You can’t not watch Clemenger BBDO’s campaign commercial for The Design Institute of Australia (DIA). It’s magnetic, a designer’s dream work. That’s important because its audience is designers. The landmark national advocacy campaign, Write DESIGNER, is working to count designers in the upcoming 2026 Census.

Despite contributing an estimated $67.5 billion* to the Australian economy each year, there is currently no reliable baseline count of how many designers actually work in Australia.

Write DESIGNER is running across TV, digital and social platforms, to empower Australia’s design workforce to label themselves as “designers” in the upcoming Census on August 11, helping to establish the first national benchmark of the country’s design community. 

The 60-second TV commercial, features the voice of ARIA award-winning hip-hop artist and frontman of 1200 Techniques, N’fa Jones, a score by electronic music composer Jonah Gabriel, and many of Australia’s leading designers, studios and businesses, all contributing their talents to highlight the breadth of the nation’s design profession.

Jones’ voice sets the scene for the film, opening with the words, “You can’t. Can’t hear, can’t see, can’t breathe, can’t be heard, can’t feel seen.” A range of Australian designers, including internationally acclaimed industrial designer, Marc Newson; fashion house, Romance Was Born; PACCAR Australia (the designers behind Kenworth trucks); Ludo Studio (the studio behind Bluey); RØDE Microphones; coral reef designer, Reef Design Lab; tech company, Blackmagic; air quality visualisation tool designers, Portable; wayfinding creator, Büro North; indigenous designer, Balarinji; jeweller, Blanche Tilden; food packager, Wonki; and interior designers, Carr and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and many more answer the call.

Nationally, design has long been one of the most economically significant, yet consistently underestimated communities. It is estimated design-related industries and workers contribute more than 3.5% of GDP* to the Australian economy. 

The 2026 Census presents a watershed opportunity for Australia’s design profession. For the first time, Census data around the design workforce will be coded under the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Occupation Standard Classification framework, establishing the first national benchmark of the design workforce within its own dedicated occupational group.

With the Census just over a month away, the Write DESIGNER campaign encourages every designer to identify themselves by their specific design profession when answering the question, “What is the person’s occupation?” Designers can use a recognised design occupation within the new framework group, 242 Design Professionals.

DIA CEO, Simone LeAmon, stated, “Write DESIGNER is more than a campaign; it’s a collective act of advocacy for Australia’s design profession. Every day, designers challenge assumptions, solve complex problems, create value and transform ‘you can’t’ into ‘you can’. This campaign is about uniting an entire profession around a single moment that only comes around once every five years. By ensuring designers are accurately counted on Census night, we’re building the evidence needed to strengthen advocacy, inform decision making and government policy, and secure greater recognition for design into the future.”

Clemenger BBDO executive creative director, Giles Watson, added, “We’re surrounded by what designers make possible, yet the people who make it happen have stayed invisible. We’re turning this census into a moment to celebrate a profession built on challenging assumptions and solving problems most people never see, and just as importantly, a moment to finally get designers counted, credited and recognised.” 

A full list of recognised design occupations and alternative titles is available on the DIA’s Write DESIGNER campaign page or via the ABS website.

 *Source: IP Australia, Defining Design, 2020.