Wellington Archives - Design Assembly

Join your creative and design industry peers for the 2024 edition of the DA Lunch Club brought to you by Never Not Creative.

You will get:

You’ll be fed a delicious lunch, meet and connect with like-minded people and continue your life-long learning on the topic of Design &…Business from two established practitioners in the field.

Event Talk and Discussion Outline:

Founded in 2018, Never Not Creative is dedicated to improving the mental wellbeing of people working in creative businesses, teams, and alongside the creative industry.

This year’s edition of the DA Club centres around the question:

“How do we create psychological safety in our industry and our workplaces?”

Never Not Creative has been investigating the mental wellbeing of the creative, media and marketing industries since 2018. While improvements in understanding and stigma have been observed, there’s still plenty of work to do.

Andy Wright, founder of Never Not Creative will be sharing early insights into the latest Mentally-Healthy 2024 research.

You will learn about topics such as:

• How workplace culture and role design affects wellbeing
• The stressors that contribute to anxiety and depression levels
• What a mentally-healthy culture and ways of working look like in 2024

Following the insights, Andy will be joined by Donna Maxwell from RunningMate and together they will facilitate a discussion with the room on initial reactions to the findings, sharing of good and bad practices and next steps from here.

This event is for:

• Designers and creatives interested in healthier cultures, accessibility, inclusion and opportunities.
• Creative and design business owners (and future business owners)
• People in management and leadership roles
• People with direct reports

This lunch event follows directly on from Andy’s morning workshop – The Happier, Healthier Business Canvas. Book them back-to-back here for an immersive day out working on yourself and / or your business.

Speakers:

Andy Wright, Never Not Creative – https://www.nevernotcreative.org/

Donna Maxwell, RunningMate – https://www.runningmate.co.nz/

DA Lunch Club costs

DA Friend | Member $69.00 (plus gst + bf)
Non-member | $99.00 (plus gst + bf)

Not a DA Friend Member?

Sign-up to help DA help you. We’ve got options for everyone.
If you’re a DA Friend and would like to attend this workshop, email info@designassembly.org.nz for your access code.

**Please note: By registering for this event, you give Never Not Creative and Streamtime permission to contact you via email. You will have the ability to opt out.

Want to see this event in your region?

Register your interest for 2025, email kate@designassembly.org.nz with name, location, how many of your team are interested and if you are a DA Friend member or not.

Additional Event Partners:

DA Autumn Conversations is all about connecting people to people and people to ideas.

We will explore this year’s theme of “Design and Planet” through discussions around planet-centered design and educating clients about sustainable practices.

The format for the evening will include talks from our 3 featured speakers followed by a Q&A with all of the speakers.

Featured Speakers:

• Antonia Estall, Creatives for Climate | Talk title: Global perspectives on the design industry as a force for Climate impact | As the Asia-Pacific Lead for Creatives for Climate and a Textile Designer, Antonia is deeply committed to climate advocacy.  Antonia brings a unique blend of skills to her work. Her passion for driving change through creative climate action is fueled by her diverse heritage from Cook Island and her Irish roots. Antonia’s mission is to approach climate justice with an intersectional lens, making a meaningful impact in the fight against climate change
• Zenaida Beatson & Anna Jackson | Talk Title: For Purpose + Planet | About Anna Jackson | Anna has explored many paths in her career, but these always seem to lead back to media, storytelling and social impact. She combines design and storytelling to help changemakers communicate more effectively. About Zenaida Beatson | Zenaida is half Filipina, half Pākehā, and lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She is a Director and Designer at For Purpose, a campaign and movement building agency and social enterprise. Zenaida’s practice combines visual and collaborative design to understand and engage people in issues that matter.
• Tonya Sweet | Talk Title: “Interrogating our gut feeling”, How can we harness design as a means to cultivate resilience in the face of ecological uncertainty? In this talk artist/designer Tonya Sweet will reflect on this question and share how this query takes form in her own creative practice. | Tonya is a design educator and creative practitioner with expertise in the production of conceptually driven, object-oriented design. In her role as Senior Lecturer in the Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design in New Zealand, Tonya teaches within the Design for Social Innovation program with a focus on sustainable design. In addition to teaching, she coordinates the C.R.I.S.I.S. Design Innovation Research Lab through which alternative design solutions to wicked problems of a societal, ethical, and ecological nature are traversed. Tonya’s research and creative work interrogates the inherent existential tensions we face as self-aware participants in the anthropocentric unravelling of our ecosystem and subsequent polycrisis. Through the generation of sculpture and design, Tonya generates material forms that reflect vulnerability and resilience in the face of an uncertain future. Tonya was granted a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States.

