Tāmaki Makaurau is our home, an anchor to who we are and what we create.
Formed from violent volcanic eruptions, the landscape undulates with an intense purpose. Large grassy calderas and soaring tuff cones give way to jet black sand beaches and the great forest of Tiriwa. To the north lies aquamarine waters and the bays, with their soothing ways and warm embrace. To the south lies the majority of our populace and its heady mix of culture and newness.
From wild, rugged harbour to calm, gentle coast, we journey this narrowest of lands. Our travels throughout this far flung place inform us, teach us, guide us to a better understanding of what has come before and the possibilities of what could be.
Through their multidisciplinary creative agency Osborne Shiwan (Lloyd Osborne and Shabnam Shiwan) explores the idea of place through storytelling. This narrative takes many forms including language and symbology.
Place explores ideas of culture, heritage, people and place, through written and illustrative works. The use of modernism, in particular Lichtenstein and the Memphis design movement, provides a catalyst for the illustrative work. A casual collision forming ever-changing strands, woven throughout this love letter to Auckland.
The writing is framed through the designers’ lens of families journeying from other places to settle in this city, their lives forever changed through new experiences as they look towards a bright future full of hope.
The use of paste up posters, commonly seen at street level, is designed for the work’s transitional positioning within the gallery foyer space.
The semipermanent nature of paste up posters reflects the momentum of Auckland itself, a dynamic and diverse environment that recognises the past while embracing the future.
With Place, Osborne and Shiwan embrace this ongoing change, often with an irreverent tone, as being outside of their control. That Auckland is seemingly anarchic is, perhaps, why it holds such a special place in their hearts.
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Founded in 2006, Osborne Shiwan is an Auckland-based brand agency specialising in strategic thinking and art direction. Creative Directors Lloyd Osborne and Shabnam Shiwan have worked with some of New Zealand’s most influential brands and their work has been recognised internationally within the areas of commerce, arts and culture.