Last week we had a passionate conversation about feminine stereotypes with three inspiring women: Christine Sharma (Managing Director, Ruby Apparel), Carolyn Haslett (Photographer and Makeup Artist) and Mercy Brewer (Model, Unique Model Management).
The Ladies Wine and Design Auckland conversation posed the questions: Has there been a shift in the perception of female beauty? And has this influenced the design aesthetic?
The consensus was there has definitely been positive change in the way female ‘beauty’ is portrayed. Older women, more ethnic diversity and non-sample-size models were given as examples.
‘Life doesn’t end at 26 years old’ – Mercy
However, a caution came with the optimism – if you or your brand are brave enough to challenge the old stereotypes you have to be prepared to be criticised, and often in very harsh and cruel ways. It was agreed that this kind of backlash undoubtedly puts a lot of people off tackling tired and out-of-date stereotypes – which led to talk about resilience, and your vibe attracting your tribe!
With that in mind Christine shared a beautiful quote to wind up the night – that true feminine beauty is about character.
So we look forward to more character in feminine beauty and to its expression in design across the board.
We hope to see you for our last 2018 event on Wednesday 14th November: ‘Using Your Design Powers For Good. Can we meet business goals and still design with ethics?’
We’re thrilled to add two more awards to the trophy shelf.
Zesti picked up a silver at the Pentawards Worldwide Packaging Design Competition in September and Go Good also won silver at the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards.
We’re very proud of the design work on both of these projects and we want to acknowledge the two bold, visionary clients behind these brands – Marina Hirst Tristram of Tasman Bay Food Group and Andy Betts of Go Good.
Click through to our Zesti and Go Good case studies to see and learn more about these two successful projects.
Meet our new Digital Account Manager Trelawne Quinlivan. Let’s find out more about her including how to say that name!
So Trelawne, how do you say your name and where is it from?
It’s a funny one…to help people remember my name I tell them ‘it’s like Tree-on-a-Lawn, so Treelawn”. Once they have that visual cue I then adjust it to “Tra-lawn” and for the most part that does the trick. As far are where it’s from, its Gaelic, and comes from Cornwall. I’m not from there, my parents just liked the name.
How long have you been in the digital game? And where have YOU come from?
I’ve been working in digital for six years and have seen the landscape evolve quite dramatically over that time. In 2012, especially in NZ, mobile design was really in its infancy and responsive design was only just on the radar, wide adoption didn’t really take place until a few years later. Now, it’s 2018 and we’re talking about AI (artificial intelligence) becoming commonplace on a website in the forms of chatbots and voice user interfaces. It’s a pretty exciting world to work in.
As far as where I’ve come from, before Dow Goodfolk, I worked at Gladeye and before that at Gravitate. Both companies were digital only agencies, and it’s a nice change to be a part of a product’s wider design and branding journey.
What can people look forward to when working with you on their project? Are they in safe hands?
When you don’t live and breathe digital it can be a challenging environment to understand. My role is to help businesses understand digital better, what the opportunities are and how they can be woven into their existing brand and communicationsstrategy. To help them take their story online in a way that’s easy for their customers to digest, engage and connect with. A big part of this is helping people feel safe in a world that they may not fully understand.
What is a great digital experience for you?
In digital it can be easy to get swept up in all the new developments and technical bells and whistles that come into the marketplace every day. And while I delight in some of the amazing things that we can build today, a truly great digital experience is one that works for the user and drives the outcomes you want and need from your website, and isn’t just ‘new for the sake of being new’.
User driven design gives the best outcome for your users because it focuses on what they need first and foremost. A flashy website that distracts the user from the purpose of being there will be entertaining but won’t give them or you what you need. A great digital experience for me is one where the brand is reflected seamlessly through your offline environment into your online one. It provides value to your users and is easy and engaging to use. As soon as you hit the homepage you should know where you are and where you should go next.
You’ve also been proactive in kick-starting a lunchtime camera club here at Dow Goodfolk…what’s that all about and what’s your history with photography?
The lunchtime camera club is a project of mine that I love for number of reasons. Firstly, I love photography and outside of work you can usually find me photographing weddings, families and newborn babies. It’s a great creative outlet and something I’ve been doing for about 3 years. Secondly, it’s a great way to encourage everyday creativity, for myself and for anyone on the team who is keen to participate. Doing something creative but in a different field or different style to what you normally do can help you think differently and sometimes we don’t have the time or the opportunity to create something for the sheer sake of creating it. The goal of the camera club will be to try different types of photography, from street photography to portrait or food photography. As the club progresses there will be challenges, like “how can we make this photo look more like a painting” or “today you can only take photos of something with the colour blue in it.” It sounds kinda silly but something as simple as making you only take photos of something blue, creates a simple challenge that forces you to think differently about what art is.
