VANDAL Wins Prestigious Australian Good Design Award for Badu Gili: Healing Spirit
Sydney creative studio VANDAL has been recognised at the 2025 Australian Good Design Awards, receiving honours in the Built Environment & Installation Design category for Badu Gili: Healing Spirit – a six-minute projection artwork illuminating the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
Created in collaboration with the Sydney Opera House, Biennale of Sydney, and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Badu Gili: Healing Spirit celebrates stories of ritual and intergenerational knowledge.
The work brings together the art of Marilyn Russell, Steven Russell, and their late mother Esme Timbery of the Bidjigal people, alongside Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami of the Yanomami people in the Brazilian Amazon.
Through this global, cross-cultural exchange, the projection creates a dialogue between two First Nations communities, reflecting the universal human themes of resilience, kinship, and connection to Country.
Says Chris Scott, Creative Director, VANDAL: “This project represents the best of what we do at VANDAL – a huge collaborative effort across creative, design, animation, and production. I’m incredibly proud of our team, who poured so much care, sensitivity, and craft into every frame.”
The Good Design Awards Jury praised the work, stating: “This powerful collaboration exemplifies the role of design in fostering cultural exchange and understanding. The beautiful projection on one of Australia’s most iconic public settings immerses the viewer into an engaging spiritual experience. Well done to the team for this achievement.”
Now in its 66th year, the Australian Good Design Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious international design awards, celebrating excellence in design and innovation across more than 30 disciplines.
This recognition follows a standout year for VANDAL, recently named Australia’s #1 Production Company in Campaign Brief’s The Work 2025, and collecting four Golds and one Silver at the Better Future Sydney Design Awards. Together, these honours highlight VANDAL’s continued commitment to fusing storytelling, design, and technology to create experiences that move people and inspire connection.
Badu Gili: Healing Spirit continues the Sydney Opera House’s legacy of celebrating First Nations art through light, while expanding its global reach through collaboration with international Indigenous voices. It continues to play every night from sunset, on the eastern sails of Sydney Opera House.
Other winners from the 68th Good Design Awards include:
Good Design Award Gold Winner:
Connections – ReachOut Parents – a subbrand of ReachOut Australia, an online mental health platform helping young people feel better since 1998. Research shows that when the parents of a young person recognise that their teenager needs help, they’re more likely to get the help they need.
Designed by: Yonder Creative
‘This is Manly’ – takes a creative, youth-led approach to primary prevention. Co-designed by young people, the campaign challenges gender stereotypes, amplifies positive male role models, and redefines what it means to be ‘manly’ through social media vox-pop style storytelling and bold visual messaging across the streets of Perth.
Designed by: ThirdStory and Anthologie
Yarn It Out – Indigenous Voices at the Heart of a Suicide Prevention Campaign – In 2022, suicide among First Nations people accounted for 4.6% of all deaths. To address this, the campaign was created in partnership with Indigenous rappers Kobie Dee and Barkaa. Delivered through social media, TV, and outdoor placements, it features a simple yet powerful peer-to-peer message: Yarn It Out.
Designed by: Headjam
The Support Project – Avivo – A campaign by Block for Avivo that brings stories of care to the centre of public consciousness. Through powerful silhouettes and short films, it reframes advertising as advocacy — inviting reflection, fostering empathy, and shifting the cultural narrative about what it means to be a hero.
Designed by: Block Branding, Mark Braddock, Artcom Fabricators, Alucinor Productions, Sandbox Productions
Click here to see the full list of winners.
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