Truth from wood 
New Zealand furniture designer David Trubridge and his lighting fixtures feature in a Time photo essay. Trubridge is the antithesis of those rock-star product designers who turn up at "design art" auctions in New York City or in the front row of Paris fashion shows. In contrast, this rather shaggy 58-year-old is a fixture on the lecture circuit, where he is a passionate advocate for sustainability and responsibility. When it comes to his own work, however, he prefers to let it do the talking. While sculptural seats and other Trubridge creations are an annual attraction at Milan's Salone Internazionale del Mobile, they begin in a rural wine-growing region that is off the beaten track, even by New Zealand standards; the designer develops his ideas in a garden shed. (It would be an exaggeration to call it a studio.) "I've never claimed any of my stuff is art, and I never will," states Trubridge. "I've got years of experience bending, breaking bits of wood, joining them together," he says. "You have to be able to make things in reality." 
(15 October 2008)

Award in the bag 
The giant handbag-shaped tent used at the openings of Louis Vuitton mega-stores in Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo and Paris has won its NZ manufacturers an esteemed international design award. Fabric Shelter Systems (Whangarei) took top honours in the tent manufacturing section of the 2005 Industrial Fabrics Association International. According to company director Warwick Bell, the tent reflects the ultimate in kiwi ingenuity and Fabric Shelter Systems is thrilled with the recognition. 
(21 November 2005)

Designs for edge living
A group of NZ artists are currently on display at the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. The show, 'Straight from New Zealand,' includes sculpted sheep and dogs by Rodney Brown, and works by renowned Hawkes Bay designer and favourite of the Milan Furnitiure Fair, David Trubridge, whose sling chair (above) is being manufactured by Cappellini in Italy.
(8 July 2003)
   

Starship enterprise
NZ has notched up its second consecutive win at the annual International Enterprise Olympics with an innovative touchy feely concept - 'Sense': a braille fastfood menu ("food from your fingertips"). The international event, organised by NASA, asked contestants to design a product which would improve the quality of life for the disabled members of their community. The winning team of NZ 16-18 year olds received a substantial cash prize, gold medallions from the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the chance to see their national flag flown in space.
(25 June 2003)
   

First Lady of style
Lower Hutt-born Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg) featured in The Times' list of iconic women over 50 in a piece by writer Paul Theroux on 'the older woman'. Hempel is the creative force behind ultra-hip London hotels Blakes and The Hempel, not to mention a biannual couture collection, an eponymous design company, and products and interiors for luxury companies Louis Vuitton and Van Cleef & Arpels.
(10 March 2003)
   

Inky waves
Tattoo have become increasing popular among the men and women who chase the massive waves of the Pacific. For many, a tattoo is an important way of recognising their Polynesian heritage.
(1 September 2000)
   

All sewn up
New Zealand designer Therese Hollingsworth has won the Textile category of the Country Road Design Awards. Her piece, felted was strongly influenced by the "simplicity and symmetry of  Japanese design".
(23 August 2000)

Shipping undesirables off to the colonies
New Zealander Sam Chisholm, deputy chairman of the New Millennium Experience Commission, operator of the beleaguered Millennium Dome, is supporting a proposal to ship contents of the Dome to the Sydney Olympic complex, including the giant pink Body Zone, concepted and designed by Kiwi film production designer Andrew (The Piano, The Beach) McAlpine.
(16 July 2000)   
 

Bouncing success 
Christchurch engineer Dr Keith Alexander's Springfree Trampoline has won the "Children's Product of the Year" in the largest United States consumer product survey, the Product of the Year Awards. Voted top children's product by 100,000 American families, Alexander's trampoline sells through Walmart and global sales of 150,000 trampolines were forecast for this year. The springless innovation has been commercially available since 2003, but only went into the US in 2007 and sales and marketing manager Josh Hill said it had taken some time to gain traction. Hill said the US was a safety-conscious market and insurance companies specifically excluded trampolines from policies but were making amendments to allow the Springfree model. "For a product like a trampoline, which is seen as being dangerous, to be seen as a top contender is a big thing." Alexander, deputy head of mechanical engineering at Canterbury University, devised the Springfree trampoline, which he said was his second or third attempt. "The initial prototype, an inflatable thing which you blow up with a vacuum cleaner, wasn't bouncy at all." 
(4 February 2010)

