AUTHOR Tracy Kenworthy
DATE 29 September 2026
The thinking, belief and opportunity behind Dessein CoLabs
Last year, we developed a packaging concept in collaboration with a printer, paper supplier and client, with each of us intending to use the finished piece as part of our own self-promotion.
It was a good idea, but the timing wasn’t. Everyone was busy, workloads were full and unfortunately it didn’t get off the ground.
I could see the idea had real potential and didn’t want it to disappear.
It made me think: what if we took responsibility for driving opportunities like this ourselves?
What if, instead of waiting for a client to bring us a brief, we recognised the opportunity, brought the right people together and combined our skills and resources to make it happen?
What if we combined our commitment to design excellence with an exceptional product, business or idea and explored possibilities the client may not have considered, or perhaps didn’t have the time or budget to pursue?
Together, we could create something new. Something that wasn’t already on their radar. Something beyond what they may have imagined.
This is where the idea of Dessein CoLabs was born.
What do we mean by CoLabs?
Collaboration is nothing new. Today, the word collab has become particularly familiar. We see brands joining forces to create limited products, share audiences and draw attention to some pretty amazing things. Things we didn’t know we needed!
Our thinking is a little different.
For us, a CoLab begins with recognising potential.
It might be an exceptional product that deserves to be seen differently. A business doing something genuinely well, with an opportunity it hasn’t yet explored. Or different strengths that, when brought together, could create something neither party would have considered alone.
Our client brings what they do best. Dessein brings creative thinking, brand knowledge, experience and design excellence. Together, we explore the opportunity to create something new, exciting and rewarding.
At the heart of CoLabs are a few simple principles:
Discover
Collaboration begins when each party brings something the other does not have.
No one party needs to have or do everything. That’s the point.
We are not waiting for the brief.
We are looking for the opportunity and turning it into a viable reality.
Design leads the investment.
What is good here, and what could it become?
These ideas are changing the way I think about how we, as designers, can work with our clients.
So, what’s the difference between a CoLab and any other client project?
Quite simply, it’s the way we enter the relationship.
Traditionally, the client brings the brief and engages us to deliver against it. In a CoLab, we are the ones who recognise the opportunity and choose to put our creative thinking, time and design expertise behind helping it become something more.
We are not simply responding to a brief. We are backing an idea we believe has potential.
That might involve shaping and positioning an idea, developing a brand or packaging, exploring how something might be produced, or finding a way to take an existing product somewhere new.
Everyone brings something meaningful to the table and has something invested in making it work.
How did we get here?
Much of the thinking behind CoLabs has grown from the experience Geoff and I have accumulated through building Dessein together. Over nearly four decades, we have worked with clients across a wide range of industries, each sharing knowledge of their business and products so we could better understand the challenge in front of us. In doing so, they taught us far more than the brief itself: marketers taught us about strategy and positioning; manufacturers and food producers about ingredients, materials and production processes; and every client, project and industry added to our understanding of people, products, business and commercial relationships. That collective experience has given us not only design expertise, but a broader understanding of how ideas are developed, made, positioned and brought to market.
I think. I believe. I know.
There is also a more personal influence behind this thinking.
My mum, Carole Daxter, is a self-published author whose infectious belief in positivity has played a big part in my own outlook. One of her books, I Think, I Believe, I Know, centres on affirmations.
Without really realising it, I have channelled some of her words and started putting them into action.
I have always believed that if something matters to you and you feel passionately about it, then with preparation and, most importantly, belief in yourself, you can achieve anything.
It is probably why that one simple word, Believe, resonates with me whenever I see it.
I believe in the idea behind CoLabs and in bringing together people who are genuinely good at what they do. Most importantly, I believe in the people we choose to collaborate with.
For me, CoLabs isn’t simply about combining products, skills or brands. It is about backing good people and good ideas. Bringing experience, energy and creativity together. Pivoting the way we think and giving new opportunities the chance to become a reality.
The opportunity exists in the combination.
Different people, different strengths and different experiences, brought together with a shared belief in what they can create.
I thought there was potential. I believed we could make it happen. I know this is worth it.
Coming Together
This year, Dessein has four special CoLabs coming together, each bringing a different combination of passion, skill, capability and something special that deserves to be explored.
Join me in the next blog as I begin to reveal each CoLab.
Author: Tracy Kenworthy
Tracy Kenworthy, partner to Geoff Bickford in both life and work via Dessein a boutique design studio in Northbridge, Perth is a Graphic Designer, who loves intelligent design solutions and concepts that deliver the wow factor and admires those who have the ability to create them.
“It amazes me that these creations can come from the most unlikely of sources and pleases me when I discover them,” says Tracy. “I love it when my family share life's discoveries together and marvel at the world we live in. I try to remain positive through all of life's ups and downs and remember that the journey of our life is of our own choosing. What we get out of it is only as good as what we put into it and the values and morals by which we live.”
Feel free to connect with Tracy on LinkedIn.