• Celebration
• New Zealand

Hari Kirihimete From Design Assembly

4 years ago by Louise Kellerman

Hari Kirihimete from Design Assembly!
This year has proven even more challenging than 2020 in some respects.
As a professional community, we have mostly been lucky to be kept busy over the last four months (and we are all very grateful for this) but at the same time we have also been balancing the challenges of looking after our teams and peers emotional and mental wellbeing as well as our own and this has left everyone ready for a much needed break.
This year, we:

• Published 204 articles, interviews and features.
• Delivered 31 events, online and in-person.
• Piloted Katoitoi, the Aotearoa Design Archive, with funding from CNZ.
• Supported our community through Covid-19 and the challenges of 2021 during the lockdown, by sharing Take 10 with… articles, helpful links and resources.
• Launched DA Webinars during the August and September lockdown.
• Embedded our online program offering through the Under The Hood series and DA Podcast – profiling and celebrating our DA Friends
• Participated in workshops with our partners at Streamtime and Never Not Creative around empathy and mental health within the industry.
• Brought our community together in-person when we could at our Autumn Conversations event, with candid conversations with leaders throughout the year on the impact of Covid-19.
• Launched DA Dinners, an intimate opportunity for leadership and studio owners to get together to share common issues and celebrate their wins.

 
Of course, we couldn’t have done any of this without our DA friends, our DA community and our principal partners – Blutui, Portfolio Recruitment, mychillybin, BookPrint and Streamtime who help to support us, so that we can support you. We are grateful for everything we’ve all achieved this year.

Design Assembly wishes for you all, much love, peace of mind and joy in your summer break and for the year ahead. We are all looking forward to spending time offline in nature and with my family and friends, sharing a laugh.
Take time for yourself to rest, relax and reflect during your holiday to return ready for what 2022 may bring.
Thanks to Isobel Joy Te Aho-White – @izzyjoyart for our illustration, and thank-you all for your support of Design Assembly this year. We can’t wait to reconnect and see the Aotearoa design whanau again in the new year.
Hari Kirihimete!
– Louise and Janelle