Take a seat 
Wellington-based office seating and furniture company, Formway Design has featured recently in Fast Company, Time and The Wall Street Journal for its work on the Generation by Knoll office chair — a three-year collaboration between Formway and international home and office furnishings company Knoll. Fast Company senior writer Linda Tischler compares the Generation (pictured above in Lemongrass) to two other work chairs in a two-page spread. In particular, her article focuses on the "test-drive" responses of three "armchair quarterbacks — an ergonomics fanatic, a design freak and a Web guy". Tischler writes: "'Sit how you want,' the Knoll chair invites. And it means it. The chair, created by New Zealand's Formway Design has a bendable Flex Top that folds down like an armrest to accommodate sideways sitters and then bounces back to a serious posture when the boss appears." Commenting on the chair's Flex Back, Tischler's "design dude" reports: "The best lower-back support of all three chairs." Christina Binkley, writing for The Wall Street Journal also took a "test-drive", saying that "I'm pretty sure I tried every possible sitting position in that chair. Criss-cross applesauce, legs-on-desk, leg draped over armrest, sideways — all were comfortable." The Generation by Knoll chair will make its official debut at NeoCon 2009, the Chicago contract furniture industry trade exposition taking place June 15–17. 
(June 2009)

Waste not want not 
New Zealander Richard Gow has built a house in Canada made entirely from recycled and salvaged materials, including a deck built from wood out of a dumpster. Gow, a home renovator with a degree in property valuation and his wife Elin Werth, salvaged window jambs, joists, doors and scrap wood and gave them new life in their home. Gow and Werth are firm believers in "recycling" entire homes, as a way to revitalise established neighbourhoods and discourage urban sprawl. The couple specialises in redesigning and renovating older houses by opening up the smaller, divided rooms and adding the modern features people look for in new, suburban homes. "It's about taking the space and making it work better," says Gow. And in the dining area, a table made from a Japanese cedar felled by a storm at Gow's family farm in New Zealand dominates the room.
(26 May 2009)

Particles in motion 
Fonterra's latest foray into "smart" water "Whole", is advertised in a continuous 650-frame shot leaping and transforming from brains to bridges to bananas and was created as a joint project by Auckland-based animation studio Department of Motion Graphics and North American fluid and particle fx experts Fusion CI Studios for creative agency, Sugar. "From the moment we first laid eyes on the storyboard, we knew this was going to be one of the most challenging projects we had ever undertaken at DMG," said creative director Linds Redding. "If we had grasped at the time, just how challenging — we might well have thought twice about saying 'yes' with such unseemly haste. From the outset, we realised we were going to need some specialist help and we were lucky enough to fall into league with the brilliant Mark Stasiuk of Fusion CI Studios in Santa Monica, California." 
(28 March 2009)

Creative king of Berlin 
Paul Snowden — a New Zealand creative director and designer based in Berlin — has just completed the visual identity and overall design for the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale. The Berlinale is the world's largest public film festival with around 400,000 visitors and goes from February 5th-15th. According to his website, Snowden's design work covers "an extensive area of operation, concentrating specifically on youth culture and communication, seeing design as a way of life which must be true, vivid and real." Paul's dedication and devotion to music forms the basis of his work, having designed and produced album artwork for several artists including Boysnoize, Kid 606, and The Whitest Boy Alive. He is also creative director for Bang Bang Berlin , a "quarterly fanzine dedicated to the people who make [Berlin] the turbulent affair it is for all residents and guests."
(January 2009)

Easy Street in Rawene 
New Zealand-based designer Lise Strathdee's company Outpost Hokianga, located in Rawene, is a "hip concept store that mixes fashion, books, art and fine food," according to Time magazine. The notion that fashionable shopping takes place only in cities is outmoded thanks to the Internet. And so when Strathdee — who grew up in Italy and New Zealand and then worked in Milan with Romeo Gigli for many years before establishing her own design studio in London-stopped off at the tiny, rural community in search of a lunchtime snack during a vacation, she knew she'd found the perfect place to set up shop. "A general store for the 21st century," describes Strathdee, Hokianga Outpost is thriving. Products include her own designs, such as cargo pants reimagined in opulent Chinese silks, innovative jewellery, and gourmet food, like pesto made by local producers and balsamic vinegar imported from a former fashion manufacturer in Italy. 
(17 November 2008)

