As a designer one can get caught up in a more serious headspace with the daily need for clarity in communication, rationalising of design decisions and balancing the client’s needs and expectations with the pursuit for creative excellence. Sometimes it’s [...]

A masterclass workshop with Catherine Griffiths.
Design a large format poster using the letterform as the primary tool with which to improvise and construct meaning, whether social, political or cultural, with attention to detail, composition and aesthetic form.

Wednesday 22 June from 6pm – 8pm, ARTSPACE Gallery, K Road, Auckland.
Featuring: Graphic Tactility (Anzac Tasker), A Type of Improvisation (Catherine Griffiths) and How did I get myself into this (Nick Fracture)

Last Thursday night at the media launch in Auckland, We Can Create released the details of ten of their twelve speakers.
So what do you get for your $320 or $250 early bird ticket from the ingural We Can Create event?

In what is one of most publicly visible rebrands of 2011, over 200 Shell petrol stations throughout New Zealand will become ‘Z’ (pronounced Zed) from June onwards. The new Z logo will see the removal of the classic Raymond Loewy Shell logo replaced with a symbol that ‘is for New Zealand’

From previous comments on posts on the new Auckland Council logo there didn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for the final product, nor for the process that lead it being chosen as the identity for council.

From our first school day as enthusiastic design students our educators endeavour to instil within us good habits that will hopefully remain throughout our future careers. As years pass and the challenges of real work situations come to the fore, either by accident or design some of this helpful guidance falls by the wayside. Maybe it’s time to get back to basics.

A hole in New Zealand’s Design publication landscape has been made with AGM’s decision to stop publishing ProDesign. Covering a wide variety of design disciplines, ProDesign featured news, reviews, profiles and work of New Zealand Designers / Illustrators [...]

A masterclass workshop with Peter Gilderdale. Niels Shoe Meulman’s has made calligraphy current. This workshop looks at the calligraphy side of this partnership and introduces participants to the principles and tools of calligraphy.

Just because the work is free doesn’t mean it should be viewed as “cheap”.

Design Assembly presents the first of it’s 2011 workshop series. The full workshop calendar will be announced next Friday 8 April.

Back in 2011 due to popular demand Design Assembly is proud to offer two opportunities to attend a three hour [...]

Many of you should now be in the possession of this years new Yellow and White Pages. If you bothered to open the bag, you would have noticed the new covers, designed by Alt who worked with Colenso.

The Church is proud to announce a completely New Zealand-owned show We Can Create – August 26 and 27 2011.

In an election year many things change in the political landscape. Recently the New Zealand Labour Party changed its logo and website.

Our city might put on some great shows, but what’s left for creative people when the stage lights dim?

If you have space for people to relocate from Christchurch on a temporary basis please list the information below. (Comment back if your space gets taken and we will remove the listing).

Wednesday 23rd February from 6pm
NEW VENUE – Level 1, ARTSPACE, 300 Karangahape Road, Auckland City.
Featuring Bevan Tonks & Tana Mitchell, www.makesomething.co.nz Philip Kelly, www.pkwycreative.com and Joanna Alpe, www.weloveinc.com

With the latest Facebook user interface updates creating somewhat more of a barrier to my enjoyment of the platform, I thought I’d investigate more into how they go about making these ’improvements’.

While looking at the below posters I thought these could constitute a post on a historical look at the poster series designed by Bret De Thier. Following a few quick emails, I thought an interview would be more interesting.

As people working in a creative field, we are constantly bombarded by transient trends – should we try to ignore them or get on board?

New Years resolutions have never really interested me. Too often considered token and weightless they would disappear by February like that no carbs diet. However after recently coming across an article written by John Bielenberg (partner and co-founder of C2 in San Francisco) about ‘thinking wrong’ I was interested to see how this shift in mental processing could be used to re-work my creative process in 2011.

Mexico is indeed a lively country. With more than a hundred million inhabitants, twenty of which are concentrated in the capital city, mexicans tend to come in all sorts of flavours and colours. So many different social and cultural entities identify themselves as mexican, that a single idea of a national identity is nigh impossible.

Its that time of year again. A new batch of design graduates are heading out into industry, and as I talked to some of them at graduation today, it seemed like a new theme was emerging. Quite a number were doing unpaid internships of two or three months duration…

…their deterioration had always held a kind of beauty that modern, designer pieces just didn’t quite capture. Much like a pair of jeans, no matter how cunning the effort of faux-vintage copies, they could never quite replicate the gradual and artful amassing of 20 years of grime and authentic knee-rips.

Considering the implications of AR (Augmented Reality) for graphic designers.

Dow Design has been behind a number of notably New Zealand brand and packaging changes recently from DB Export, Pam’s to Fresh’n'Fruity to name a few.

Join us on Wednesday 17th November from 6.30pm – 9.30pm
The Lounge Bar, Galatos, 17 Galatos Street, Auckland City.
www.galatos.co.nz

Back in April we were shown the winning entry for the Auckland City Council logo. Jim Dean, a retired commercial Artist, came up with the icon and was ‘tidied up’ by Redworks. Unveiled last month [...]

A three hour hands-on workshop covering the basics of of Colour Management Theory, Tools, and Implementation.

Thursday 28th October, 2pm – 5pm, The Biz Dojo, Suite 201, Level 2, Ironbank, 150 K Road, Auckland City.

This publishing season brings the first monograph documenting the life and works of gifted American design renaissance man, Alvin Lustig

Conversations on September 29th 2010

The theory of Colour Management – Jessica Mills
A journey of research– David Sinfield
Walk the line – Ross Liew/TrustMe

By Laurent Antonczak

My previous post was on emerging technology / graphic design in New Zealand and having the mindset to be a global pioneer. I asked if you had considered increasing your knowledge of emerging technologies and designing a [...]

