For Dilushi Prasanna, design became a way to understand both herself and the world around her. A Sri Lankan communication designer raised in Kuwait and now living in Naarm (Melbourne), her work is shaped by migration and a desire to create space for stories often overlooked or flattened.

Her creative path holds many layers. Moving to Sri Lanka as a young adult helped her better understand who she was, while immersing herself deeply in the design world. That journey led to representing Sri Lanka at Cannes Lions in France and later travelling to Google HQ in California as part of Creative Campus. Years later, she would begin again – arriving in Melbourne with little more than a suitcase and a couch to sleep on, before receiving an unconditional offer from RMIT.

Working on Wurundjeri Country profoundly shifted how Dil approaches design and community. Influenced by First Nations decolonial ways of thinking, alongside her own multicultural upbringing, her practice is grounded in human-centred storytelling.

This is most evident in Kotthu From Down Under, her self-published book documenting the Sri Lankan diaspora of Melbourne through the dialogue of food. Bringing together stories shaped by war, migration and the pursuit of freedom, the project creates space for a community rarely documented with this level of intimacy and nuance.