Essence of jade
Dunedin jeweller Jamie Fergus took a trip to the largest jade-deposit in the southern hemisphere, to Cowell in South Australia, after which he taught jewellery students in Adelaide how to carve the mine's particularly dark variety of stone. The darkness is because of its iron content. "That's the stone I fell in love with 10 years ago," says Fergus. Pounamu or New Zealand greenstone is a nephrite jade prized for jewellery and which has strong mythological associations with water and aquatic beings. But while New Zealand has a strong carving culture, "nobody knows about it here", Fergus says, who studied jewellery and metalworking at the Sydney Institute Design Centre. Coast-garde '09, a collective of carvers' work including Fergus', is at Sydney's Metalab gallery through September 26. 
(15 September 2008)

Inspired simplicity 
Remuera boutique interior design studio Monochrome Inc is profiled in Malaysia's online version of The Star. "Would you consider an interior design colour scheme that's predominantly black and white? It probably would be tedious, wouldn't it? And, worse, possibly funereal. However, Monochrome Inc, a studio specialising in monochromatic tones, is making waves with their more austere designs. 'I call my designs the art of inspired simplicity,' says owner and designer Andrew Loader, 44. 'My philosophy is deriving maximum impact from the most minimalist yet effective applications.' Loader spent two decades in the world of luxury hotels and creative design before returning to his native New Zealand in 2009 to open his studio." 
(17 April 2010)

Out with the old 
Invercargill inventor Grant Ryan, 40, unveiled his YikeBike — an electric 10kg mini penny-farthing for the 21st century — at the Eurobike international trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The Daily Mail's Paul Harris takes the bike for a spin declaring that though "it might look like a collision between a praying mantis and a child's scooter; it's the result of five years of work to reinvent the wheel." "True, it takes a little while to get used to riding it, especially if you've been raised on the kind of configuration that has so far proved perfectly adequate for everyone from Miss Marple to Sir Chris Hoy. But there's one word which summarises the sensation of blatting along so quickly and so effortlessly on this rather clever piece of engineering: Yikes! Why change a design which has been around since Victorian times and is preferred by an estimated billion cyclists around the world? 'We're not trying to compete with traditional bikes,' Ryan says. 'We aimed to produce an electric bike that was portable, lightweight, compact, practical and fun. We wanted something you could ride to the bus stop in the morning, take to the office and charge up under your desk.'" Ryan went to Southland Boys' High School, graduating runner-up to dux before completing a degree in engineering and PhD in ecological economics at Canterbury University. 
(2 September 2009)

Type heroics 
'Printing Types: New Zealand type design since 1870' is an exhibition on until September 12 at Auckland's Objectspace featuring the type faces of local designers including Joe Churchward, Kris Sowersby and Jack Yan. This is an important project because as curator Jonty Valentine says "it is remarkable how un-heroic and invisible the history of type design has been here". The exhibition Valentine says provides "a prompt for type designers here to tell their stories in the international parlance of their practice but also in a range of our own local accents." Objectspace director Philip Clarke notes that "'Printing Types' is the first exhibition and related publication completely focused on contemporary and historical New Zealand type design." (17 August 2009)

Learning with light 
Hawkes Bay-based designer David Trubridge's The Three Baskets of Knowledge features in a Los Angeles Times photo gallery with an image of "pendulous lighting fixtures that look like giant water droplets suspended in baskets made from aluminum, sanded plastic and bamboo plywood" created for the 2009 Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. According to Trubridge's website the sustainable design is based on the Maori legend of demigod Tane who "was sent up to the heavens to receive the knowledge that mankind needed to live on earth. The ascent was a great struggle against adversity, but once he was admitted into the heavens he was given the knowledge in three baskets or kete."
(1 May 2009)

Designing the future 
British-born, Hawkes Bay-based designer David Trubridge, takes part in a Q&A for the latest issue of Dwell, where he quizzed about number of things like his ideal working environment, what music keeps him thinking about design and where he sees his profession in 20 years, which he puts a caveat on: "Cultures are historically defined by their art, but we've lost that fundamentally human element and replaced it with a consumer binge. Designers are crucial to the future, creating objects that are like nourishing food: lasting, with a sense of identity and sufficiency within them." 
(April 2009)

