2025 Hot New Things: Ruby Bird, AUT Art and Design
Each summer Design Assembly profiles a selection of the top graduates from the best Art and Design Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. We welcome these talented emerging professionals to our industry, learn about their passions, final projects, developing creative confidence and ambitions for the future.
Today we speak with Ruby Bird who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Design from AUT Art and Design School. Find out more about undergraduate and postgraduate study options in art and design by visiting our Design Schools page.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
Hello! I’m Ruby Bird, and I’ve just finished up my final year of a Bachelor of Design, majoring in Communication Design, at AUT. Originally from Mount Maunganui, I moved up to Auckland for uni in 2022. I’ve always loved creating, a consistent passion that has taken me on a pretty common journey from kid-who-loves-to-draw to (almost) qualified designer. Creatively, I’m drawn to work that combines analogue and digital tools, and I love seeing work come to life as a physical object. I think design is such a powerful and important thing, and I can’t wait to explore and learn more about what this world can offer. Outside of design, you’ll find me in the NYT games app or making another Spotify playlist that I’ll never listen to.
What was the focus of your graduating project?
My graduating project ‘Dubito Ergo Creo, Creo Ergo Dubito*’ is a publication that explores uncertainty in the creative process through typography. The inspiration for this project came from me having no idea what to do at the start of the semester, a feeling of uncertainty that I found scary and uncomfortable. It wasn’t until I started making that I realised that creativity itself cannot exist without uncertainty, and I needed to change my perspective on it.
The project explores this intrinsic and important connection between creating and uncertainty through typography to encourage acceptance and creative growth. The publication documents creative processes behind typographic making, exploring uncertainty in these letterforms and the creative process more broadly. Visually, the project takes inspiration from visual journals to evoke a sense of quirkiness and to reference the non-linear pathway that creativity and inquiry often takes. It aims to encourage a new understanding of the value of uncertainty, framing it in a positive way and exploring how this can improve the creative process and its outcomes.
* I doubt therefore I create, I create therefore I doubt.
Why did you choose to study design at AUT?
because it offered a hands-on course with access to a massive range of incredible facilities. The range of minors offered in the course was also a big selling point, and allowed me to explore other areas of design that I was interested in. To be honest, I didn’t know heaps about the program before I started, but I have no doubt that it was the right choice for me.
What did you enjoy most about the design programme?
My favourite part of the programme has been getting to work in the specialist labs and studios. Working in these spaces has meant I’ve experimented with a huge range of making techniques, like ceramics, printmaking, plaster casting, book binding, metal casting, laser cutting, and tufting. All the technicians are super knowledegable and always happy to help, and it’s always interesting to see what other students are working on in these spaces. My surface design minor and graduating project gave me lots of opportunities to use these facilities, which has definitely been a highlight of the course.
Aside from this, the best part about my time at uni has been the people, both students and lecturers. Being surrounded by other like-minded creative people creates a really inspiring and supportive environment, and I’ve made some great friends along the way.
What was your biggest challenge while studying?
Being more accepting of mistakes. I can be a bit of a perfectionist, which I think is something a lot of creatives struggle with. It’s good to strive to be better and to do things to the best of your ability, but it’s also important to realise that no one’s best ability is perfection. Holding myself up to such unrealistic standards meant that I viewed mistakes as a sign of me not being good enough, which made some parts of uni quite hard. Mistakes are an integral part of creating, and show that you are open to learning and taking risks. This was one of the background ideas of my graduating project, and being able to face this challenge with the support of my peers and lecturers has been something I’m so grateful for. I think it’s also important to note that this is still something that I find hard, but being more aware of this and being more open about it has been really helpful.
What inspired you to pick design as a career path?
Not really anything super specific, but I think my upbringing and my family have had a big influence on this choice. My family always made creating feel very important, which I am so grateful for. Making was always made really accessible for me, and I was never alone in the random creative pursuits I chose to engage with. The support that I had and the value that was placed on creating is something that instilled a love for art and design from an early age. This love for creating definitely inspired my decision to study design, and I know that this decision would have been much harder without the childhood that I had.
Who is your favourite designer/artist/creative?
I don’t think I could ever pick just one favourite, but right now I really like Emma Bers. She’s an artist and designer based in the US who does a lot of work in the music industry. Her work is very experimental and expressive, and her philosophy of having fun and accepting messiness while creating is one I admire. Her recent work experiments with play doh and has such a nostalgic and joyful feel to it. Definitely worth checking out!
There are also so many incredibly talented artists and designers here in New Zealand, and I’ve recently loved seeing all the amazing work created for 36 Days of Type Aotearoa.
What piece in your portfolio are you most proud of?
Probably my graduating project. This project has felt the most like ‘me’ and the process of creating it has undoubtedly made me a better designer, both technically and internally. I’ve learned so much along the way and I think it’s a really nice way to finish up my university journey. I’m also really proud of the amount of work I put into it and how far I came from the fear and stress I was feeling towards the project at the start of the semester.
What’s next for you?
Not sure!!! I don’t have a very specific plan as of yet, and right now I’m in a bit of a strange in between phase. I’m a planner by nature, but I’m trying to learn to enjoy all of these uncertainties. I’d love to get some more experience in the industry and there are so many awesome studios here in Auckland that I would love to be a part of. I’m really looking forward to learning more and growing as a designer, as well as using my skills and knowledge from uni in the ‘real world’. A bit random, but I’d also like to get back into lino printing now that I have some more time on my hands.
Where can we see more of your work?
My portfolio website, LinkedIn or Instagram.
