First Impressions

When we first landed in New Zealand, exactly 6 year ago (complete coincidence, I swear), we went for a little drive to explore our new country. We woke up super early as we wanted to see as much as possible so we managed to watch the sun rise on our small journey. We stopped on the side of the road to have a look at some old boats stuck on the side of a river, when I walked across the street to take these two pictures... the sun was rising to the right of me, ready to warm the day, and to the left it showed how cold it still actually was. I'm just amazed at how these two photographs, taken at the same place (you can even see the fence that runs through both pictures) look as if they could be at two different places in the world. I fell in love with New Zealand on this day. I was so new to this place, I couldn't even tell you where I took these pictures (North Island somewhere, probably the Waikato). Enjoy!

And somewhere a few hours later, was a farm, and I took this for some reason. Looking at it now, I love the contrasting textures from the fence/gate and the clouds. I must've taken it for that exact reason...

BMA Works 2008-2010

Spring-cleaning my computer today had me find some works I created while studying for my Bachelor of Media Arts - Visual Arts. It's funny how you look back on works you made while still in the learning phase; it's almost a tad embarrassing! In all fairness, these works are from 2008-2010 and I was really proud of them! My favourite was, and still is, my owl screenprints... I had so much fun doing these. They're quite fiddley, but so worth it. I wish I could do screenprinting at home! -->

For this typography assignment, we had to choose a text on our phone and create a typography banner from it. I received this text from a good friend living in Australia. Because I live in New Zealand, I am always several hours ahead, seemingly "living in the future". Also seen on KeepDelete, Andrea Wilkinson's blog, Visual Mag and the Mediarts site showcasing a selection of the best first-project type assignments, printed on banners.

This is what I came up with --> 

This is a range of eco-friendly baby gear packaged in egg cartons I created for an assignment. This was to re-contextualise an existing packaging concept, and produce a new range of a new product. I still have these, and have decided to give one to a friend at her baby shower --> 

After seeing Jessica Hische at Semi-Permanent, Auckland, I was totally inspired by her style and it kinda rubbed off onto one of my packaging design assignments. Here are some illustrations I made for Pams fruit salad, chocolate fudge cake and homogenised milk -->

This was a challenging assignment; we had to design a new 5 Vela note (a new currency used throughout the pacific ocean islands). When you actually look at notes, they're quite boring in design, yet very very complex. However, I learnt a whole heap about Illustrator completing this assignment and was quite happy with the overall design -->

This is an annual report I designed and self bound for Environment Waikato for an assignment. This was a collaborative project with a third year photography student who took photographs according to a brief set by myself. Doing perfect binding yourself is hard work and takes time. I thought the result was fantastic and it still holds together to this day --> 

This is an eco-concious, creative arts magazine I designed and produced as a proposal for an assignment. This magazine was meant as an inspiration source for students which featured artist reviews, events and a chance for students to have their work featured, which is exactly what I did, I had a fellow student's illustration featured on the cover. Looking back, I really should have featured my own work -->

This project was to comprehend the relationship between typography and communication, and investigate the role of typography as a visual vocabulary. It was also to attain an understanding of the interrelationships between typography and other design elements; as well as a process which advances the structured and reflective refinement of a visual situation. We were given news articles to design for; I had Safe sexting? No such thing, teens warned and chose to emphasize the quote, "don't think about the consequences" -->

I was a tad obsessed with Tim Burton movies, short films and poems in 2010 so I produced these Tim Burton inspired screen printed singlets (plus swing tags, labels, postcards, logo)  for an assignment to explore a range of requirements for fashion production. Any excuse to screenprint again -->

I picked up an extra paper during my third year and chose to do photography. I wish I had chosen this from first year; I enjoyed this so much! My car suffered its first and only scratch from driving into an alleyway, but the photographs I captured were just so exciting and even more so when you watch it slowly develop in that darkroom -->

Well that was a lovely walk down Memory Lane. And just to finish off, here's an awesome award I was honored to receive for awesomeness. Well, for design excellence, but it made me feel pretty awesome.