We had the pleasure of speaking with the talented three person team behind New Zealand's very own design magazine Threaded. Fiona, Kyra & Nick share with us what the future holds, key qualities a great graduate has and how you could be in the next issue!
Tell us about where you are today and what you love about your job!
Hi, Nick here, I’m working with a team that tackles design challenges everyday. We collaborate with talented people to bring Threaded Magazine to life, on client projects big and small, and work hard to push our process and ideas in both respects. I love the diversity of the work we do, challenging myself in each project and connecting with others through design.
What has been some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt along the way?
Number one has to be the importance of good clear communication, in our design work, presentation documentation but also creatively within our team. We've learnt that good design doesn't sell itself - it still has to have that underlying story that draws you in, for us this comes from doing our homework, research, points of reference and exploring all possible creative solutions. How critical it is to have contracts and agreements in place upfront with clients and partners that clearly stipulate project overview, deliverables and all associated costs. Learning to balance working on the business and in the business is a constant tug of war, we are a small studio each undertaking many hats to ensure we are viable and stay afloat! We spend a lot of time collaborating with our clients as a creative team, we try our best to develop solutions that tick our good design box and the whats going to work for their brand box but sometimes what 'we' design isn't always a direct reflection of what 'we' personally like and that sucks. Designers need to be flexible and open to exploring unknown territories - they also need self authored projects that keep them honest.
Tell us about any collaborations you have been doing: past, present or future?
Threaded Magazine is the heart of our studio, its how the three of us came to be working together and it connects us to a global design community. We get the creative freedom to influence both the content and design plus we get to collaborate with designers we admire. Kyra started the project as an undergrad student as she wanted to bridge the gap between emerging and established practice. Threaded is now an international bi-annual publication. We invite people to collaborate with us to design their own profile and discussion within four double page spreads and in each issue we showcase the work of 10 emerging creatives. For future collaborations, we invite you to contribute and/or subscribe over at threaded.co.nz !
Whats the big goal in the next five years?
There are a lot of benefits about being small but we want to grow our teams capacity, create a studio presence that reminds us on a daily basis how great this life is and attract projects that are stimulating and worthy. We will always be looking for ways to increase engagement with our audience….Oh and increase our client-based projects to grow our pay-packets so we can do all of the above and publish Threaded tri-annually to enable discussion, engagement and collaboration with our creative community. I think we will always be looking for new ways to finesse our creative design processes and systems. We are small so a lot of trial and error teaches us the big lessons and the calibre of the people and studios we collaborate with on Threaded opens our eyes wider every day.
We look for someone who has the right attitude, believes that you can move faster alone but further together, will try anything, is confident but not cocky, is enthusiastic and committed to learning, growing as a person and has a multi-disciplinary approach to design.
What qualities and skills to you look for in a graduate?
It really depends on the individuals experience in industry to date, their technical level of ability and other skill-sets that they can add to our team, this ranges from art and music interests, to strengths in typography, illustration or photography etc. And at the moment if they can get a baby to sleep that's a real bonus skill in our books! We look for someone who has the right attitude, believes that you can move faster alone but further together, will try anything, is confident but not cocky, is enthusiastic and committed to learning, growing as a person and has a multi-disciplinary approach to design.
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Where to find Threaded online.
For TDK readers: type the discount code ‘TDKFRIENDS’ in our online store and receive 10% off your subscription to Threaded Magazine.
