Edge-mobile
Kiwi furniture designers David Trubridge, Purple South, and Simon James exhibited at Milan's 2004 Salone del Mobile in April. The event is the largest and most respected of its kind, drawing over 260,000 visitors each year. "Milan is a really big deal," said Trubridge in a NZ Herald interview. "To the Europeans my designs are exotic because they are different to what they do. They see my work as having a NZ flavour."
(3 April 2004)
   

Woolly luxury
Wools of New Zealand will be displaying the braided, cut-piled and knotted wares of 33 carpet-makers at the Surfaces 2001 convention in Las Vegas. They also announce four key Carpet Colour Sensations for 2001.
(26 December 2000)

 
Steel plants
A New Zealand Modernist steel garden  contrasts with the Alhambra in Granada and a magnolia-festooned paradise at Lake Lugano in gardening aficionado Tim Richardson's The Gardening Book.
(4 November 2000)

Wool-rest edge inspired
Montreal-born designer Brent Cordner uses NZ wool felt in his debut furniture collection for Keilhauer. The chair and ottoman set is made from entirely natural and biodegradable materials. Cordner's chairs smoothly reference Frank Gehry's 'edge' chairs from the 1970's - made from corrugated cardboard. 
(10 June 2002)      

Let them eat plate
NZ company Potatopak, which produces edible fast-food packaging, plans to have its product on Australian shelves by 2004. The eco-friendly invention has been selling through organic shops and catering companies in NZ since 1999, and already has a sister company in the U.K.
(13 April 2003)
    

Snug as a bug 
Merino Kids founder Amie Nilsson designed the award-winning Cocooi Babywrap with biblical swaddling in mind, keeping babies safely on their back and asleep longer. Swaddling creates a slight pressure around the baby's body that is said to give it a sense of security, because it mirrors the pressure it would have felt in the womb. Made of pure merino, the wool absorbs and releases moisture away from the baby in warm conditions and insulates it when the temperature drops. Merino Kids has won two International Forum (iF) Product Design awards for the Babywrap and the Go Go Bag. In an interview with Idealog magazine Nilsson said the awards mean the product changes from being just a national product to an international product. "It changes the level completely and it opens doors every day," she said. The company now sells in more than 50 boutique baby stores in Europe, Australasia and the US. 
(17 July 2008)

Geometric on the Bay 
The 1931 Napier earthquake devastated the Hawkes Bay region, but two years later Napier was rebuilt and an Art Deco masterpiece. The Sydney Morning Herald's Rebecca Lancashire pays a visit and "wanders the city looking up at whimsical pastel-painted facades: sunbursts, zigzags, Mayan and Egyptian-inspired designs." In the "excellent local museum", she reads clippings from old newspapers, and in the Weekly News a witness recalls: "It all seems like a blurred cinematograph film of wrecked buildings, crying children, smoke, piles of bricks, bandaged heads, hurrying motor-cars, despair and isolation." This a far cry from the modern Napier, which is recommended for the architecture, wineries and artisan produce. 
(10 May 2008)

All for a chat show 
Twenty-two year old Christchurch design student Nick Lowe wants to raise $1 million on You Tube in the hope of millionaire-status and a spot on Ellen Degeneres' talk show. This week Lowe passed the $1,000 mark by offering the opportunity to advertise on 10,000 videos for $100 each. Nick set up mywebbybuddies.com because he wanted to do something creative that would lead to fame and fortune. "After covering the cost of my degree and travel expenses that may arise from the interviews, I'd like to invest the rest for a secure future," Lowe said. 
(5 March 2008)

Moko in vogue 
A French fashion designer's use of moko in advertisements for his latest collection has caused a stir in NZ. Jean Paul Gaultier's campaign shots, featuring male and female models with Maori facial tattooing, have appeared in the European issues of Vogue. "It's definitely Maori, no question about that," said Victoria University business lecturer Aroha Mead. "I take the line that if copying is flattery, tell that to Coca-Cola and Harrods, who rigorously protect their designs." Creative New Zealand's Maori arts board recently established toi iho, a registered trademark used to promote and sell Maori arts and crafts. Toi iho allows for partnerships with non-Maori, but a spokeswoman said there had been no contact with Gaultier. 
(13 September 2007)

