D.Cast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

We live in a time of hyper connectivity where digital mobility is making it difficult to separate personal life from work life. The impact of Covid-19 and the blanketed ‘working from home’ scenario, has revealed and elevated many challenges that have been simmering in the background for some time.What will we take away from this ‘real life experiment’, and how can we expect our social environments to support and adapt to any behavioural changes as we move forward?

Our world is changing. With increases in human population and wealth, we have reached record levels of production and consumption. As a result, this has placed significant pressure on our natural systems and biodiversity. We are seeing the effects that the take, make, waste approach of the current linear economy has. New design methods and radical changes to the way we do business are needed to solve this. In this episode, Oliver McDermott talks to Louise Nash from Circularity about the Circular Economy, Xlabs, and what it takes to change the world.

Long time colleagues, Jen Cheyne (Jen Cheyne Design Ltd) and Rose Nola (Logic Design Ltd., Ngā Puhi/Ngātiwai) talk about their experiences and the pro’s and cons of home vs studio. Ways to make it work for you… or not, and what things might look like post lockdown.

Working alongside each other since 2002, they have been through agency life, going out on their own in business, getting married, having 5 kids between them and navigating the challenges that brings.

Some tips and insights to help with the fresh challenges we now face as designers and design business owners in the age of Covid-19. The new normal of working from home and how that is changing mindsets and the business landscape. Or will it? Will we go back to our old ways? What should we take with us into this new phase and what has this time and space taught us that we want to do differently. Thoughts and arguments for both sides that ultimately will be different for all.

One thing we can all agree on though, is the importance of upholding and reinforcing the value of strategy and design through this uncertainty, how do we do this and the long-game benefits for businesses in what is certainly a difficult, but hopefully time for opportunity.