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DINZ Fellows 2007
Meet the new Fellows added in 2007...more »
DINZ Fellows & Life Members 2008
Updated list of recently added Fellows and Life members...more »
Communication Arts article on New Zealand designers by Robert L.Peters
29 Oct 2008 "LIVING ON THE EDGE Visual Communication Design In New Zealand" by Robert L. Peters Communications Arts 2008 October Interactive Annual - an article ...more »
Invitation to CPD Sustainable Slip Resistance Seminar
10 Nov 2008 Specifying non-slip tiles? Are you aware it can only take a few months of foot traffic and cleaning until the surface will no longer pass a slip ...more »
May Time Living - Invitation
10 Nov 2008 DINZ GOLD Sponsors - May Time Marketing would like to invite you to view their new Spring/Summer 09 collection at their Showroom at 10a Burrett Ave, ...more »
DINZ Articles and Media Links - new
3 Nov 2008 John Grant's presentation from DINZ National Design Conference 2008 ˜Sustainability and Imminent Change' John Grant was the international keynote ...more »
BeST Design Awards 2008 on Campbell Live
31 Oct 2008 Interviews with winners from the BeST Design Awards 2008. David Trubridge MDINZ talks about Spiral Islands (Product Gold Winner, Design Objects); ...more »
BeST Design Awards 2008 who were the winners
30 Oct 2008 The BeST Design Awards is the annual awards program presented by the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) celebrating the best work the design ...more »
Design in Business Outstanding Individual Achievement Award - Rick Wells
29 Oct 2008 This year, for the first time, at the Design in Business Awards 2008 a new award was introduced in recognition of an individual who had through their ...more »
Design in Business Awards Winners - METHVEN'S LUXURY TURNAROUND WINS DESIGN IN BUSINESS AWARD 2008
28 Oct 2008 Luxury shower and tapware manufacturer, Methven Limited, is the major winner of the Design in Business Award 2008, organised by the Designers ...more »
DINZ National Design Conference
10 Oct 2008 DINZ National Conference Day - Sustainability and Imminent Change Friday, 10th October 2008, Auckland War Memorial Museum (new southern end) Check ...more »
2009 World Class New Zealand Awards
9 Oct 2008 The Chair of Kea, Stephen Tindall, is calling for nominations for the 2009 World Class New Zealand Awards. The World Class New Zealand Awards ...more »
The Starter Home Design Competition
9 Oct 2008 The Starter Home Design Competition is closing soon. Entries are due by 19 November for open entries and 26 November for student entries. Make sure ...more »
Transcript of a conversation - Anais Ardid, Communications Designer
9 Oct 2008 Anaïs graduated from the prestigious Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London in 2003. She worked in the UK and Spainish ...more »
NZ Student Craft/Design Award Winners Announced
9 Oct 2008 Wellington design students took a clean sweep at the 2008 NZ Student Craft/Design Awards, sponsored by TheNewDowse Friends. Genevieve Packer's entry ...more »
DINZ Sponsors of the BeST Design Awards Exhibition, Dulux are looking for a Dulux Colour Ambassador
1 Oct 2008 Spatial Students in Graduate Year or who have Graduated here is a GREAT Opportunity for you either in Napier, Palmerston North and ...more »
News Release from the office of Associate Commerce Minister Judith Tizard
24 Sep 2008 The Designers Institute of New Zealand is very pleased to announce the introduction of legislation to repeal the commissioning rule. The law change ...more »
DINZ Design Law: Intellectual Property-Managing and Commercialising your IP
12 Aug 2008 DINZ: Design Law presented by James Carnie, Principal, Clendons to TAURANGA - venue: Tauranga Club, Level 5, Devonport Towers, 72 Devonport Road, ...more »
DINZ: Design Skills, Life Cycle Tools and Approaches - Implementing change
29 Jul 2008 The 'Life Cycle Thinking' workshop series has been gaining momentum over the past two months, initially engaging participants in the process of Life ...more »
BeST Design Awards 2007 Commemorative Book
11 Jul 2008 The BeST Design Awards 2007 Commemorative Book has been delivered into studios. DINZ wishes to thnk Crowther-Blayne Publishers of the BeST Design ...more »
Commemorative BeST Design Awards 2007 e-Book
10 Jul 2008 can be viewed online on http://digital.crowtherblayne.com.au/?xml=dinz.xml DINZ wishes to thnk Crowther-Blayne Publishers of the BeST Design Awards ...more »
DINZ & Hothouse Design Skills: Life Cycle Thinking series
4 Jul 2008 The 'Life Cycle Thinking' series of workshops has been proposed by Locus Research and Unitec to provide a crucial bridge for the uptake of ...more »
DINZ Design Business Series: exclusive to DINZ Associate, Professional, Fellow Members only
3 Jul 2008 Building the Business Capability of DINZ Members Designed and delivered by WHK Business Growth This will be as two series. Series One is a half day ...more »
INNOVATIVE KIWI DESIGN ACQUIRED BY NEW YORK'S MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
2 Jul 2008 New Zealand designers have once again proven that New Zealand design is world class with New Zealand designed Lomak, a computer product for the ...more »
Dyson Product Design Award - Winner & Finalists
2 Jul 2008 The 2008 Dyson Product Design Award winner was Alexander Wastney. Alexander is a 22 year old industrial designer working in New Plymouth. His ...more »
DINZ Design Skills: INNOVATIONZ: Can NZ Make It?