One fine fishing boat 
New Zealand naval architect and multi-hull specialist Roger Hill has designed the Montebello, a luxury 12.5m planing power catamaran for a group of Gold Coast businessmen who — headed by industry identity Gary Zamparutti — have formed Montebello Yachts. Modern Boating's Kevan Wolfe takes the cruiser for a test drive. "On the day, the sea was like a millpond off Surfers. I didn't get to try the boat in the usual swell we get off the coast, however, Hill has a reputation for producing sea-kindly hulls and this boat is a true blue-water catamaran. I had no doubts it would perform well in a seaway. In the smooth stuff the boat was very light on the helm and tracked straight without any input from the driver. The silent exhaust system also makes the boat very quiet underway. The Montebello had the feel of a fine piece of machinery." Hill has been drawing boats for 32 years in New Zealand as well as in Annapolis in the USA with Bruce Farr and in Lymington in the UK with Rob Humphries. 
(18 March 2009)

Contained holiday spots
New Zealand-produced port-a-bach, made by Wellington company Atelier Workshop from shipping containers, are reviewed in multi-medium technology magazine Gizmag, which describes the relocatable dwellings as “the perfect home for a disaster situation.” All that is required is 40 square metres of relatively flat ground and six concrete pads to serve as foundations. “If we were to manufacture specifically for a natural disaster scenario, we’d use a different set of modules inside the container”, designer Cecile Bonnifait told Gizmag. “We can also manufacture specifically to specific requirements,” Bonnifait said. “If for example, you wanted to have no kitchen and more beds, or the complete sustainable unit with solar panels and all modern conveniences, we can work to any specification. The $100,000 price is for the basic unit, and we have a broad range of modular designs for different needs.” Atelier directors Cecile Bonnifait and William Giesen met in France and have been working in New Zealand for more than five years. 
(1 December 2008)

Luxurious technology 
New Zealanders Jeremy, Simon and Dareen Doherty have won first prize in an international design competition for their swan-shaped 'Swarovski Mouse', beating some 4074 individuals and institutions from 92 countries. The 'Crystal Vision' competition was run by European e-zine Designbloom in association with luxury Austrian crystal manufacturer Swarovski. The Dohertys describe the mouse as "a play on the form of the Swarovski logo" which was imagined by "manipulating the design of an item used everyday into a sensual and feminine form ... creating a personal gesture for the urban lifestyle of the working woman." 
(1 September 2008)

Aotearoa à la mode 
New Zealand lifestyle and design fills 15 pages in this month's Marie Claire Maison. The French publication's spread includes Outpost Hokianga (Rangi Kipa's Corian Tiki pictured), EON, Stevens Lawson, David Trubridge, Black Barn, Dilana Rugs, 42 Below, Gavin Chilcott, Air New Zealand, the Matakana Cinema, Aotearoa Lamour and artagent.co.nz. The article was based on an itinerary put together by Paris-based company Moaroom, who since 2004, has been collaborating with New Zealand artists, designers and entrepreneurs in Europe. In February this year, Moaroom also worked with windowdressers and stylists of the legendary Parisian department store Printemps to combine David Trubridge's most recent work with the latest fashion collections of Lanvin and Stella McCartney. 
(April 2008)

Kauri acoustics 
Bay of Islands-based luthier Christian Druery makes guitars from ancient swamp kauri and last year created two instruments commissioned for the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona. "Essentially, I was asked to design and build two guitars that best represented me, my craft and my country New Zealand," Druery says. "It's pretty much the dream brief." One of the challenges of making guitars in New Zealand is sourcing the appropriate materials, he says. "Quarter-sawn Spruce, Ebony and Rosewood weren't readily available in New Zealand and I knew nothing about these timbers. After a couple of years I abandoned the idea of using exotic timbers altogether. It made sense to start using timbers native to New Zealand for many reasons. I had a wealth of knowledge and experience using Kauri and Rimu from making furniture that I could apply to guitar building. I'm very proud to say that all of the timber I use is now 100 per cent from New Zealand, and all but the Ancient Kauri is recycled from other sources." 
(31 March 2010)

