Swinburne communication design alum Trinity Ross believes that creativity and design can change the world - but she didn't always think that.
"In high school, a lot of people discredited creativity, calling design an 'easy subject'. Your subject scores are even scaled down by the grading system too, so it's harder to get a high graduating score," says Trinity.
"I wanted to prove that people can do well in creative subjects, so I worked hard to get a good result."
Trinity's results earned her a Vice-Chancellor's scholarship for the Bachelor of Communication Design (Honours) - the same course both her parents had studied (and incidentally, where they met each other).
Today, Trinity is a globally recognised innovator who is changing the world one idea at a time.
Kick-starting a career in design
Even before her first class at Swinburne, Trinity was given opportunities to kick-start her career in design.
"As soon as we got our student email we were asked if anyone was interested in painting a Formula One race car for the Grand Prix in Melbourne…I jumped at it of course," says Trinity.
From there, Trinity dived into university life.
At Open Day, she took part in a startup pitch competition, pitching an idea for 'Nextpark' which she describes as like Airbnb for your car space.
Trinity was encouraged to enter the idea in Swinburne's Venture Cup competition and had the opportunity to pitch her idea to 200 people.
"That was the first big presentation I'd done in front of a crowd, it was a great experience," she says.
Despite not winning, a Swinburne connection introduced Trinity to the CEO of startup UbiPark who offered her a part-time design job while studying.
Trinity's ideas have seen her recognised as one of Vogue Australia's Future Innovators and named in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards 2022 list.
A light bulb moment
While studying, Trinity also worked at independent advertising agency Big Red Communications Group within the Coles Supermarket team. There she saw Coles' Little Shop campaign progress from idea to production and contribute to the supermarket recording its biggest quarterly profit of all time.
"That was such a great insight into how an advertising campaign can make such a big difference in a company's success" says Trinity.
"That's when I realised the power of creativity…when I started getting the confidence that design really can make a difference."
This light bulb moment sparked an idea for what would become her own business.
"We will all spend about a third of our lives at work, and I don't want to look back when I'm at retirement and think I spent that time and creative energy convincing people to buy things that they don't need. That's not what I was put here on earth to do," says Trinity.
Ideas that can change the world
Since 2021, Trinity has been at the helm of her own company Superthink - a creative ideas agency doing purposeful design and marketing.
Everything Superthink does links to the United Nations' 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals.
"The global goals are really close to my heart. All the projects that come through Superthink have to align with them," says Trinity.
Superthink's first concept project, which Trinity started developing during one of her classes at Swinburne, won an honourable mention in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards for 2022.
'A Good Sign' aims to bring sign language into Google Translate in the form of animated emojis to bring diversity and inclusion into the digital space.
This project also saw Trinity recognised in the Vogue Australia Top 5 Future Innovators of 2022 list.
Since then, Trinity has worked with many startups and organisations in the renewable energy sector like Wind Projects Australia.
Superthink is also working with Swinburne's Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) to craft its story of advanced manufacturing for aerospace by writing and designing a funding proposal to go to the Victorian Government.
"I reached out to Swinburne because I saw AIR Hub had launched the first hydrogen powered drone in Australia, which I thought was an incredible story about Aussies leading the way for clean aerospace," she says.
Trinity credits Superthink's growth to those who have believed in her along the way.
"At the end of the day, it's been people saying 'yes' to me…which is honestly one of the only ways I could have got to where I am today," she says.
Why not?
Trinity is driven by a desire to make an impact with the time she has.
"I want to look back and not regret not giving it all I have, because I know that everything is so finite," she says.
Trinity's advice to other students is to never doubt the power of creativity and design.
"Everything you interact with in this world has literally been designed by some other human…so why couldn't that be you?" she says.
She also shares the overall mantra she lives by which is simply, why not?
"Why not see what type of person you can become? Why not see how many people you can help? Why not see how much you can do and how far you can go?"