2 Jul 2008 Six views, six 10 minutes presentations from researchers, teachers and practitioners at the University of Auckland that show interim thoughts for ...more »
Winner 2007 Dyson Product Design Award Stephen Smith - UK firm invests in cool design
1 Jul 2008 A 24-year-old industrial design graduate from Greenhithe will start a five-year contract as an egineer at Dyson's Research and Design Centre in ...more »
Congratulations to Dulux for winning Green Gold
14 May 2008 Dulux New Zealand won Green Gold at the 10th Wellington Region Gold Awards for business excellence last week. The award recognises Dulux's ...more »
DINZ Design Talk - Cynthia E.Smith from Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
8 May 2008 Presented a lecture on Design for the Other 90% and the ways in which design plays an integral role in the lives of billions of people existing on ...more »
ICSID online DINZ members-only area is now live!
9 Apr 2008 ICSID is pleased to announce the launch of the DINZ members-only area of the website. As a priority of the 2007-2009 strategic plan, this new ...more »
Have YOU completed your Professional Profile on this website
10 Jan 2008 For those who are Professional Members, ensure you have put your Profile and Website on your own 'free' Professional Page " DINZ has up to 80,000 ...more »
Check DINZ CLASSIFIEDS for employment opportunities or spaces to rent
10 Jan 2008 To advertise, this service is free of charge for DINZ Members, charge applies to non-members. To enquire about placing an add in Classifieds section ...more »
Free Legal Advice for DINZ members
20 Dec 2007 DINZ Honorary solicitors, Clendons have offered legal advice to DINZ members at no charge. DINZ members are able to request a 15-minute Consultation ...more »
New Zealand Professor is recipient of international design award.
7 Dec 2007 Professor Hazel Gamec, founder and Academic Manager of the Wanganui School of Design, Wanganui, New Zealand, received the Icograda Educational Award ...more »
DINZ National Conference 5 October 2007 - to download the keynote presentation follow the link below
10 Oct 2007 ...more »
DINZ Christchurch Regional Committee
21 Aug 2007 DINZ has formed a Christchurch Regional Committee that will build and support the design community in Christchurch. David Lovegrove MDINZ, ...more »
ARE YOU A GREAT DESIGNER and want more people to know about it?
3 Jul 2007 Talk to DOCK STREET GROUP - the public relations specialists for the design industry. We've proudly worked with DINZ, the BeST Design Awards, and ...more »
Design in Business Outstanding Individual Achievement Award - Rick Wells
29 Oct 2008
This year, for the first time, at the Design in Business Awards 2008 a new award was introduced in recognition of an individual who had through their vision, leadership and achievement had contributed in the field of design in business in New Zealand.
The Design in Business Outstanding Individual Award was presented to Rick Wells, chairman of Formway Furniture.
Rick Wells is chairman and former Chief Executive of Formway Furniture, a trustee of the Dowse Foundation, a member of the Better by Design Advisory Board and he was a key member of the Design Taskforce.
Rick is an outstanding exemplar of design-led philosophy and practice, who took a 12 person locally focused furniture company and turned it into a global export business with more than 200 staff and the largest furniture design studio in Australasia.
As a key member of the Design Task Force, he played a key role in developing a design strategy which paved the way for New Zealand businesses to become more internationally competitive.
In 1981 Rick, then an accountant, and a partner, Allan Brown, an industrial chemist, bought Formway Furniture, a company producing basic commercial and hospital furniture for the domestic market.
Formway Furniture came of age as a design led furniture manufacturer when it produced the Zaf ergonomic chair range in 1987, its first fully designed manufactured product. In 1999 Formway took its Free desk system to the NeoCon Trade Fair in Chicago. At the time the company could barely afford the exhibit fees. However the risk paid off and the company won two gold awards, the first time the fair had awarded two gold awards to one product.
The company's next major success was the Life Chair, in 2001, a chair that senses and responds to a person's weight without the need for levers or knobs. This chair was hugely successful and has also won the endorsement of Knoll International, one of the strongest design led furniture companies in the world, who now distribute Formway Furniture in the US and other markets.
Rick Wells has a reputation for being a clear strategic thinker and a natural marketer who, even though not a designer himself, can always see the value design will create for an organization. One colleague says he is an unusual animal in that he combines commercial acumen with a crystal clear perspective of the importance of design.
Rick has said 'Design is in everything: in all the work, how you portray yourself and your branding. It's in all your showrooms and how you visually show yourselves and so on . .. Design is all embracing. That's what I like companies to understand that are looking at design. If they're thinking about just drawing things, forget it: it is not what design is about.�
Mark Pennington, the current Design Director of Formway Studios is a long time friend and colleague.
Mark says: 'Rick has always fully backed design. Even when the going was tough he supported me and design, even at times when if we hadn't succeeded the company would have been in difficulty. He was always totally supportive in his encouragement and empowerment.� Rick is well known and respected for his leadership and mentoring roles, particularly his role with the Task Force. Co chair Ray Labone says Rick always provided a reality check and a link between the successful integration of design into business. Ray describes Rick as the classic example of an egoless leader and says he is delighted that this award will force him to stand forward and be recognized.
Rick Wells is also immensely community minded. As the founding trustee of the Dowse Foundation he developed the vision for the Gallery's new extensions and he was instrumental in raising $2.2 million out of the $6.5 million needed to complete the extensions.
Above all, Rick Wells is a modest man. Another colleague calls him a 'quiet measured man, a caring man whose attitude is underpinned by high ethics and morals.
Rick, for his quiet leadership, for his broad contribution to promoting design in the community, and for his tireless commitment to raising the awareness of design in business, the organizers of the Design in Business Awards 2008 have great pleasure in presenting him with this well deserved Design in Business Outstanding Individual Achievement Award.
To see photos of Design in Business Awards 2008 click on the link below.
Website: http://www.dinz.org.nz/main/bbd/ 98_-_Design_in_Business_Awards_2 008/