BADAC is the Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation (ACCHO) for the Ballarat and district area, covering four local government areas. BADAC is focused on prevention and early intervention and assists clients to personally engage in nurturing their own futures.

Our communication design students work directly with BADAC educators to contribute to a local community project, in a meaningful exchange. The BADAC ICE education project engages students to explore new ways of communicating with Aboriginal youth and their families about the dangers of ICE use. In 2017 students undertook character illustration to bring the message to life.

In the third year of communication design, students undertook a project exploring the theme of ‘HYPE'. The project lit up the night for a fortnight in central Ballarat, with animated visuals projected in vivid colour onto the Ballarat Town Hall. Students also created a ‘zine’ to support the project and distribute in the community.

Federation University Australia communication design students linked up with the Greater Western Victoria Rebels Football Club. An unlikely match? We don’t think so.

"Art and sport have the power to change the world, the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way little else can. Art and sport speak to people in a language they understand. Art and sport can create hope where there was once only despair. They are the instruments for peace, even more powerful than governments." Nelson Mandela

During the 2017 Ballarat International Foto Biennale Fringe Program, an extensive open-air photographic exhibition appeared on the fenceline of SMB Campus in Armstrong Street South. We pasted over-sized graphic street posters created by communication design students that explored personal identity and the sporting inspirations/aspirations of young female and male footballers.

In 2017, communication design students created the exhibition, Board Game Geeks, a series of board games which were available to the public. They challenged players to find the way out of a labyrinth of mining tunnels, play the part of a crooked cop, solve murder mysteries, and take turns to fight off monsters and ghosts. Players uncovered the mysteries and met the weirdos, spooks and cranks of Ballarat’s past in the Heritage Weekend@Arts Academy exhibition.