Farhana Ismail

Farhana is a collaborative design researcher and graphic designer with extensive experience in workshop facilitation, user research, and co-design.

Empathy and gentle disruption lie at the centre of Farhana’s practice. She approaches her work with curiosity and an open mind, constantly questioning the status quo and how exploration is carried out. Farhana actively grows her knowledge of non-western design practices and principles. She overturns linear approaches to find novel outcomes, and creates safe and appropriate spaces to ensure that her research is inclusive and diverse.

Farhana has experience across many sectors, from government to finance, technology , and recruitment, including Family Safety Victoria, Atlassian, and SEEK. She has contributed to co-creating a vision of a customer-centric future with Energy Safe Victoria and modernising Bank Australia’s website to better serve its customers and communicate its brand values.

Farhana has a Bachelor of Design, specialising in Communication Design. She uses her background in design as a research tool — prototyping her research methods and using visuals as an integral part of her practice.

She is an active volunteer in her community and a member of the An.Other Collective, a creative sisterhood of Muslim artists and designers exploring identity, culture and agency through their work.