Do we celebrate the burgeoning of information and access that new mediums are offering us, or is there something to be mourned as old tools and sites of expression fade into history?

I wonder if the file is called logo_cmyk_final_final

The best Semi-P yet? Share your highlights: Who were your fav speakers? Why? and who else would you like to see next year or what else? What theme did you notice?

How can we harness the vast knowledge of the internet without becoming overwhelmed by the deluge of data available?

By Laurent Antonczak

Just a few facts to start with:
1. Textversation: 29% of mobile users use their mobile to communicate without talking (text, email, IM, social networking).
2. Over 50% of the world population is under 30 years old.
3. [...]

In the beginning, God created the Internet, and saw that it was good. And God made the fonts of the Internet according to their kinds and all of the characters that creep upon the web according to their kind. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the documents and designs, and let the fonts multiply.” But they didn’t. For twenty years the same 12 fonts knocked around together wondering where in the hell the party was.

Lindsay emailed me yesterday with this piece of New Zealand typography that he likes – the logo for this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival. It was created by Ocean Design. What do you like?

Email me louise@designassembly.org.nz with an image of NZ typography that you like (500 pixels wide) and your name.

Design is a good modus operandi for working towards social change because it is fundamental to design that concepts, emotions and messages are presented to an audience, and for that reason, designers are trained to be effective communicators.

This week I thought I would share a piece of New Zealand design and advertising that I have seen recently and liked.
What do you like?
Email me louise@designassembly.org.nz with an image of NZ design that you like (500 pixels wide) and your name.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Designer by day, designer by night – Zoe Ikin
How to design and not commit suicide– Daniel Gordon
Vinyl Flashbacks – Peter McLennan

Are financial pressures and other circumstances draining the skill level in New Zealand graphic design?

Share your colour palette of the moment – What informs your colour choices from the world around you?

Email me with your image, colour palette, your name and studio.

louise@designassembly.org.nz

Devices like the iPad, iPhone and Nexus are becoming commonplace. They bring with them new technologies that are allowing designers to break away from the traditional point-and-click method of interaction. As interface designers we need to embrace the device capabilities during the design process. So, what does this mean for the process of designing user experiences?

I am a Semi Veteran, since I saw 123 Klan and Shepard Fairey in 2003 I have been addicted to Semi Permanent. At first glance I did not not think this years line up was exciting as last years but lets take a closer look.

Like my previous post this, this one will also be looking at a large scale sporting competition in New Zealand, focusing on the design associated with the event. Many of the below design elements were released two years ago, but with the event approaching I thought it would be nice to look over all the elements.

Public transport is not glamorous. Buses and trains do not usually inspire design monologues, but neither are they entirely devoid of art and culture. James McGoram explores the concept of a civic brand from a new angle, the view from his morning train.

Less is more? More is more? We acknowledge that WHAT we are saying is possibly the most important thing. Something that is unique and relevant to individuals is almost a basic condition to compete on the ‘attention-grabbing’ race. However MORE is MORE or LESS is MORE are not quite relevant anymore.

The winner of the Auckland Council logo competition was revealed today. It takes the form of a stylised pohutukawa designed by retired commercial artist Jim Dean, of Manukau City.

We’ve all been there — slumped in front of a computer pushing the same six elements around for three hours and still nothing is working, it’s a pile of… blah. It’s minutes ’til deadline, your heart is pounding, you’re hunched over the keyboard like a panicked ghoul, ‘Am I broken?’ you ask yourself. ‘Why can’t I make this work?’

Increasingly, urban planners are becoming interested in the creation of “creative milieux”, or spaces where creative activities and people can thrive. …

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Design Assembly kicks off for 2010.

Come along from 6pm to mix and mingle with your fellow graphic designers.
Speakers will start at 6.30pm.

After Shaun Lee’s talk about the death of static websites during last week’s Design Assembly workshop I began to think about what part social media has played in this progression of web design.

The greatest problem with the logo competition is not that the community is involved, but that we were not involved with the decision on how to involve and interact with the community.

With the recent release of The Visual Miscellaneum, David McCandless’ graphic review of current events, we have another excuse to explore our ongoing romance with those wonderful enhancements to the printed (or digital) page, infographics.

People always ask me, “Shaun how can you afford all those fur coats and them gold teeth?” I tell ‘em “Brutha — all you gotta do is have a master plan”. Here are some ways I’ve been making a bit extra on top of my 9 to 5. I suggest you give them a go …

To accept the premise of the AUT advertisement is to accept that we are in conflict with information. Designers are the chief strategists in this conflict.
Prior to what we now call Web 2.0, it was a battle fought mainly by competing businesses, vying for our attention, loyalties and ultimately, our money. That made it easy to understand. Curiously enough, user-generated content, file-sharing and social media have shuffled the deck, and the war is now being fought largely between businesses and, well, everyday consumers.

This workshop is for designers who occasionally design for the web – but do not build websites.

There was a time, and god knows it’s receding quickly, when I thought I could master design. I thought this way about a lot of things. It’s a contagion of youth, the earnest desire to be better at something than anyone has ever being, to seek new frontiers and map them for the human soul. You realise as you mature that there are some things in life you’ll never master, such as, for instance, the espresso machine that you bought last year. It lurks on the kitchen counter-top of your ostentatious studio, silently mocking your ineptitude.

Modern brands are usually built around some form of story or mantra. Stories are great; they act as cultural anchors for potential customers to associate