We’re super excited to welcome Senior Designer Ashleigh Lambert to our team. Let’s hear a little bit who she is.
You’ve recently returned from many years living and working in London. Tell us about your work experience over there. What were you up to?
Shortly after moving to London in 2012 I started working for DesignBridge as a midweight designer. I loved it so much there I ended up staying for the whole time I was in London, which was about 6 years. I went from knowing hardly anything at all about packaging design, to working on brands such as Cadbury, Fortnum & Mason, Lipton, Danone and Camel.
While in London I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to parts of Europe and to New York for presentations, print runs and photoshoots. This was really exciting and taught me a great deal about working with all kinds of people in the industry and all of the effort that goes into a project from the beginning through to the end.
What sparked your decision to return home? Hope you’re settling in ok as we head into winter. Is mum happy to have you back?
A promising job opportunity in NZ came up for my partner and that kind of got the homecoming cogs turning a bit. Then, after a very thorough and slightly ridiculous pros and cons list (double summer – tick, expensive cheese – cross) we decided that it was a good time to move back.
Being closer to family was a big part of it and being able to enjoy the more outdoorsy NZ lifestyle was another draw card. And yes Mum is very happy to have me back. Dad doesn’t mind either 🙂
Thanks for joining us by the way. What was it about Dow Goodfolk that appealed to you?
I was really impressed by all of the iconic and beautiful work that Dow have created over the years. And the fact that they have been around for such a long time! That is a true testament to Dow’s integrity and creative strength.
Oh and the people here are awesome, especially the women! I think it’s so important to work with talented and inspirational role models, and in this industry it can be very male dominated at the top.
Are there any specific cool things/trends/styles/inspirations/observations that you have brought back with you from the world outside New Zealand?
I have to say that many of the trends I was seeing outside of New Zealand are actually pretty much the same as what’s going on here. We’re all so connected these days, it’s hard not to be influenced by what’s going on in the rest of the world.
A big thing all over the place is that people are after authentic products and experiences – and they won’t be fooled by phony stuff! Brand stories need to be genuine, have a point of view and be distinctive. And for that reason, I was noticing that many of the big brands you find on the UK supermarket shelves are being seriously challenged by the smaller, more artisan brands. So, we were seeing lots of our big-brand clients needing to dial up their heritage and focus more on the quality of their product.
I’m seeing the same thing happening over here too. I think it’s a very exciting time right now, all over the world for the small, humble, niche brands. But yeah most styles and trends that I noticed in the UK are echoed all the way over here. If only I could say the same thing about the heating. OUR HOUSES ARE BLOODY FREEZING.
Dow’s latest acquisition of Digital agency Goodfolk has bought a whole new team of expertise into the fold, let’s hear from the good-est one of them all (arguably of course), Benn Winlove.
What got you into Digital? Into Goodfolk? Into Dow?
I first got into digital when I was 9, and my brother got a Sinclair ZX81 (that’s a computer console for those of you under the age of 40), with a whopping 1 kilobyte of RAM! To play on it, you had to type out lines of code from a magazine and if you made one mistake, the game wouldn’t work. If you wanted to play it again the next day, you had to type it all out again. (Millennials, you have no idea how lucky you are!).
I set up Goodfolk with two colleagues when the design company we worked for, The Church, split between its Wellington and Auckland studios. We turned the Auckland studio into Goodfolk in 2011.
We joined Dow in December last year. I had been looking for a way to lift the design and branding side of our offering, while Annie was looking to round out Dow’s design capabilities into a more complete offering. It’s been a natural merge of complimentary skill sets and like minded cultures.
Why digital? What’s so good about it?
Anyone sitting here reading these words will be using a digital device that has contributed to making their lives infinitely more connected and efficient. Every year processing power increases along with our capabilities. It allows all of us the luxury of living and thinking in the future every day. If harnessed correctly digital design can, and should be able to help us all. Done well it can bring huge efficiencies, solve planet wide problems and bring us all closer together.
The Dow Goodfolk acquisition is an exciting new step for both organisations? What are you gonna bring to the table and what are you gonna take from it?