Royal welcome for NZ flora 
The largest collection of NZ native plants in the UK has opened at the Savill Garden, near Windsor Castle in Surrey. The NZ Garden in Great Windsor Park was officially opened by the Duke of York on April 27, to commemorate the Savill Garden's 75th anniversary. "New Zealand is very honoured to be the only country with a garden all to itself in Great Windsor Park," said Bronwen Chang, Deputy High Commissioner for New Zealand. The garden was designed by top NZ landscape architect, Sam Martin, together with the head of the Savill Garden, Harvey Stevens. Martin's winning design mimics the undulating roof of the Savill Building and features over a thousand different tussock grasses, cabbage palms and silver-leaved astelias. Originally from Canterbury, Martin now runs his own landscape design practice in Battersea, London. His work was recently profiled in The English Garden magazine. 
(27 April 2007)

Holland ahoy 
New Zealander Ron Holland is one of the world's top naval architects. Based in the small Irish sailing port of Kinsale, his latest project is designing and building a 190-foot, $50 million superyacht Ethereal for Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. The brief: to be the most efficient, eco-friendly boat afloat. Holland's design of the hull and rigging will allow her to slip through the water at speeds most motorized superyachts could not match - and without consuming a drop of fuel. Largely self-taught - he began his career 40 years ago as an apprentice in a New Zealand boat yard - Holland has been drawing winners since 1973, when he skippered his own design, the 24-foot Eygthene, to victory in the world Quarter Ton Cup. He has been called "the pioneer of modern superyachts. He was the guy who early on understood how to make these huge ships handle like real sailboats. If they didn't, there would be no super-sailing-yacht business today." Adds Holland: "It's something in the soul. Sailors can imagine themselves following in the wake of the great seafarers like Magellan, Vasco da Gama, and Cook." 
(August 25 2006)

Designs on Hyde 
Palmerston North sculptor Paul Dibble is the winner of an NZ government sponsored competition to design a $3 million war memorial in London's Hyde Park. Dibble's design - developed in association with Athfield Architects of Wellington - consists of 16 bronze plinths engraved with text and images, which form the shape of a crucifix when viewed from above. "The design is a fitting memorial to the more than 250,000 NZers who served in the wars of the last century," said PM Helen Clark in the NZ Herald. "It evokes and reflects the courage, determination and loyalty of New Zealanders who served in and supported the war effort, as well as the accompanying grief, loss and suffering which NZ experienced." The sculpture is due to be completed by the end of the year. 
(21 December 2005)

Home office 
The work of New York based Kiwi architect David Howell scored the cover of September's Interior Design magazine. Howell's  firm transformed the New York office of London post-production house Framestore CFC (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) from a "lacklustre temporary studio space" to "quirky Englishmen themed". Rather than obviously highlighting the technological aspect of Framestore's work via industrial lighting and exposed wires, Howell chose homely pieces in walnut veneer and banana faux leather, in a look described as "more living room than antechamber." 
(1 September 2005)

Oh Happy Days
Auckland performance producers, designers, choreographers and maestros-in-general Mike Mizrahi and Marie Adams and a team of 150 created Louis Vuitton's 150th anniversary celebrations around the world with the new LV store at 5th and 57th being the centerpiece: "The real surprise was the mix of performance art-style entertainment. Models dressed as old-fashioned travelers carrying Louis Vuitton luggage moved in and out of the video screen wall. Acrobats jumped out of spaces in the wall, down onto hidden trampolines and flipped in synchronicity with the music and each other. And as a finale, a gospel choir belted out "Oh, Happy Day" as a makeshift Eiffel Tower constructed completely of Louis Vuitton luggage rose up from the ground, and the crowd cheered wildly."
(10 February 2004)

Breath of life from medical innovator
UK-born NZer, Norma McCulloch, was named one of the world's top 10 female inventors at the Global Women's Innovator and Inventor awards held in Britain as well as the British Female Inventor of the Year Award. McCulloch's innovation - a hand-held resuscitator called the 'Breath of Life' - has won her 12 international awards, as well as accolades from within academic and medical fields. "At one point my family had to sell everything we owned to cover the cost of development and the world-wide patents […] At times I did question whether it was worth it. I'm glad that I've persisted."
(6 June 2003)
   

