Cold Calling – Cold Turkey!

What do you do at the end of the day when work is complete, the kids are in bed and there’s nothing but junk on the TV? ‘Light painting!’

Light painting – also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. Various light sources can be used from torches, glow sticks, LED lights to lighters and provided you have a little patience a camera and tripod you’re in business.

Lee and Keir are at an experimental phase with this art form but have been running around at night testing different techniques and the (varied) results. The plan (once experimentation is over) is to exhibit our work at a future date. In the meantime we wait for the next full moon, when once again we’ll be running around the streets of Auckland, looking for that perfect location to ‘paint’.

Having lived and worked in Australia I became somewhat immune to the Aussie style of retail advertising. Eventually, it just becomes noisy wallpaper, in one and out the other. Read more »

First we had the new flag debate, now we’ve got the Auckland Supercity Logo. It’s all fun stuff, but the conspiracy theorists amongst us should be having a field day!

There are those who would argue that the flag debate is just a smokescreen to avoid the real issues: health, unemployment, crime and a government that doesn’t have a clue on how to help us climb out of the recession, other than to borrow (another) $250,000,000 a week! It would appear (to this writer) that John Key Read more »

Does New Zealand really need a new flag? Many of us believe that it may be time for NZ to ‘grow up’, to think about moving towards becoming a republic, or at the very least, flying a flag that is truly and uniquely ours. Maybe it’s time to abandon our overtly British Union Jack, as its relevance is now in question. We are, after all, a nation of many cultures – not just British. Here, we create what we believe to be a flag for all New Zealanders – one that is totally inclusive – one that can work for all us.

CONCEPT 1A

The colours of White, Black and Teal are iconic NZ colours. The White represents the sky above on this land of the long white cloud. The Black acknowledges our people and the over-achievers and heroes who have made us all proud to be New Zealanders. The Teal is the water that surrounds us. This standard is all-inclusive – the true colours of New Zealand – for one and for all. This is a clean flag. It is uniquely NZ.

CONCEPT 1B

In this variation we add the stars of the Southern Cross – an important icon – one that acknowledges the navigators who discovered NZ and the other immigrants who followed (by canoe, by sail, by steam and now by air). NZ is a proud nation of immigrants. It’s the one thing we all have in common. The stars symbolize this.

CONCEPT 2A

The colours of white, black and teal appear in equal depth, now able to accommodate icons within the black stripe. The stars of the Southern Cross sit proudly on the flag, centered on black.

CONCEPT 2B

Here we replace the stars with our iconic fern – now not just a symbol of our sporting heroes, but also an icon that all New Zealanders can relate to. NZ owns the fern – as the maple leaf is Canadian – the fern is uniquely New Zealand.

CONCEPT 3A

The black stripe is deeper now, giving more space to the fern icon. Here it shows teal top and bottom. The three (true) colours remain, but now the white is restricted to the fern icon.

CONCEPT 3B

An icon change-out: the stars of the Southern Cross appear at the centre of attention.

CONCEPT 4A

We turn the stripes on end giving more space to black and more visual impact to the Southern Cross icon. This is NZ!

CONCEPT 4B

In this change-out the stars are replaced by the fern (in white) with space around it (black) – surrounded by our waters (teal).

Cold Calling – a nuisance to the modern consumer or desperate lifeline to all businesses? It’s with this thought in mind that I recently decided to look into this modern invention of business. Read more »

I would like to say a big Happy Birthday to ‘Design Assembly’ – the ‘brain child’ of Louise Kellerman. Design Assembly – ‘Conversations on Graphic Design’ is about to have a first birthday and on such a milestone felt compelled to have my own little conversation about it and the wider issues it now highlights as the ‘new kid on the block.’ Read more »