D.Cast

Artist Janine Williams and architect Tom Locke of Warren and Mahoney discuss the large scale artwork which formed part of the 10 Madden development for Precinct Properties in the Wynyard Quarter.  Janine talks about the process of developing the narrative for the project and then realising the work with the Warren and Mahoney team. The conversation touches on the design environment in Aotearoa, New Zealand and how processes of whakawhanaunatanga informs unique and world leading outcomes. 

Associate Director at RCG, Andy Florkowski, PDINZ  catches up to talk about the new workplace for Te Taura Whiri I Te Reo Māori with Jodie Mickleson, Milliken-Ontera and Anton Agnew, Autex Acoustics.   The new space is entirely informed by Tukutuku.   The structural qualities of Tukutuku are used as a framework to influence Hui configurations, whilst its adorning characteristics are used to decoratively dress the walls.   An aspirational and descriptive concept like this, required practical yet innovative input from the wider design community.   To ensure the concept was authentically implemented, bespoke solutions were developed alongside Autex Acoustics and Milliken-Ontera.   Whakairo was also integrated in collaboration with local artists such as Nate Te Rei.   The end result is one which is true to its intentions, and is a truly captivating space.

Adam Jenkins, Executive Producer, FTW Digital; Mick McConnell, Executive Creative Director, & McConnell; and Danny Carlsen, Head of Design, Shine Limited talk about the immersive Spark 5G Race Zone they designed in the Emirates Team New Zealand base for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland.    Seven unique zones were conceptualised, each an example of ways that Spark 5G was used in the team's boat development, training or race preparations.    From the Wind Tunnel that allows people to walk through and interact with a real time wind model visualisation, to an immersive 360experience riding along on a Te Aihe test run, to piloting the actual simulator that Emirates Team New Zealand uses - never before has the public had the chance to get so involved in the technology that goes into contesting the America's Cup. 

Charging the forefront of innovative and passionate New Zealand-made design is Rosedale based design company, Blender. Blender occupies an inclusive design consultancy, strategy, and manufacturing platform in a cultivating and nurturing social work culture. That of which points to the efforts of their experienced design team and their founding core. Product designer Oliver McDermott accounts for a large portion of that core, where his consultancy and design process work accounts for Blender's heavy pursuit of design excellence. An insightful chat with the DINZ Student Council members opened a vast safe of knowledge regarding Oliver's past experiences and design inspirations, as well as dabbling into that kiwi “can-do” attitude. A conversation that extracts and magnifies the most critical turning points in a young designer's career.

Jonny who is a Director, Motion Designer and Creative Director has a wide range of work that spans motion, film, animation, design, interactive, and visual effects. He has worked with many international and local clients who are household names. Alistair and Rose learn the ins and outs of some of these projects, asking Jonny about his creative processes and attitude towards new challenges. They discuss the motion design industry in New Zealand and how its relatively small scale allows people to collaborate and experiment on new projects, in doing so pushing the boundaries of moving image.

How does design drive value? Across so many things it does/we do; Identity Culture Product Experience   How do we grow business?  What is the impact of the work we do? Design can help make a step change in sales and profits, culture and behaviour change, or opening up completely new businesses, products and markets.    Why so broad?  Fundamentally it's about the future, designing what's next, what could be.  Imagining, visioning, rehearsing and building a whole new thing, an improvement, a new future. Which is why it's such an important creator of value.   How can we get clients to understand this?  Often they just see design as the end of the process or at worst ‘the colouring in department' Sell in / curate a vision at the beginning of the process, work with them. Get them to tell you what the ideal outcome of the process would be - is it new sales, more loyal customers, new markets - what would it look like if we did this. Design makes things visible, tangible, help them imagine this future together.   How would the business be different? How would we help peoples lives? What would the revenue or profit impact be? The cultural impact? If we understand the size of the impact then that should help sell in a more robust and bold design led process.  Once it is imagined and envisioned – then go about designing the build together.   What are the risks?  Not connecting with clients, someone else has the same solution or the client / culture is not ready / able to drive the solution. Execution hit or miss.    Design at is best is enduring, it should be an investment designed to last for a long time. It needs customer research, competitor exploration, exploration, iteration and permission to play with options.    Finally – sorry, soapbox moment - we need to think about the responsibility of design, of a designed outcome to make things better. It's about a purpose or intent to be better and a commitment to use design broadly to get better.    Holistic improvement is better, else it's just one way – profiting – at the expense of someone or some thing and that kind of thinking is fundamentally challenged in this day and age.    The rise of the circular economy and 3 horizon thinking. These are all critical factors in the futures we should be imagining – the organisations who use design well, the people we help, the voices we elevate and support.