World's second largest mall gets submerged in Kiwi designed undersea experience
Underwater Adventures at Mall of America has recently expanded its its exhibit space. "Originally built for $25million, the aquarium was designed by New Zealand ocean explorer Kelly Tarlton, using his trademark glass tunnel that revolutionised the traditional aquarium experience."
(22 May 2000)

Smith's cool design 
Massey University Industrial Design student Aucklander Stephen Smith is New Zealand's top emerging designer winning a $3,000 Dyson Product Design Award for his "Arctic Skin". The vest stabilizes a sportsperson's body temperature via a cooling process, which enables them to maintain an optimal physical performance for longer periods while competing. Smith, 24, is leaving New Zealand to take up a 5-year contract at Dyson's state-of-the-art Research and Design Centre in the UK. He said: "I understand the job will be highly creative, where we will not be limited in our ideas and where we're tasked with coming up with concepts for the very first stage of product development." It is the first time in the annual award's eight year history a winner has been offered employment at Dyson. 
(28 Feb 2008)

Designs on New York Christchurch-born art director and graphic designer Jeff Docherty has spent the last seven years making a name for himself in NZ, Australia and New York. To date, Docherty's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine as well as Australian titles SummerWinter, Lemonade, STU and (inside). He is currently designing for the New York-based popular science magazine, Seed. In Seed's May issue, Docherty likens graphic design to a science experiment "with several different, equally valid solutions to the problem." "You're trying to capture the tone and mood of the whole story on one page," he says. "At the same time, your solution must be true to the science." Docherty is a graduate of the Christchurch College of Art & Design. 
(May/June 2007)

Not your average winery 
Americans can finally appreciate the work of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser on home soil, with the opening of the Quixote Winery in California's Napa Valley. Owner Carl Doumani commissioned the eccentric Viennese-born artist to design the building after spotting his distinctive prints in a calendar. Work on the winery began in 1988 and took almost a decade. "People either love it or they think it's the nuttiest thing they've ever seen," says Doumani of Hundertwasser's design, which features a gold onion dome, trees growing out of the roof and no two windows alike. Born Friedrich Stowasser in 1928, Hundertwasser began exploring themes of ecology and personal freedom as a painter in the late 1940s. By the 1980s he was regarded as an influential artist and thinker, and began applying his revolutionary notions to the architectural form. He lived out his years in his adopted home of NZ, where he died in 2000 aged 71. The public toilets he designed in Kawakawa remain one of the country's leading tourist attractions for design enthusiasts. 
(11 February 2007)

Playboy Bunny turned property mogul 
New Zealander Sandra Costa is co-owner and designer of new LA super-club Tatou. The 35,000 sq ft space features state-of-the-art sound and lighting, 45 plasma screens, a 40 ft stage, private VIP rooms and a rooftop restaurant, Wokcano. Wokcano's head chef is Michael Rey, winner of Gordon Ramsey's hit reality TV show Hell's Kitchen. "There's no place like this in LA," says Costa, "It's pretty amazing." A former Playboy Bunny, Costa runs three companies specialising in interior design, construction and entertainment management: The Dezino Group, The Chairstore and MME World Wide. She is also the author of numerous popular self-help books, including Mystical Goddess.
(22 February 2007)

Cream of the crop 
Essenze New Zealand's Manhattan store featured in the December issue of Elle Decor. Essenze showcases the work of David Trubridge, Alison Henry, David Haig and more, with a focus on eco-friendly and native materials. The business itself is based in Parnell, Auckland. Its self-professed mission? "The global marketing, distribution and sales of the products that represent the cream of New Zealand design." 
(December 2006)

User friendly
Jeremy Cole’s “handsome” porcelain hanging lamps were name-checked in a Times review of the 17th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Cole is listed alongside a new wave of designers heralding a tangible shift from “cutting edge” to “usable stylishness.”
(19 May 2005)

New Zealand Riveria
To entice buyers to a resort development, Pip Cheshire and Terry Hunziker designed a rustic guest lodge Bay of Islands, a remote spot about 150 miles northeast of Auckland. Located in a part of the country known as the "winterless north"—temperatures average 83 degrees year-round—the low-key vacation destination attracts vacationers and residents with activities such as sailing, windsurfing, big-game fishing, and just taking in the magnificent landscape. Peter Cooper, a Kiwi-Californian who is part Maori, is one of many visitors to have fallen in love with Bay of Islands, so much so that he and his wife, Sue, purchased a 900-acre farm there and subdivided it into 10-acre residential parcels under the name Mountain Landing. 
(January 2005)

