Articles

Growing through Covid: what 2020 taught me as an agency owner

By Vaughn Davis, Creative Director and Owner – The Goat Farm Ltd It’s been a year or so, Facebook Memories tells me, since we stopped going out for a beer, became obsessed with making our own bread and started pinning posters of Doctors Ashley Bloomfield and Siouxsie Wiles over the pop stars and All Blacks…

3 days ago by

Free Dumb Sessions, Lee Parkinson (Strategy Creative)

Looking for something to expand your mind this long weekend? Tune into Lee Parkinson’s Free Dumb Sessions podcast. Lee is the strategic director of Strategy Christchurch and describes himself as relentlessly curious, and fascinated with human behaviour “by what we actually do, not just what we say, think, or feel.” The DA team have been…

2 weeks ago by

Holiday Reading

Summer is here and the holidays are approaching with some pace, which for Aotearoa design means time away from the mac! Wherever you recharge over the festive season we hope there is time to relax and unwind. Many of our DA friends and partners are prolific readers so we asked a few to share their…

4 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: All together now

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

7 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Towards Openness

This Field Guide article is part of a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and…

7 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Workplace revolution

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

7 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Speak, friend and enter.

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

8 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: A Daring & Caring Re-imagining

This Field Guide article is part of a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and…

8 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Navigating new realities

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

8 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Speaking with your ears

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

9 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Designing a new Aotearoa

This Field Guide article sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and challenges…

9 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Our Opportunity

This Field Guide article is part of a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures and…

9 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Be Kind Re:design

This Field Guide article is the third in this series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures…

10 months ago by

Field Guide 2020: Growing the future designer

This Field Guide article is the second in this series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 16 weeks on designassembly.org.nz and culminate in a downloadable PDF publication which will be distributed nationally.  We are incredibly grateful to Creative New Zealand who funded this 2020 Field Guide, which actively investigates, celebrates, nurtures…

10 months ago by

In conversation with you…

How are you doing? In order for the DA to advocate on your behalf and offer our community valuable relevant support, we want to better understand your current situation and what is important to you. Please answer the following questions to assist us in making a plan of action to support the Aotearoa NZ Design…

1 year ago by

Design Assembly Community Survey 2019

Aotearoa Design, the Design Assembly 2019 survey is live and we would love to hear from you.To understand where we are going, we must have a deep understanding of practice today.The survey will take 5-7 minutes to complete and we will use your responses to ensure we continue to grow, celebrate and serve our visual…

1 year ago by

Tips for breaking into Industry.

There is no doubt landing your first design job can be difficult – no matter how rigorous your rationales, polished your portfolio and enthusiastic you are – there is a tonne of other design students vying for the same roles as you. A lot of advice design graduates receive is cliched ‘Believe in yourself’, ‘Think…

2 years ago by

Field Guide — Authors and thinkers By Alistair McCready

Design is a term used in such a broad sense. For example; an engineer and a typographer are both considered designers. The word encompasses many outlooks, many outcomes, and many opinions throughout the developing world. Its intention, or meaning, often changes from conversation to conversation, and is unique to the individual. Over the years we’ve…

2 years ago by

Idealog partnership — Designer dirt: Why we should invest in our creativity the same way farmers invest in our lands

In collaboration with Idealog (to mark their creativity month), Design Assembly writer and editor Nicole Arnett Phillips argues that creativity is a resource that needs to be nurtured and invested in. I am not a farmer, but I try to think like one often. New Zealand has a robust agricultural pedigree, and we are celebrated…

2 years ago by

Summer Reading — Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018

Written by Lana Lopesi Aotearoa Design Thinking has been somewhat of a two year experiment here at Design Assembly testing our ability to write and appetite to read deeper thinking about design and its ideas. Over these two years I have had the privilege of working with an amazing group of writers to massage some…

2 years ago by

An exploration of graphic design education – an interview with office-party

Written by Cameron Ralston Supported by Creative New Zealand Cameron Ralston discusses graphic design workshops and moving from education to workforce with Bryn Fenemor and Caitlin Rassie through their project office-party. Cameron Ralston: Let’s begin by talking about how office-party came about. In the office-party introduction you write about a shift or divide between academic and educational graphic design and…

2 years ago by

Pepeha.nz – An internal kaupapa by Designworks for Aotearoa

This year Designworks undertook a personal studio project and created Pepeha.nz – a website to help all New Zealanders introduce themselves in Te Reo Māori, through pepeha.  Encouraging everyone to learn the stories behind their pepeha and share them with pride.

In this article Anzac Tasker, Design Director at Designworks talks about the project, its intent, the design elements and where it will go from here.

2 years ago by

Riffing Off Walters: the art of distinguishing ourselves

Written by Michael Smythe Supported by Creative New Zealand  Gordon Walters has gifted us a visual language that is capable of representing New Zealand’s bicultural foundation in infinitely variable ways. It is a legacy to be valued and handled with care by professional designers. In this article Michael Smythe records the personal experiences, and interesting connections,…

2 years ago by

How to work with clients who micro-manage

Written by Sarah Ritchie You’ve created a masterpiece of an event poster for your client. Your client asks you to make the headline bigger, move an item from the bottom to the top, change out the picture and – while you’re at it – change the colours too. All of a sudden your poster (lovingly…

2 years ago by

Ask the Experts: What skills do you think will be needed by future designers?

Written by Hollie Arnett Supported by Creative New Zealand There are so many talented creatives with years of combined experience and a variety of skills in the design industry. Since there are no right or wrong answers and no one true source when it comes to design advice, Hollie Arnett brings you Ask the Experts –…

2 years ago by

 

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