Five Minutes with… Sam van der Weerden
Members of Design Assembly make up a network of Friends working together to build a thriving design scene in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our ‘Five Minutes’ series profiles the breadth and depth of design practice in our network.
Today we speak with Design Club member Sam van der Weerden, who proves that redesigning a bus map for fun can, in fact, lead somewhere. From studying maths and making maps in Dunedin to transport planning and a career in wayfinding, Sam’s winding path has brought him to Maynard in Wellington, where he combines mathematical thinking, strategy and design to help people find their way through complex spaces.
Tell us a bit about your career background:
I’ve taken a bit of a winding path to get to where I am. It started with making maps as a hobby while studying maths in Dunedin. At the time, Dunedin’s bus map needed improvement, so I tried my hand at some changes. This snowballed into some paid gigs, and a big project of mapping for a book on New Zealand’s passenger rail history (“Can’t Get There from Here”). The tilt into transport discussions on social media led to connections in the industry and eventually work as a transport planning consultant.
I found myself enjoying the disciplines of experiential design and “wayfinding”. After moving up to Auckland, and a brief stint working at Auckland Transport, I came down to Wellington and joined Maynard as a Wayfinding Designer proper. My creative career is built on this winding path and I find that it all comes together now: the mathematical thinking, the transport planning, the design.
Tell us about the studio you work in:
At Maynard, we’re invested in the future of our cities and take pride in shaping moments that impact the everyday – catching a train, pausing on a public bench, queuing for the big game. With expertise in user experience, wayfinding strategy, and product design, we bring clarity to complex environments, spanning: transport and aviation, sports and culture, civic spaces and public realm.
We’re a mixed and multi-disciplinary team of designers, makers, and strategists – mapping out journeys for a new metro network or visiting a factory to test out street lighting prototypes for a new neighbourhood. Alongside that creative variety, one of the things I love most is the diversity of customer needs, and the range of interesting people we work with to address them: architects, engineers, service planners, and so on.
What does your design process and philosophy look like?
I start with a focus on strategic thinking up-front. Clearly defining customer needs and getting the lay of the land at the beginning of a project pays dividends throughout. Following that, oodles of iteration.
We try to closely control the quantity of information being delivered through a person’s journey. Too much and people check out; too little and it’s inefficient. There’s a lot of trial and error (and testing with users) in getting that balance right.
I like to make sure that we’re able to clearly explain ‘why’ design decisions were made, so that clients can then own, relay, and honour those decisions. That inevitably comes with significant documentation, emailing, and writing. This is hard, but worthwhile to ensure a project’s legacy is maintained and carried forward properly for years (e.g. a city’s hero transit map).
What does a typical day in your studio look like?
It involves a fair amount of chatting through ideas and design directions; a similar amount of heads nodding along to music. Trips back and forward to the moccamaster littered in between.
We try to get out for a walk along the Wellington waterfront every day or so, even (or most importantly?) when it’s windy and cold. Love that good sea air, and it’s often an excuse to track down a sweet treat.
What’s one thing that you would like all your clients to know?
This could be a tip for writing briefs, communication styles, or something you wished people knew about the value of good design etc.
Our work is often tied to infrastructure. Infrastructure is expensive. Good design, centred on people, is critical in maximising the benefits of infrastructure projects. The biggest wins for transport networks can be low-cost interventions achieving disproportionate results.
What are your favourite tools in the studio?
Grid paper, blank pages in a notebook, and an inky pen (my desk is often littered with scribbles, sketches and to-do lists). I often need to work through an idea by hand before touching Adobe’s applications; we were recently working on information for train platforms, which needs to account for train direction, station design, and platform arrangement – many, many scribbles helped get us there.
What are your favourite types of projects to work on?
Ones that really make me scratch my head. Being stumped and having to work something out (a method, a solution, a way forward).
Do you have any advice about our industry for young designers or career changers?
First, don’t be afraid to get your work out there! I made most of my early connections through social media; finding a collective – online or in person – is key.
Exercise your writing muscles. Try not to use AI for text generation. Writing and rewriting helps form your own process of thinking and working out a problem. And exercise those presentation muscles too.
It’s okay to just email people – as long as you get the tone right. You might not get a response (or you might be waiting a while), but people are (generally) open and happy to chat.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
I still draw inspiration from my maths studies. The area I focused in involved many diagrams (called commutative diagrams) and visual aids in proofs – this has natural crossover with my work now, both with the design itself, but also with the process of exploration, searching for solutions, and presenting (and arguing) the work and reasoning (very much like staging out a proof).
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of work?
Making maps started as a hobby before it was my work, and it’s still a hobby outside of work. I enjoy the odd map on the side – recently I’ve been working with friends on pitches for better public transport in Aotearoa.
Other than maps? I enjoy Wellington Film Society screenings and working on short film projects with my partner. And then there’s the greater Wellington bush and coastline, which is a joy to explore.
What do you like most about being a member of Design Assembly?
Like I mentioned in my advice for starting out, finding that community is hugely validating, confidence-building, and (perhaps more than anything) inspiring. It’s exciting to see so many disciplines of creativity come together, convened by Design Assembly, at so many times throughout the year.
Want to hear more from Sam and Maynard?
Curious to hear more about Sam’s work and how Maynard approaches wayfinding design? Join us next week in Wellington for a special evening of design, conversation and film.
Sam will be joining us for a short talk about Maynard’s approach to wayfinding, followed by a Q&A and a screening of Give Way To Design, a documentary exploring the people, ideas and impact behind wayfinding design.
Date: Thursday 27 August 2026
Time: 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Location: Massey University, Wellington
FREE to attend
Places are limited, so grab your spot while you can.
Register here: Event Link