It’s super exciting. Dow is a design leader, and to become a part of the team is a great move for all of us.
We are bringing our digital design experience and process into the Dow mix. It naturally compliments their design process, but between our teams we now have a more complete branding and design offering for our clients.
There is so much we will take from the move. The people at Dow have unbelievable skills and experience.
Briefly explain a great success story you’ve had with a client and how you’ve helped them overcome some digital hurdles.
We worked closely with Auckland Council on a number of projects over a three year period, including Our Auckland, their digital news channel.
When they came to us with the project, there was no way for them to talk to Aucklanders directly. Press releases were intercepted by news outlets and usually cast the Council in a negative light.
Our job was to design and build a news platform that they could use to tell more positive stories and publish information about important events. We duly designed an effective solution, well within scope. It is also able to be securely accessed and used by multiple publishers simultaneously and received over a million visitors in the first year.
What are your top 3 digital do’s and dont’s?
Don’t jump on every digital band wagon. There are so many new digital things out there that everybody raves about that go absolutely nowhere.
Do the UX properly. It’s so important. The battle for customer loyalty is so often won and lost here.
Do keep learning and changing. Digital allows you to record customer behaviour better than ever before. Use the data well. If something’s not working as well as it should, change it. Right away. Now.
Exciting news from Annie Dow, Director of Dow Design
I am pleased to announce the acquisition by the Dow Group of Goodfolk, an Auckland design and digital business.
After 23 years in the business of design and brand we know how important it is for our clients to merge their brand with digital.
Goodfolk — and they are good folk, so fit our culture seamlessly — will bring in house UX and UI capabilities, and allow us to follow through with our brand creativity and distinctiveness to all digital platforms.
We are very excited to be able to offer a more consistent brand experience for our clients.
For the 2017 grand finale of Ladies Wine Design Auckland, we had 3 extraordinary businesswomen sharing with us how they navigate their businesses and their brands towards success, and what they do to make sure their customers come with them for the ride. In 'Show Me The Money', Mimi Gilmour (Mexico, Burger Burger, Fish Fish, et al), Jordan Rondel (The Caker) and Hady Wenham (Forme Spa & Wellbeing) cut through the BS and reminded us that being adaptable, pro-active and really thinking about what your customers want is key to their success… that and making sure that you invest in and protect your brand.
You can build a successful business and still have integrity
“When you get to a certain level of business you get into the boys club, and they are all about chasing the bottom line. But you can build a business with integrity and make decisions that are about being true to your vision and your brand.”
Mimi – "People care more about ethical decisions and integrity now, so they respect business with integrity.”
Be prepared to reassess your business. Be brave enough to change what isn’t working
Hady – “You can’t assume that what you started with is still right and relevant years down the track.”
It’s vital to balance the evolution of your business with staying authentic to your brand values
Mimi – “If you don’t evolve you become boring and irrelevant, but you also need to stay authentic to what your brand is... otherwise your customers will say ‘that’s not really who you are.”
Hady + Mimi – “It’s not always who you think you are… it’s who your clients think you are.”
Money may not be everything, but it is a measure of success
Mimi – “Creatives tend to put dollars last, but we have to prioritise it and recognise that if the money isn’t working, there is something else that is not working.”
Hady – “If people aren’t coming back, it’s a sign that there is a problem somewhere.”
Effective branding has been essential to our success
Jordan – You can have an amazing product, but without a really strong or innovative brand it’s almost for nothing.”
Hear how one inspirational woman from Auckland, Laetitia Peterson, took on some of the world's financial heavyweights with a world-first financial product, and won.
We are really looking forward to seeing the new branding we did for Zesti hit shelves this Christmas. Watch out for some of their delicious new creations, like Christmas Pudding and Italian Panforte Bites or Champagne Rosewater & Pistachio Biscotti. They’re 'little local goodies’, made in Nelson. See if you can identify some of the local landmarks on the pack. We commissioned NZ illustrator Greg Straight to draw some highpoints of life in Tasman Bay, and we think they look almost as delicious as the goodies themselves.
VTNZ
VTNZ is back on the road again with the launch in Christchurch of its new-look Certified Dealer collaboration, designed by the team at Dow. First dealer off the rank was one of Canterbury’s biggest, Stadium Cars. With a 25% lift in sales in just the first month, that’s VTNZ and smart branding being more than a little helpful.
