Category — Art and Design Events

No better way to kick start the summer by having a gold old barbie in your backyard.  Join sideroom and friends for their 4th birthday at The Kings Arms in Auckland this Sunday… see you there. Its worth it just to witness a set by Tommy Flowers (we still miss his breakfast show)

And if you haven’t already checked them out the new sideroom organic tees just arrived yesterday.

Grab a fresh piece of art for your wall this Thursday (tomorrow) at Conch Records on Ponsonby road, Auckland (Doors open at 6pm). Componentry 3 is an exhibition of works by Component. We have one here, check it below, please excuse the hyperactive staff/component fan in the foreground.

Component is a well-known and respected self taught street artist, DJ and radio station manager (to name a few of his skills). A Grey Lynn resident since ages ago and showing you all how its done.

So now you know… go score an original.

We are lucky enough to have one of Rob Tuckers first works from his ” My Trip Through Belmont Show” in 2007 hanging on the wall. This 21 year old artist from Auckland is proving to be one of NZ’s next big names. No stencils, no digital artwork, just good old paint and board.

So all you lucky  Wellingtonians get on down to Smyth Gallery and soak up some fresh kiwi art. Its Rob’s first Wellington exhibition.

Thanks to Threaded and the cool sponsors a good evening was had by all. Some lucky cats took home some prize packs and everyone got some some epic (they need this beer on tap in every pub).

The new issue is tops, get one at mag nation.

We were lucky enough to check out the 9D Design Collective exhibition last Friday. Some final year design students from AUT got together to form 9D as a way to showcase their final year projects.

Some pics below of our favourite project by Andy Bamford. Andy had produced an illustrated video on how to beat match two vinyl records. We could have watched it over and over. Smoothly edited and it had some mean Dub Step booming under foot too.

Keep an eye these budding new creatives…

Make sure you go to the launch of Issue 6 of Threaded Magazine on November 11th at 6pm at Magnation (the old Magazzino) on Ponsonby Road, Auckland. The first 50 through the door get a goodie bag full of freebies (like the Design Speaks Louder Book).

We are stoked to be sponsors of Issue 6. Prizes to be won on the night too. It’ a good night to meet fellow budding designers and industry people and those who just dig a mag launch and free red bull’s.

We will be there, come and say hello!

Details of the official book launch are as follows:
Pecha Kucha Night, vol. 2
Wintec Hub (City Campus), Monday, November 3rd
Doors open at 7:30pm, presentations begins at 8:20pm, Entry is $7.00

The Means by Which We Find Our Way - observations on design

Check it out… long-board auction coming up at Webbs. Brought to you by Arch MacDonell from inhouse design and a bunch of fellow artists and illustrators.

Since my skater is growing cobwebs, this has inspired me to get back on four wheels again. Think I might sand her down and stencil it up. It might/will look real bad. Now there’s a skate art event name… “Sand her down stencil it up” brought to you by boom, cheapskates, resene etc etc…. I can hear the radio ad now.

Sorry, coffee overload… see you at the auction.

If your short of activities during the long weekend why not download the pimp my paper cardbot from spicers paper’s latest promo and get creative. Short on ideas? Drink and draw…

Have a super weekend everyone and thanks for reading our blog and supporting NZ Design

The winners of the New Zealand ‘Design in Business Awards’ were announced last night in Auckland.

Dunedin based Tap and showerware company Methven took the top award. Highly commended was Christchurch’s AuCom Electronics and the worlds fastest growing accounting system Xero ( we use it and it rocks our accounting party).

The finalists were:
Amie Design Group - creator of Merino Kids, Pure Cotton Kids, Hum and Merino Pure.
phil&teds – NZ leaders in nursery products.
Sonar6 – the world’s only graphics-based employment management system.
Winegrowers of Ara – a global wine business.

Judge David Walker commented that these companies have shown that it is possible to successfully combine ‘left and right’ brain activities in business.

The awards were started in 1997 by the Designers Institute of New Zealand. The aim of the Design in Business Award is to celebrate New Zealand companies who have used and fostered design to develop more competitive products and businesses, and to establish a link between an investment in design and business growth.

Read more about the champions here

Just as well we didn’t enter….. we would have cleaned up for sure.

I was lucky enough to attend the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise ’sustainable design for the bottom line’ conference on Monday in Auckland.

one word - mind blowing.

12 sustainable business leaders spoke about their dream of what the world ‘could’ and ’should’ look like if we all decided to take this ’sustainable’ business challenge seriously.

It was obvious by the end of the day that  DESIGN can make a difference and New Zealand could show the world how it’s done.

The only bummer about the day was that only the 400 people at the conference got to hear these great stories. However, I believe over the coming weeks betterbydesign will be releasing online videos of the presentations. In the meantime, click here, read through the list of speakers, follow the links to the individuals websites and do some exploring of your own. I guarantee you will find something that will challenge the way you think.

Best news all day. The Best Awards, for those of you who don’t know, are New Zealand’s annual design awards. From product design to student design to web design, this event celebrates the best work from New Zealand design companies.

But what makes the event so worth blogging about is Nuzilla is a finalist in the sustainable product category and endemicworld.com is a finalist in the web design category

WAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So BIG UPS to Nuzilla, go here to check out why they rule. And another BIG UPS to Studio Alexander for designing such a cool site for endemicworld.com

Reminder to all those going to Design Assembly tomorrow night… Doors open 6.30pm and speakers start at 7pm. Some super cool prizes provided by the sposners too, so see you there bright and sparky.

Mai Farm Naturally has come about from the 100 year centenary of the Mai Family. The organic milk and beef farm is in the Beautiful Pohangina Valley. The festival will comprise of natural and organic stalls, live musicians, fire performers and wandering stilt artists, holistic healers, organic water, organic coffee, natural foods and a childrens zone with story times and activities. The proceeds are going to rebuild a wetland on the property and establish a Trust to help other farmers convert to organics.

Aaron Kreisler, man of the moment, curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery and editor of Comma Dot Dogma is a finalist in the Montana NZ Book Awards, illustrative category. We wish him the best of luck (not that he needs it because he’ll win). You can buy it here and check out the art here