Chelsea Flower Gold Show. 
The 100% Pure New Zealand Ora – garden of well-being, won one of four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London. The garden was designed by Kim Jarrett, Trish Waugh and Lionel Grant, and was based around a Maori legend about mythical guardians of the land, it features carvings, a hot pool, and miniature pink and white terraces. And for something truly wacky (but equally impressive), The Telegraph’s gardening correspondent Germaine Greer reflects on the Antipodean offerings at the Chelsea Flower Show: “With its steamy vapours, its cavern (ruamoko), its silica terrace (puna), its hot pools (ngawha) and extraordinary variety of native plants, this garden made no attempt at an international style, but gloried in its essential difference, and the sense of completeness and well-being that comes from the fusion of self, spirit and nature. You felt it would've been good to slip into the hot pool and let the Patupaiarehe get to work.”
(May 2004)

Thinking inside the square
Auckland-based graphic design company, Creative Force, has won two awards at America’s Creative 33 competition for the second year running. Established in 2001 by Emma Mann, Creative Force beat thousands of entries from around the globe – including those by advertising giants Young and Rubicam and McCann Erikson – to take out the Letterhead & Envelope Set and Invitation/cards categories (for Auckland fashion designer Luna, above). Says Mann, “It's also good to know we can achieve this kind of global acknowledgement here in NZ. Companies don't necessarily need to instruct some huge international agency to do their creative work. The answer to their needs is often right here in their own back yard […] Normality and convention bore me to tears. Design is about being original, right down to the smallest detail.”
(7 October 2003)

Cubicle life
Proving that cubicle life is not a fluorescent-lit oxymoron Lower Hutt industrial designers and export success story, Formway, have contributed edge design nous to Bertford's group project: 'Liquid Workspace' at NeoCon 2003 (a 'Best of' Gold Award winner). "A response to the constantly evolving workplace of today, the Liquid Workspace is an assortment of kidney-shaped elements that add up to an extraordinarily flexible product with a highly contemporary look ... The result? Liquid keeps the work flowing in style."
(June 2003)

Down under planter 
Next month sees the NZ launch of the Antipode Planter, an award winning upside-down planter by the Matakana-based Morris Design Office. Designed by Patrick Morris, the Antipode Planter won the UK New Designers Award in 2006 and has just been awarded a silver medal at the Design Institute of NZ's annual Best Awards. Writing for the Independent, Helen Brown chose the Antipode Planter as one of her picks of this year's 100% Design festival in the UK. "The award-winning Antipode planter looks set to turn houseplants on their heads and free up floor space," she writes. "New Zealand-based designer Patrick Morris claims it grows a variety of plants using 90 per cent less water than traditional flower pots. And he guarantees it's drip-free." 
(1 September 2007)

Design Mobel goes global 
Tauranga bed and furniture maker Design Mobel has launched the first of its Okooko global concept stores in Wellington and Hong Kong, with more to follow in the US later this year. Okooko stores integrate award winning NZ design and sustainable NZ manufacture, with a focus on Design Mobel's trademarked Bodyfit Sleep System -personalised bedroom spaces made from all-natural materials. The name Okooko comes from an old Maori word meaning to cradle in arms. The Wellington store is located at the corner of Blair and Wakefield streets. 
(August 2007)

Herne Bay haven 
Wallpaper's April issue includes a Pacific-inspired Herne Bay home designed Auckland's Stevens Lawson Architects. "For us, it's the ultimate modernist abstraction," says architect Nicholas Stevens of the impressive structure, which features a glass-reinforced concrete facade, carvings inspired by tapa cloth and fluid living spaces with optional timber partitions. The two-storey house, owned by skin specialist Dr Mark Gray and partner Suzanah Kearns, won the 2005 NZ Institute of Architects' Supreme Award for Architecture. "Our previous house was designed by Nick and Gary [Lawson]," says Gray. "We had confidence in what they had achieved and gave them a relatively open brief."
(April 2007)

