In the event of a graphic design emergency during this time, please email studio@bod.co.nz. Otherwise, have a lovely summer and we look forward to working with you in the new year!

How great are these vintage adverts designed by Brazilian ad agency Moma Propaganda!

When offered a ticket to the We Can Create 2011 Design Conference mere days before the event I think most designers would jump at the chance, so that’s precisely what I did! Armed with my trusty notebook and a mind ready to be filled to the brim with creative tidbits I set off for Auckland, and would like to share a few of the highlights here from the two days’ proceedings…

Kris Sowersby from Klim Type Foundry kicked off the event, and was a speaker I was particularly looking forward to hearing as we use his Karbon font for our client Foot Science International, among others. It was great to see a fellow Kiwi amongst the International Speakers, and he described NZ as a “small room with big windows” where we are constantly look out upon the rest of the world to draw our inspiration. I had to giggle too when he divulged that the Green Party uses his National font.

Another amazing speaker was Illustrator Sara Blake, of Hello Zso. Self touted “crazy cat lady” who is somewhat obsessed with girls and birds, I was in complete awe of her talent and effortless drawing skills and felt an affinity with the animated illustrated title sequence she produced for TED in Brooklyn, after being involved with the TEDx events here in Christchurch.

Engin Celikbas from KesselsKramer delivered a great presentation on day two, including an overview of their delightfully witty campaigns for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam. After staying at the hotel, and discovering that it was quite possibly the worst hotel in all of the Netherlands, rather than trying to cover up the fact they chose to make this the focus of their campaign with hilarious results! There’s a few example above; *not included, and in the bottom right one of the smallest ad campaigns (literally) ever run where they strategically placed little flags out side the hotel proclaiming “now even more dog shit in the front entrance”.

Another great idea from the KesselsKramers UK branch, KK Outlet, was these commemorative Royal Wedding plates, which started out as a joke on paper plates and ended up with 20,000 being produced and sold worldwide.

Interactivity, multimedia and technological advancements were an underlying theme to most of the presentations, and designers are responding to and embracing these new developments through the work they are creating. From Rafael Rozendaal of Brazil who creates and sells online artwork (had to love the way he quite seriously told the audience not to laugh at the animations he deemed to be not funny) to Stamen Design who are re-imagining the discipline of cartography with their data visualisation work where they believe maps should be “for dawdling, not for navigation”.

As with other events of this nature, there was a lot to take in over the two days but I would recommend attending to anyone involved in the creative industry. Many thanks to the most awesome Hamish from Verb for the ticket, and to the lovely Katherine (a talented illustrator in her own right) from Sleep and her sisters for keeping a little Cantabrian all on her lonesome company on day two.

Astute Mode is an outsourced finance department based in Christchurch. They offer services ranging from bookkeeping to management accounting, specialising in setup and operating cloud based accounts services. We worked with Prue to develop a brand that’s stylish and professional, with a bright raspberry red to keep it exciting!

It’s always really nice to have the opportunity to design a crafty brand for a local maker, and Katy McRae’s creations are a graphic designer’s dream. The cute and colourful handsewn wine charms pictured above are a perfect example of her use of bold colours and geometric shapes. For the Threadmark logotype we chose Karbon, a font designed by Wellington typographer Kris Sowersby, and embellished it with a subtle graphical reference to Katy’s meticulous needlework.

This next client will be familiar to you I’m sure, Bloomsberry, purveyor of delicious Belgian chocolate with delightfully witty wrappers. The Mistletoe Man Magnet bar project involved revamping an existing design to give it a more contemporary and “pick-up-able” look, and we’re rather pleased with the outcome (and looking forward to getting samples, nom!).

Christchurch Pops Choir is a post-quake project initiated by Luke Di Somma to entertain and uplift the people of Christchurch and keep local voices warmed up as the city rebuilds its cultural centre. With a repertoire ranging from Motown to Madonna, Bacharach to Britney and Gershwin to Gaga, the choir is the first of its kind in New Zealand and Luke has big plans for it. For big plans, you need a stylish brand, so that’s where we came in.

So it’s all very busy here at Board of Design, and that’s not all we’ve been up to – watch this space for the next installment!

You may have spotted our posters about town, though locations for such things are unfortunately somewhat limited post quake, but our branding design for the event also extends to the name tags, t-shirts and programmes, amongst other things. As with the last event, we’re looking forward to seeing it all come together on the day and listening to the inspirational talks that are going to be on offer. Now that most of the immediate quake problems are easing somewhat, it’s nice to be able to start thinking about the future of our city.
Lucy and I both hope to see you there!

TEDxEQChCh name tags, in colour variations for identification purposes

TEDxEQChCh poster colour variations

We are currently working on setting up a temporary workspace and hope to be operational from Monday 7th March, although possibly with limited resources. We can be contacted by email at studio@bod.co.nz and are checking phone messages at 03 379 9860 on a regular basis. If there is anything we can help with please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

To all our fellow Cantabs, best wishes and stay safe. And to those outside Christchurch, thank you for all your amazing support. It means a lot and will continue to sustain us as we rebuild our city.

In the midst of the chaos of post-earthquake clean up along Bedford Row, we’ve got some unexpected new neighbours. The birch tree outside our window has become home to a family of greenfinches on a major birch seed bender. These little guys have been dining in every day this week, with kids in tow.

That’s right, Board of Design is back in the building! It was touch and go there for a little while, with number 16 Bedford Row red stickered after the Boxing Day quake, but we’ve been given the all clear by the engineers (again) and it’s business as usual. Our thoughts go out to all the other small businesses who have been affected by the quake, which caused a substantial amount of damage in the CBD, and we’re hoping we might be able to put some of our extra space to use and take in a few refugees.

A new find over the holidays, as an alternative to the Hipstamatic app that everyone seems to be using on their iPhones these days, is Poladroid, which turns your digital photos in retro styled beauties, like these pictured above from my recent trip down to The Catlins. Not only do you get to drag your pics onto a cute little Polaroid camera, but you have to wait for them to “develop” and can speed up the process by shaking them (shake it like a Polaroid picture). *Way* too much fun!

In the event of a graphic design emergency please email studio@bod.co.nz, but otherwise have a great Summer holiday!

How lovely is this? One of our clients, Prue, sent us a photo of her Christmas lemon curd adorned with a Board of Design gift tag. Love the zingy purple and yellow combination – what a gorgeous gift!