Field Guide — How to get a job

Brought to you by DA’s partners Portfolio Recruitment We’ve put together a few tips and thoughts for design graduates, based on our experience dealing with design agencies and with grads. […]

5 years ago by

Design Project Management: Is a cost blowout redeemable?

Ahead of our upcoming Auckland DA Workshop: Running a successful project: on time, on budget, and on brief. Our workshop facilitator Sarah Ritchie shares valuable intelligence on time and cost blowouts […]

5 years ago by

Field Guide — Future Directions By Kerryn Smith

As any freshly graduated design student can tell you the first challenge you will face out in the real world is finding work in your chosen profession. It can be […]

5 years ago by

5 Minutes with… Sarah Ritchie

Ahead of Design Assembly’s upcoming half-day workshop on “how to run a profitable, successful design business” on Wednesday 20th February 2019 in Christchurch, we spoke with design and advertising account management […]

5 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 […]

5 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 […]

5 years ago by

Saving money on print

Written by Sarah Ritchie Your client has come to you saying they have to cut back their print budget, and can you help them? Without a moment’s hesitation you should […]

5 years ago by

Alternative Routes: An Interview with Katie Kerr

Written by Lana Lopesi Supported by Creative New Zealand Lana Lopesi is the editor of Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

6 years ago by

Ideas on Diversity

Written by Lana Lopesi Supported by Creative New Zealand Lana Lopesi is the editor of Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

6 years ago by

A Few Choice Voices: Different Ways of Talking About Design

Written by K. Emma Ng Supported by Creative New Zealand Emma Ng is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

6 years ago by

The emergence of Modernism: an etymology of beauty, harmony, excellent and good.

Written by Kelly Gilchrist. Starting with the term beauty, this four part series, explores the use and interpretation of the terms beauty, harmony, excellent and good. With a focus on […]

6 years ago by

Showing, Sharing, and Beyond: Design Exhibitions in Aotearoa

Written by K. Emma Ng Supported by Creative New Zealand Emma Ng is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

6 years ago by

Hot air: A Monthly Rotating Roundtable — What is Aotearoa New Zealand design? 

Hot Air: A Monthly Rotating Roundtable, is a new monthly series where a number of designers take on big design conversations. To kick it off we start at the only place […]

6 years ago by

Censoring Colors: Did the New Zealand government stop a famous image of Queen Elizabeth from being published?

Written by Emma Rogan Supported by Creative New Zealand Emma Rogan is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and funded […]

6 years ago by

Looking Back: BackStory the Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design History

Written by Lana Lopesi  Graphic Matters is a monthly column on issues and ideas related to New Zealand Design Culture The lack of written local design history is one constant […]

6 years ago by

Puncturing Mythology: Looking beyond the shiny myths that distract from the complexity in design in Aotearoa

Written by K. Emma Ng Supported by Creative New Zealand Emma Ng is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2018, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

6 years ago by

Baby Steps: Building the Aotearoa Conversation

Coming into the design world as a trained critical thinker and writer, I was struck by how young and non-existent critical conversations were. In my own critical writing practice, I […]

6 years ago by

Broadsheet, New Zealand’s Feminist Magazine Goes Digital

Written by Lana Lopesi Graphic Matters is a monthly column on issues and ideas related to New Zealand Design Culture Covers of Broadsheet Issues 1 – 15  “…I became pregnant […]

6 years ago by

Aotearoa Design Thinking: an opportunity to revisit 2017

Created by Lana Lopesi Supported by Creative New Zealand     In 2017 Design Assembly introduced Aotearoa Design Thinking — a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly […]

6 years ago by

Summer Reading

Summer holidays are the perfect time to catch up on your reading… Here are some top picks from some of our DA Friends to help you brush up on your […]

6 years ago by

Being Human: Notes and Reflection from Xin Cheng

Written by Layla Tweedie-Cullen Supported by Creative New Zealand Layla Tweedie-Cullen is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2017, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and funded […]

6 years ago by

On this Wednesday: DA film event: Helvetica 10th Anniversary Screening, Hastings

Rachel and Jason Juno will be hosting the first ever Design Assembly event in the Hawkes Bay region with a screening of Helvetica on Wednesday, October 18th. It’s been 10 […]

7 years ago by

Civic Lessons

Written by K. Emma Ng Supported by Creative New Zealand Emma Ng is a contributor to Aotearoa Design Thinking 2017, a series of commissioned critical design essays published by Design Assembly and […]

7 years ago by

Finding a mentor

Written by Sarah Ritchie The most successful agency people are those who care about developing their career, and who want to become the best possible version of themselves. One way […]

7 years ago by

DA Conversations Podcast with Grant Alexander, September 2017

Welcome to Design Assembly Conversations. In this series we talk to New Zealand graphic designers, hear their stories, and celebrate their work.
In this episode I spoke to Grant Alexander. Grant is currently the Design Director at Onfire Design in Auckland. He started his career in 1969 at Designscape magazine, co-founded Designworks with Ray Labone in 1982 and in 2000 formed a partnership with daughter Kate to create Studio Alexander.

7 years ago by