Pre-historic chic 
Shoppers at London's Selfridges can now purchase the ultimate ecological antique: a piece of furniture carved from 30,000 year-old NZ kauri wood. The NZ government has allowed a limited quantity of the timber to be harvested from salt marsh swamps, where giant trees have laid perfectly preserved for millennia. Selfridges has already received an order on a three-metre long dining table, which it is selling for £6,950. "This table will certainly be the subject of dinner party talk," says Selfridges spokesman Bruno Barba. "Whoever owns it will be dining in the grandeur of ancient history. I think customers will be ethically-minded, people wanting a return to simple shapes and something a bit different. It green and ethical because we are recycling trees." The NZ government has granted Italian design house Riva the license to produce kauri furniture for Selfridges. 
(9 January 2007)

About me 
Edge denim designer Nicole Colovos and husband Michael were guest editors and cover stars of the sixth issue of independent US magazine, Me. Created by New York art director Claudia Wu, Me profiles a different pair of creative professionals and their circle of friends in each issue. Nicole and Michael Colovos are the brains behind Habitual, one of the most desirable denim brands on the international market. In their interview, Nicole and Michael talk about everything from how they met (when Nicole was Market Editor for Harper's Bazaar and Michael an up-and-coming fashion designer) to their respective upbringings in Auckland and New York. 
(Winter 2005-2006)

Essential design from the world's edge 
Essenze, the distribution partner for some of NZ's best known designers, has partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi to present a comprehensive exhibition at the ad agency's New York headquarters at 375 Hudson St. Entitled 'The Edge of the World: New Zealand Inspired Design,' the exhibition features work by such leading artists as David Trubridge and Anthony Morris. "New Zealand's geographical isolation has allowed a new direction in design to evolve. The exhibition runs from May 20 to June 30. 
(15 May 2006)

Konference on Kool
US management guru Tom Peters was a keynote speaker at the 2005 Better By Design conference in Auckland. "To disregard design is to disregard me as 'human user'. If PASSION matters, DESIGN matters. And in the new service/experience economy...". Tom has posted his three conference powerpoint presentations on his website. Check out David McGregor’s account. 
(31 March 2005) 
  

“The quintessential NZ bolthole”
Australian Harpers Bazaar visits the infamous cinematograhper Michael Seresin’s “little slice of secluded wilderness” in its regular ‘Personal Space’ section. Located in Waterfall Bay, Marlborough Sounds, Seresin’s some-time abode is anything but little, comprising a guesthouse, part-time restaurant, and his own uniquely constructed home. “Seresin adheres to a life philosophy totally intolerant of pollutants and toxins. His NZ home has, therefore, been built entirely of all-natural materials, mostly recycled, untreated timbers and acres of clear glass. No paints whatsoever were applied. Instead, the exterior and interior walls are treated with – you guessed it – organic oils.”
(June/July 2005)
   

Big award for bigger undertaking
Hamilton-based design and printing company Admark won a World Silver Medal at 2004 New York Festivals Design & Print Advertising Awards, in the Fleet Graphics: Entertainment Promotion category. The award-winning entry was the immense Lord of the Rings graphic applied to the fuselage of an Air NZ Boeing 747 to mark the premiere of the third film in the trilogy. The image – the largest ever produced for an aircraft – comprised 360 individual pieces, had 800 m2 graphic curves around the fuselage and engines of the Boeing, stretched more than 48m along each side of the aircraft and was up to 8 meter deep.
(22 August 2004)

Edge of Eden
A NZ themed garden is to feature at the most prestigious horticultural event of the year - the RHS Chelsea Garden Show, May 25-8. The 100% Pure NZ Ora Garden of well-being is inspired by Maori mythology surrounding Mt Ngongotaha in the central North Island. Designed by Kim Jarrett and Trish Waugh, the display includes living tree fern sculptures by master carver Lyonel Grant.
(25 April 2004)
   

All roads lead to ROAM: 
Edited by edge architect Anthony Hoete, ROAM: Reader on Aesthetics of Mobility receives raps in the UK's key weekly architectural read, Building Design. Hoete's wide-ranging reader for the global soul takes in work from artists, architects, cultural theorists, philosophers and photographers, to survey what developments in mobility, culture  communications and technology have meant to perceptions of space and time, and the radical challenge they present to architectural givens such as permanence and site specificity.  "New and genuinely visionary responses are required to the 21st Century's most dynamic architectural challenge, and dipping into ROAM should stimulate some creative thinking about the subject."
(12 September 2003)