As a freelance designer you live for those briefs that allow you to create hot, sexy new work. This is all good…so long as you don’t spill the beans.

Stop thinking that WordPress is a blogging platform – 63% of the top million websites that use a CMS use WordPress and approximately 15% of the web is powered by WordPress. It’s not going away any time soon.

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought” [Albert von Szent-Györgyi The Scientist Speculates]

What books or bookmarks do you use as resources in your design process?

Only 1 month to go till SemiPermanent returns to Auckland! Make sure you get your tickets so you don’t miss out on the impressive calibre of experts speaking. Not only will we be awed with two days of creative awesomeness, there [...]

This is the third installment of our new series highlighting talented recent graduates. This week Alice Murray (Massey, Wellington) and Johanna English (Canterbury University) paired up to interview each other about their work.

Since moving to New Zealand my most used phrase has to have been, “oh it’s smaller than I expected”! I hasten to add that this has primarily been used in conjunction with events! Considering I have shifted from [...]

Split/fountain celebrated a move to new premises over the weekend with a long opening, featuring an installation by Auckland artisits Michael Parr & Blaine Western, and a reading and radio project by LA based artist Fiona Connor and Copenhagen/New York based [...]

Networking, like cold calling, is mandatory if you want to maximise your opportunities as a freelance designer. The best thing to do is pretend you’re running for president.

We’ve asked design schools around the country to nominate recent grads for our new series highlighting new talent. Jay Watson (YOOBEE at Natcoll Design School) and Shae Noakes (Massey, Auckland) paired up to interview each other about their work.

Paul Tobin is a conceptual designer, illustrator and graphic designer working at Weta Workshop. He has worked on films such as The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, King Kong, Avatar and most recently The Hobbit.

You’ve been working in a nice design agency for the past five years and even won an award. So why do you still have to love your portfolio like a newborn foal?

Can a creative work that is crafted through an intermediary process remain authentic?

From letterhead to TV to website to smartphone – brands are having to appear in an ever increasing array of channels and mediums. Along with companies that always seem to be creating new and slightly evolving versions of their products and themselves, current models unchanged for decades are proving inadequate. The answer may lie in dynamic logos

Cold calling is an inescapable fact of life if you are going to become a (successful) freelance designer. So crank up the AC/DC and accept the challenge!

A collection of photographs of lettering, taken in Auckland, Sydney, Akaroa, London and St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

Last Wednesday Design Assembly hosted an exclusive screening of The Visual Language of Herbert Matter at Auckland’s Academy Cinema. A full house was treated to an in-depth look into the influential  Swiss designer’s life and his incredibly large and diverse [...]

The best definition of “brand” that I know comes from Marty Neumeier: A brand is ‘a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.’ By Baruch Ter Wal (www.leeterwal.com) Courtesy of The Big Idea.

Images & Text by Kaan Hiini & Laura Cibilich

Urbis Designday returned for it’s seventh year on Saturday, celebrating and showcasing some of New Zealands top creative talent. Twelve collaborations scattered about Auckland, spanning the design worlds [...]

Sole trader or limited company. This is indeed one of the great conundrums of life as a freelance designer. To make an informed decision you really need to befriend a bean counter.

Last night Auckland’s Natcoll hosted an exhibition for the students of their Diploma of Graphic Design. The works on display, the results of the intensive short course offered by the school, demonstrated clear strengths in packaging, illustration and print publication.

Notably, [...]

We’ve asked design schools around the country to nominate recent grads for our new series highlighting new talent. Jodi Davis (Unitec) and Elia Kim (Media Design School) paired up to interview each other about their work.

Not many of us can say we have what it takes to work with our spouse or partner. But I’ve recently come across the work of Porirua based husband and wife creatives Stephen and Di Fuller that prove it can [...]

Okay, so you’re new to freelancing and keen to impress. All of a sudden a client calls wanting you to help with a pitch for free. Time to think like a lawyer.

For those not familiar with you and your work, can you please fill us on what you do and whom you do it for?
By day I’m an interactive designer with the good people at Click Suite, where [...]

Not for the faint-hearted, the 100 Days Project requires you to choose a creative exercise or activity to pursue every single day for the duration.
The only rules are that you must document your daily effort, for eventual presentation on the 100th Day.
Participation is limited to the first one hundred brave souls.
We hope you’ll be one of them!

Auckland photographer Cally Whitham turns a romantic eye on the varied surroundings of rural New Zealand.

Compared to photographers, freelance designers can be a bit of a soft touch when it comes to nailing down terms of payment. So be strong and make 30 your lucky number.

Whats the title on your business card? How do you introduce yourself to potential clients? As a Graphic Designer? A Visual Communicator? A Creative? A Web Designer? A Designer? Or….

Back in 2012 due to popular demand Design Assembly is proud to offer two opportunities to attend a four hour hands-on workshop on Colour Management in conjunction with Jessica Mills

When you’re starting out as a freelance designer – or you’re new on the local scene – it’s hard to know your true market rate. So grab a mirror. It’s time for some reflection.

Design Assembly is excited to announce Gold sponsorship deals with both The Pond and B&F Papers. This is great news as we look at ways to share even more relevant ideas, information and inspiration with you.
So without further ado, let us introduce them to you!

Wouldn’t it be nice to design your site once and have it work well, no matter what the screen size?
Funny you should ask. That’s the concept behind ‘responsive’ (or adaptive) layouts.

If you’ve been too busy with deadlines to take a look at the speaker line up for SemiPermanent, we’ve put together a summary of the diverse speakers for you.

By Ludwig Wendzich

Webstock is a magical time for over 800 people, every year. If you speak to anyone in New Zealand who touches the web, chances are that they love Webstock and have to be there for every showing.

This workshop offers an innovative take on traditional brainstorming techniques that stimulate lateral thinking and allow participants to look at creative problems from different perspectives.

A short interview with New Zealand photographer Tuan Nyugen and some his favorite images he has taken.

First time screening in New Zealand:
Wednesday 21 March, 8.15pm
The Academy Cinema, City Library Building, 44 Lorne Street, Auckland City
Cost: $20 + booking fee

We are designers and creative thinkers. Our job is to give a voice, to create a face and to determine behaviours for brands, services, products, and organisations. Ultimately our job is to preempt futures and [...]

Invenire – Latin verb, to come upon, find.

As designers we create and collect objects, images and ephemera of all kinds. Each has a story to tell and in these postings I’ll show a series of second-hand items I’ve collected [...]

Until only a couple of years ago, web type was so restrictive it would regularly make print designers’ heads explode. Remember pre-CSS when you had a choice of only 7 fixed font sizes, with no leading or kerning controls? While it’s still not perfect, and is still a long way from affording the fine control that print designers enjoy, there have been some radical improvements of late.

Niels Shoe Meulman is a Dutch artist, born, raised and based in Amsterdam. As Shoe, NSM earned his stripes in the global graffiti scene in the 80’s through his pioneering style, adding a distinct European [...]