Event Schedule:

• 5:30pm – Doors open
• 6.00pm – Talks start followed by Q&A session
• 7.30pm – Event concludes

Join us to be inspired, learn new things and be challenged by fresh ideas.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Ticket costs

DA Friends | $20+gst+fees

Non-members | $40+gst+fees

Not a DA Friend? Sign-up to help DA help you! We’ve got options for everyone.
If you’re a DA Friend and would like to attend this event, email info@designassembly.org.nz for your access code.

Thanks to BJ Ball for keeping everyone fed!

Welcome to Design Assembly’s Spring Conversations 2023! 

This time we will be exploring the role that design plays in creating a sense of place.

Tickets are FREE for DA Friends – Access tickets with your special code

Placemaking is an approach where people work together to make places better, not only for themselves but for others and for the place itself. For this event we have three speakers with a wealth of experience in different aspects of placemaking who will talk about their approaches to a variety of key projects undertaken in Aotearoa.

After the talks, there will be a Q&A session where you can ask the speakers your burning questions and engage in a lively discussion with fellow attendees. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or just starting out, this event is a unique opportunity to learn from practitioners in the field and gain valuable insights into the impact of design on placemaking in Aotearoa and beyond.

Join us for an engaging and informative event that will inspire and enlighten you.

Featured Speakers

Iris Gramegna | Isthmus

Hannah Hopewell | Victoria University & TOA Architects

Nick Kapica | DotDash

Welcome to Design Assembly New Zealand Autumn Conversations! In this event, we’ll be exploring the fascinating intersection of design and artificial intelligence. Our theme is “Design and AI: How to use AI in your design process.”

Tickets are FREE for DA Friends – Access tickets with your special code

The world of design is constantly evolving, and AI is one of the most exciting developments of recent years. From generating design ideas to automating repetitive tasks, AI has the potential to revolutionise the way we approach design. But how can we harness this technology to its full potential?

To answer this question, we have three speakers who will share their insights, experiences, and ideas on how to incorporate AI into your design process. They’ll discuss the benefits and challenges of using AI, showcase real-life examples, and provide practical tips for integrating AI into your workflow.

After the talks, there will be a Q&A session where you can ask the speakers your burning questions and engage in a lively discussion with fellow attendees. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or just starting out, this event is a unique opportunity to learn from leading experts in the field and gain valuable insights into the future of design.

Join us for an engaging and informative event that will expand your knowledge of design and AI, and inspire you to integrate AI into your creative process.

Featured Speakers:

Rodrigo (Rod) Acevedo, Product Design Lead | Strategist | Google RARE delegate, Rush Digital

Rod is a passionate and award-winning strategist, product designer and creative thinker. A native of Chile, he has dedicated most of his career to decolonising design practices which foster inclusion and prioritise empathetic, human-centred thinking. Over the last few years, Rod has worked on a wide range of problems across many industries including healthcare, insurance and day-to-day services, with a particular emphasis on unpacking complex design challenges.

Rod is part of the Rare with Google program and a design mentor in ADPList. 

-Taking advantage of AI to elevate your design practice. Over the past year, we’ve been experimenting with incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into our design practice and let me tell you, it’s been one wild ride! But don’t worry, it won’t just be about boring technical details – we’ll discuss the transformative role of the designer in conducting research, exploration, and fostering creativity while optimising internal processes.

Tom White, Senior Lecturer in Media Design Creative Coding at Victoria University Wellington – Te Herenga Waka

Lauren Skogstad | Ngāti Raukawa | Head of Experience at Springload

Lauren leads the strategy, research, design and content practice and methodology at Springload. Lauren has a passion for creating meaningful and culturally authentic experiences that enrich people’s everyday lives. She believes in the power of strong partnerships, collaborative design and people based problem solving. Lauren has 16 + years experience across Wellington, London and Melbourne. She’s worked with ANZ, Adairs, Jetstar, RMIT, Holden and Wesley College to create beautiful digital experiences. For Springload, she’s worked on projects for the Ministry for Social Development, Tertiary Education Commission, New Zealand Customs Service, Engineering New Zealand, ACC, and Department of Internal Affairs.

– Whose artificial intelligence? Reflecting on the intersection of AI and Te Ao Māori. In the race to adopt new technologies that could transform everything from how we communicate to our everyday jobs, this talk offers a moment to pause and reflect on the ethical and cultural implications of these tools. We need to ask how these products were made; how they trained the model, what specific sources feed it, who made them and what bias they bring. Is it possible that AI is yet another episode in the great story of colonisation? What measures do we need to protect the taonga of Aotearoa?