Established in 2010, Think Packaging is an award-winning structural packaging design studio that's pure focus is cardboard engineering and delivering solutions. Mat's talent has shone through his work, and with a long list of awards and well-known clientele, it's no secret Mat is greatly succeeding as a packaging designer. Joel and Clara chatted to Mat about where it all started, how he developed his skills and knowledge along the way, and what it takes to start and run a business from scratch.

Andy Florkowski speaks with Nick Mowbray, CEO of Zuru Toys, and investor in up and coming kiwi FMCG brands such as Monday Haircare, Dose&Co, Nood Petfood and Rascal & Friends. Nick moved to China as a teenager, with a small loan from his parents and with the goal of launching a toy business. 15 Years later, Zuru is one of the largest toy empires in the world, and Nick is drawing on this experience to shape and propel other New Zealand businesses onto the global stage.

Milliken-Ontera is a design-focused commercial flooring manufacturer headquartered in Sydney. With a strong ethical culture and long-held commitments to sustainability, they are creating a better future by actively participating in local communities, developing a diverse and inclusive workplace, and doing their part to ensure a cleaner world for generations to come. Oliver McDermott talks to Ania Cetinic (Communications Manager) & James Mfula (Design Director) at Milliken-Ontera about flooring design, culture, values, and shrinking footprints.

Like other difficult dinner conversation topics such as politics and religion, the question around the value of design can be viewed very differently depending on where you sit. Independent designer Bevan Tonks along with Jono Sagar, principle and founder of Voice discuss the value of design from their own perspectives as well as how they see design as a problem solving exercise becoming increasingly complex.

Rose Norgrove, Alistair Kincaid talk to Demelza Round, Nathan Walker and Anjuli Selvadurai. Project Make is a design education community that encourages folk in Aotearoa to make things together. Made up of founder Demelza Round, Online Learning Coordinator Anjuli Selvadurai and Creative Director Nathan Walker. Their online platform presents educational opportunities through project-based lessons. These projects span across multiple art and design disciplines and cater to makers of any age and stage. The team at Project Make saw a major gap in education that speaks directly and inclusively to art and design practices in Aotearoa. They aim to change that by inviting and sharing a diverse range of perspectives and skills to build their projects. Whilst always placing designerly thinking at the forefront.

In this episode, Oliver McDermott talks to Brand Guy, Richard Shirtcliffe, about building disruptive ‘triple bottom line' consumer lifestyle brands, finding unmet needs, and outside the box thinking. Richard is the Co CEO of Noho, a direct to consumer furniture brand making beautiful dynamic furniture from waste plastic and sustainable materials.  Noho, based in Colorado, has just launched it's first product, the extraordinary noho move chair. Created in New Zealand by sister company Formway, it is made from up-cycled waste plastic like discarded fishing nets and end-of-life carpet, and is designed to bring dynamic ergonomic comfort into the family home. Prior to noho, Richard was CEO of Coffee Supreme International, and Tuatara Brewing before that. Over his career he has been involved with several successful growth NZ companies, such as Phil&teds, Mountain Buggy, Prorack, Ice Breaker and Method Recycling to name a few.

Jungie Choi takes us through the design journey and process that led up to 2019 Student Graphics Gold Pin winning project, Han. Through the podcast AUT students Kai Concepcion and Harry Davis have a conversation with AUT graduate Jungie about student life, her creative journey from being a student to a working professional. Jungie sheds light on the challenges she has faced and significant turning points that narrated her design journey. Opening up about the importance of minority voices not only to rejoice the positives of their culture but also exposing the “negative” ideologies in a culture through design to spark conversations. Sharing insightful advice and experience to young emerging designers.

Clean, simple, and quality. Three profound factors that point towards New Zealand furniture designer Tim Webber's success in the furniture design industry. Tim, alongside his designs, praise the effortlessly beautiful elegance in design simplicity. From materials, to design choices and features, to manufacturing. His journey is inspired by the natural grasp he maintains of the design process and willingness to deliver value. In this episode, the DINZ Student Council members sit down with Tim and discuss the most critical points of his design pathway, beginning from the completion of his tertiary design education in 2009 to operating his own design house. He elaborates on the most confrontational moments as a young designer taking on the industry.

