Bringing people together is rarely an easy thing – even if everyone involved stands to gain from the experience. Initial enthusiasm expressed within the community can quickly become eroded as demands on time and resources increase, or the context that originally galvanised people into coming together shifts and makes collective thinking less urgent or relevant.

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.

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

…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.

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?

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.

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

There will be a meeting held on the 10th November to discuss how the changes to the Auckland Council (aka the ‘Supercity’) will affect the arts community.

The word meeting sometimes carries with it a negative sentiment, an anticipation of inefficiency. Meetings can be associated with a waste of time or a battle between attention-seekers to get their voices heard. On the other hand

Communities may need to be constructed by members of society in order to ensure certain interests are represented alongside typically included regional community perspectives.