Gordon Andrews was Australia’s first world-class designer. His appreciation of form and function, materials and manufacturing began as a young boy in his father’s engineering workshop. Later, while studying art at East Sydney Technical College, he discovered the world of graphic design within the pages of Gebrauchsgrafik in the college library. After leaving art college and his time at a Sydney advertising agency, Gordon travelled around the world, first to London, then to Paris and the US, in search of stimulation and knowledge. He returned to Sydney but it wasn’t long before he headed back to London in 1949, where he designed showrooms and exhibitions for British Olivetti, BEA and BOAC. After a period designing for Olivetti in Italy, he returned once more to Australia where he became busy designing interiors, furniture, signage and jewelry. Gordon was perhaps best known for his designs of the first Australian decimal banknotes, released in 1966.