Graeme Thorne and Matt Johnston from Italian Stone join Naomi Rushmer and Sebastian Negri to unearth rich stories about a beloved among the designer's palette: natural stone. Insights into a culture built around materiality, through the lens of an intergenerational family business.

James discusses his journey. James's story is an inspiring one, full of honesty and insight. He started by studying Design Innovation at Victoria University in Wellington and due to graduating during the GFC James found jobs hard to come by.  So alongside his two mates from uni he moved to Tauranga and started his own studio. James opens up about some of the unprecedented challenges he faced from there till now and offers some advice for anyone who is just starting out on how to avoid some of these difficulties.

When you think of most children's toys and products these days, it's hard not to get a bit worked up by the vast amounts of poorly made, colourful plasticky junky stuff. It's not the most eco-friendly picture is it?    It's not very child friendly either, and It's this, that inspired Industrial designer Blythe Rees-Jones and wife Anna to set out on a little adventure and try to do something about it. 8 years later and their company Woolkin, is becoming famous for their beautifully crafted children's toys made from wool and wood.    Blythe is a strategic-creative designer passionate about growing New Zealand's future and helping great companies create and scale great ideas. He has significant experience working across many sectors including consumer products, food and beverage, healthcare, textiles and new materials development.    In this episode, Oliver McDermott talks to Blythe Rees-Jones about design strategy, wool, and everything in between.

When you think of Surfing, you think of fresh salty air, blue water, big waves crashing on the beach, sunshine, and nature … But if you look a bit closer at your average modern-day surfboard, it's far from natural. Over 80% of surfboards are made from polyurethane foam, fibreglass and polyester resin. They're cheap to make at scale, but they are not quite the innocent wooden planks of old times.   In this episode, Oliver talks to Jack Candlish, industrial designer and founder or Organic Dynamic: A Wellington-based company on a mission to make the worlds most sustainable surfboards.

Liv Harper and Toni  Brandso from Material Creative gave us a glimpse of their creative journey, giving advice to future designers as well as sharing insights into their award-winning projects.

To make more sustainable products and businesses, we first need to change the way that we think about new product development: Considering all of the impacts of the entire lifecycle from raw material to end of use. This should be ingrained into any product designers mindset. It's called lifecycle thinking, and it's not as easy as it sounds. Putting it into practice, and delivering real positive impact inline with commercial success takes a lot of work. But the results are worth it! In this episode, Oliver McDermott talks to Timothy Allan, CEO of Ubco Bikes about life cycle thinking and what it takes to build a successful design-led business."

We live in a time of hyper connectivity where digital mobility is making it difficult to separate personal life from work life. The impact of Covid-19 and the blanketed ‘working from home' scenario,  has revealed and elevated many challenges that have been simmering in the background for some time. What will we take away from this ‘real life experiment', and how can we expect our social environments to support and adapt to any behavioural changes as we move forward? 

Our world is changing. With increases in human population and wealth, we have reached record levels of production and consumption. As a result, this has placed significant pressure on our natural systems and biodiversity. We are seeing the effects that the take, make, waste approach of the current linear economy has. New design methods and radical changes to the way we do business are needed to solve this. In this episode, Oliver McDermott talks to Louise Nash from Circularity about the Circular Economy, Xlabs, and what it takes to change the world.

Long time colleagues, Jen Cheyne (Jen Cheyne Design Ltd) and Rose Nola (Logic Design Ltd., Ngā Puhi/Ngātiwai) talk about their experiences and the pro's and cons of home vs studio. Ways to make it work for you… or not, and what things might look like post lockdown. Working alongside each other since 2002, they have been through agency life, going out on their own in business, getting married, having 5 kids between them and navigating the challenges that brings.  Some tips and insights to help with the fresh challenges we now face as designers and design business owners in the age of Covid-19. The new normal of working from home and how that is changing mindsets and the business landscape. Or will it? Will we go back to our old ways? What should we take with us into this new phase and what has this time and space taught us that we want to do differently. Thoughts and arguments for both sides that ultimately will be different for all.  One thing we can all agree on though, is the importance of upholding and reinforcing the value of strategy and design through this uncertainty, how do we do this and the long-game benefits for businesses in what is certainly a difficult, but hopefully time for opportunity.