 Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards Australian Institute of Architects.

You can view the display of artefacts from the RMIT Design Archives collection on Level One of the RMIT University Library.

Image credit:
Perspective of Kenyon House, Croydon, architect, Peter Corrigan, illustrator, Brian Burr, Gift of Edmond & Corrigan, 0058.2013.0040

30/04/2026

Go behind the scenes in the RMIT Design Archives in this short video featuring works from the collection. Victorian artist and RMIT alumna Dr. Carole Wilson reflects on her work with Jill Posters and Another Planet Posters—feminist poster collectives active in the 1970s and 1980s—and on the vibrant era of political screen-printed posters in Australia, from late night paste ups to their eventual acquisition by institutions such as the RMIT Design Archives.

It’s part of a series of short videos featuring works from RMIT Art Collection, RMIT Design Archives, and the RMIT Australian Screen Research Collection available through RMIT University Library’s Video Channel on You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuddysj4CGY

29/04/2026

It was a pleasure to welcome, Maggie Maguire, OAM, to the RMIT Design Archives to discuss the archive of her father, Eric Maguire (1923-2013), an acclaimed Australian designer.

An art director, designer, illustrator, calligrapher and photographer, in 1962 Maguire became one of the only six Australian’s included in the worldwide book ‘Who’s Who in Graphic Art.’ He was also a founding member of the Society of the Ambulant Cheese, whose members dominated Australian graphic design in the 1950s and 1960s, and was a long-time president of the Art Directors Club. He was also the first Australian to be elected to the International Centre for Typographic Arts. Eric Maguire was inducted into the Australian Graphic Design Association’s Hall of Fame in 1998.

Maggie is pictured with graphic designer and RDA volunteer Chelsey Connor. After completing a Bachelor of Media and Communication (Honours) Chelsey’s interest in design research was sparked and began a volunteer project with the RMIT Design Archives. She has been meticulously matching Eric Maguire’s Job book for 1953-1954 with the physical records. This work has given us a fascinating window into Maguire’s working process, his role as a designer, development of his ideas, the advertising agencies and clients he worked with as a freelance designer during this period.

Image credit:
Maggie Maguire and Chelsey Connor in the RMIT Design Archives with the Eric Maguire Collection.

23/04/2026

We’re delighted that the University’s recently released Impact Report features a story on the Isaacson Davis Foundation’s support of the RMIT Design Archives. Thanks to the generosity of Tony Isaacson and Megan Davis, we have been able to digitise and document thousands of items in the RMIT Design Archives’ architectural collections. Thanks Tony, Thanks Megan!

Thanks to the generosity of donors, Australia’s architecture and design history is being brought to new audiences.

22/04/2026

. This 1949 perspective by Frederick Romberg shows a proposed development for Melbourne’s Western Market site, bounded by Market, Collins, William and Little Flinders Streets, Melbourne. The perspective formed part of a submission prepared for a competition conducted by the Melbourne City Council in 1948. The Council proposed that the commercial office development accommodate 4,000 workers and specified that the design included car parking for a minimum of 500 cars.

The Assessors─architects Percy Meldrum, Leighton Irwin and Eric Beilby─received 39 sets of drawings in response to the competition and awarded the first prize in 1949 to Melbourne architects Perrot, Osborne and O’Connor.

Despite the fanfare, plans to demolish the Western Market buildings were stalled until 1961. In 1964, the 24-level National Mutual Centre office tower, designed by Godfrey Spowers Hughes Mewton & Lobb with Leith & Bartlett, was completed on the site.

Romberg’s submission includes a 22-page report on the site, drawings and an interesting visualisation of the Collins Street view.

Image credit:
Print of 'Perspective View, Development of Western Market Site, Melbourne'" [0020.2008.1040], creator: Frederick Romberg. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd