Who?

My name is Brook Johnson (sometimes known as Elena), and Live Breathe Design is my commercial identity.

What?

Over the course of my career as a graphic designer I have worked with a variety of blue-chip clients, concentrating on brand development, pitches and BTL communications. My past clients have included:

  • KPMG
  • BMI
  • Ericsson
  • The Ritz-Carlton Hotel

The majority of my clients are not-for-profit organisations and charities. These include:

  • Victorian Government
  • Government of Bahrain
  • Help the Aged (now Age UK)
  • Planning Aid
  • Cambridge University
  • SOS Foundation (Australia)

Where?

I am a Melbourne-based British graphic designer with Australian residency and full working rights. Before moving to Australia, I worked in:

  • UK
  • Bahrain
  • Germany

Origins

I trained at Kingston University, London. It was my privalige to study under designers Paul Arden, Zelda Malan, and Mike Bond, typographer Eugenie Dodd,  and photographer Nancy Honey.

In addition to strong technical skills, I learned inventive problem-solving and how to anticipate changes within media trends.

Prior to design, my background was in fine art and performative poetry.

Changing the world!

I have a particular interest in the global treatment of women, which can be seen in my personal work, and also in my work for Middle Eastern clients, where I challenge the representation of women in corporate media.

I am passionately involved in the Georges Malaika Foundation (GMF), which is committed to solving the education crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and dedicated to raising the literacy rate for Congolese women. The charity’s current focus is the construction of a school for girls, which recently opened last year in Lubumbashi.

In 2010 GMF was named one of only seven effective non-profits working to change the course of the DRC, and in 2011 we delivered 5 containers of health supplies to the Katanga Province, resulting in an immediate 3% decrease in mortality rates. The charity is regularly featured in the international press, and it’s founder Noëlla Coursaris Musunka is frequently invited to speak at the DRC Parliament, the UN, and UNICEF.

Only the local staff working in DRC are paid, while executive and support staff working in the US and around the globe are professionals volunteering their time and talents to support the mission and vision of GMF. My work includes funding proposals, fundraiser invitations, newsletters, publicity materials, a new website to be launched next year, and social media strategy.

If you would like to join us in improving the lives of girls in the DRC, you can find out more about donating your time or money to help GMF here.

More…

As a freelancer, I have am featured on Artisan Recruitment’s “A-List”. If you would like to know more about my views on design and life, you can read the article here.

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We must utilise our creativity to inspire, instruct, educate, persuade, entertain and amuse, and it is through word and image that we have the power to shape opinions, change perceptions and enrich lives.