D.Cast

Designers Institute Student Council - Project Make

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.

Design for Positive Impact - Richard Shirtcliffe

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.

Designers Institute Student Council - Jungie Choi

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.

Designers Institute Student Council - Tim Webber

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.

Unearthing Rich Stories with Italian Stone

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.

Baptism by Fire

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.

Design for Positive Impact Blythe Rees-Jones

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.

Design for Positive Impact - Jack Candlish

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.

AUT Graduate, Xuangyang Sun talks to Material Creative

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.

Design for Positive Impact - Timothy Allan

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."