Making to last locally 
New Zealand-based furniture designer David Trubridge is profiled in Australian art and design magazine Dumbo Feather, pass it on sharing "his story and ground-breaking ideas that could revolutionise the way we buy and consume design, and in turn significantly lighten the load on our environment." "One of the things I've talked about with a few people in different parts of the world is building a network of manufacturers so that, rather than shipping stuff to Italy and Italians shipping stuff to New Zealand, we make each locally," Trubridge says. "I'd send files to them and they make my stuff there, and vice versa, so that all the materials and energy is as localized as possible." Trubridge and his wife Linda sailed to New Zealand via the Caribbean and the Pacific on a yacht called Hornpipe in the mid-eighties. 
(September 2009)

Changing face 
New Zealand-based foundry JY&A Fonts, established by Jack Yan in 1987, has announced a new, classically inspired typeface family, JY Alia created to complement previous his 1994-5 release, JY AEtna. Yan, who is also the publisher of Wellington-based fashion magazine Lucire said: "The problem with JY AEtna, as I saw it, was that it wasn't robust enough for text usage." He sees JY Alia, which is stronger but still approachable as a design, as a rival for other workhorse typeface families such as Adobe Garamond or Monotype Bembo. JY&A Fonts was the first to branch into digital type in its country, and has spent the last several years working on private commissions. 
(16 February 2009)

Making space with light 
New Zealand-born architect David Hovey discusses the designs of his 30-year-old Chicago-based business Optima Inc., which he says are influenced by an appreciation of the outdoors. A trace of an accent reveals his roots. "I grew up by the beach and surrounded by lush vegetation," Hovey recalls. It's no accident, he says, that Optima favours sites with views of water or green spaces. His own glass house in Winnetka overlooks Lake Michigan in one direction and a wooded ravine in the other. Optima's current projects are a long way from Hovey's first one, which was a set of six townhouses in Hyde Park. But he hasn't deviated from the clean, contemporary designs he favors. His buildings, he says, tend to include "interiors that are open and luxurious, with as few walls as possible and as many windows as possible." Hovey is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He worked for Modernist architects Arthur Takeuchi and Helmut Jahn before founding Optima. In 2005, luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report named Hovey the world's foremost architect. 
(9 January 2009)

Made for Manhattan
New Zealand designers are now represented at essenze, a store within a store at the Metropolitan Design Center on Broadway in New York, which opened on November 19. Exporting to the US since 2005, essenze has previously had showrooms in Brooklyn and in Miami, the former store described in a New York listing as having “the work of more than 40 inventive New Zealand designers.” The recent move to Manhattan signifies essenze’s desire to be closer to interior designers and architects. Situated in the Flatiron district, essenze is surrounded by  leading North American and global brands. Founder and director of essenze Clare Mora said: “Our designers have a reputation of producing intelligent design: refreshing, quirky, pure and expressive. Visually we create a further point of difference by presenting the collection ‘gallery-like’, emphasising each statement piece with deserved respect.” essenze was founded in 2004.
(November 2008)

Greenery in urban London 
New Zealand-born James Fraser founded UK landscape firm Avant Gardener in 1990, which continues to operate from a nursery out of Battersea in London. One of Fraser's latest projects is profiled in the Telegraph, which describes artist Biddy Bunzl's south-east London garden as "a unique and intuitive partnership between the planting and landscaping." Stepping out of Bunzl's back door is like embarking on an adventure into an unknown landscape. Tropical-looking palms and tree palms combine with spiky yuccas and cordylines to give an exotic, jungly feel, interspersed with unusual plants from New Zealand, such as spear-like lancewoods, Pseudopanax. In 2000 Fraser exhibited at the renowned International Festival of Gardens at Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. His designs have also featured in the Sunday Telegraph and Gardens Illustrated. 
(6 October 2008)

Aotearoa adornment
Auckland artist George Nuku's mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June's American Vogue. "Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban edge", Elle's 'make it your own' special on tribal jewellery tells fashionistas. Nuku is also featured in 1 Giant Leap bemoaning that Maori kids in Aotearoa often know more about Michael Jordon than their own culture. Just own it.
(June/July 2002)