Tickets are FREE for DA Friends – Access tickets with your special code

P.S: If you’re a DA Friend and haven’t received your ticket access code, contact us!

Design Assembly was born out of the desire to see more representation and participation for women in the creative industry in Aotearoa—all this time later, we are still fostering this mission. We’re celebrating International Womens Day (everyday) with a private lunch for our female-identifying Design Assembly Friends.

Max 2 tickets per studio or 1 per individual friend.

At Whistling Sisters, 100 Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, 6011

This is a private event for Design Assembly members only—Access tickets with your special code

P.S: If you’re a DA Friend and haven’t received your ticket access code, contact us! Email louise@designassembly.org.nz or jess@designassembly.org.nz

Join your fellow designers and creatives to share our experiences of this year and celebrate the start of summer! This is a low-key networking event for members of our Design Assembly community and beyond, hosted by our good Design Assembly Friends at Isthmus. Your ticket will gain you entry into Isthmus, nibbles and a couple of drinks for the evening.

More details to come.

Tickets are FREE for our Design Assembly friends of all tiers. You can sign up to be a DA Friend anytime—and there’s no time like the present. Check out our membership options here. Not in Wellington? Check out our Auckland and Christchurch equivalent events.

Join The Party

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Thanks to our Design Assembly Partners BookPrint, mychillybin, Portfolio, Rocketspark and Streamtime and to Lindsay Yee and Abhi Topiwala for the incredible and inflatable event artwork.

Design Assembly is delighted to present our Spring Conversations panel discussion series for September 2022. Design For Everybody will invite 3 local creatives, (or creative adjacent individuals) to engage in an authentic discussion and Q&A about inclusion in the creative industry;

• What does it mean to be inclusive in design?
• What is ‘lived experience’ and how does it affect our work?
• How can we collectively make better design for everyone?

Tickets:

$30+gst Professional | FREE for Design Assembly Friends
Not a DA Friend? Sign-up to help DA help you! We’ve got options for everyone.

Our Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) panellists:

Raymond Tiong — Xero

Ray is a designer-turned-researcher based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). After experimenting with graphic design, art history, and innovation strategy, he discovered his calling in UX research – where he uses evidence, logic, and intuition to influence digital product experiences. When he’s not giving unsolicited work advice as the de facto career counsellor for his friends, he’s maintaining his creative edge by curating the perfect set of memes and GIFs for every occasion.

Q Walker — Paperkite

Q Walker (they/them) is the Experience Lead at PaperKite, a digital product / tech agency based in Wellington. Q passionately specialises in UX research and strategy, and has never quite let go of their graphic design roots – which is a good thing, because they also lead a cross-disciplinary team of researchers, designers, and marketers. Q is also a musician, actor, public speaker, horror movie aficionado, tightwire walker, and avid gardener, and has been described as a walking exclamation point.

Tamsin Ewing — Department of Internal Affairs

Tamsin is a Content Designer with a passion for web accessibility at Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Department of Internal Affairs, where she works in the Digital Public Service branch. She has over 10 years’ experience delivering digital projects in the public sector. Her mahi is informed by principles in design thinking methodology, design facilitation, service design, UX research, and digital accessibility. Tamsin is committed to improving the experience of web content for disabled people, and delivering clear, useful online information and services that are accessible to all.

Kelsey Thomson — Optimal Workshop

Kia ora! Ko Kelsey ahau. I’m a researcher, people person and connector of ideas. By day I’m the Head of Research at Optimal Workshop, and by night you can find me with a good book, playing video games, or wandering around forests admiring the beauty that is Aotearoa.

Ash Prier — Wrestler

Ash Prier leads creative direction across the diverse range of global and local clients and projects at Wellington agency, Wrestler. Ash’s multidisciplinary approach leverages her art direction background with a strong strategic mind, to create narratives and meaningful experiences that connect humans with brands, and help to challenge perspectives, empower audiences and create fans. With a drive to incorporate social and environmental responsibility into her work, Ash loves now being in a position to bring her international experience in design and direction to contribute to and collaborate with the community in Pōneke with the impact of creativity.

Thanks to our Design Assembly Partners BookPrint, mychillybin, Portfolio, Rocketspark and Streamtime. Event artwork by Lindsay Yee and Abhi Topiwala

Not in Auckland? Check out our Auckland and Christchurch Spring Conversations.