Dean Millson

“This school helps you realise that the sky is the limit.”

Dean Millson spent all his school years at Yarra and he feels lucky to have done so.

“The teachers and the school community were always welcoming. At the last reunion I attended I spoke to a former student and we talked about how, at one point at Yarra, we’d been part of a camp with some children from a school for the deaf. I don’t imagine many schools offered that kind of opportunity then, and that experience had a huge impact on me. It instilled in me the importance of acceptance of everybody and that you can learn from everybody,” says Dean.

When his father suddenly passed away when Dean was 10, the school community gathered round him and his family.

“We received such kind letters and great support from Yarra – I can’t imagine what that time would have been like without that,” he says.

Dean’s passions at school were music and the arts. He studied classical and jazz piano, trumpet and played the bassoon, drums and percussion.

“I have strong memories of performing a piano solo on the main stage, stuffing it up but somehow managing to fix it!” he says.

In later years, Dean discovered a new passion when he began studying graphic design, which laid the foundations of his future career.

“In Year 11 or 12 I remember designing a poster for a kitchen mixer brand – I liked having a point to my art. I wanted to create art with a purpose,” he says.

After graduating, his portfolio earned him a place at the highly sought-after graphic design course at RMIT University and Dean then began a design studio with fellow designers.

“I’ve been fortunate to be influenced by talented people and they have helped me get where I am today. It’s always about people, for me. In school, teachers helped me along the way and throughout life, people have shown me different ways to work and different things to aspire to.”

Dean has worked with a series of design agencies and is now director of a Melbourne based brand and design agency with a diverse range of clients.

“At one time in my life I was running club nights and DJ parties – I started those events on my own because Yarra instilled in me a sense of self-enablement that I could try and do things,” he says.

“I left Yarra with a self-awareness that I could have a go and I could achieve what I wanted to achieve if I put my mind to it.”