Nick Graham alongside a model showing how his backyak design works.
A revolutionary rescue harness created by a Massey University design student could save lives in mountain emergencies.
Wellington industrial design student Nick Graham’s ‘backyak’ is made to carry the weight of a person when one climber has to support another in a mountain emergency.
The harness-like device, which is part of this year’s College of Creative Arts Exposure exhibition of graduating design students’ work, was developed by the 22 year-old as a means of getting climbers affected by altitude sickness back down to safe levels in a rapid descent on the back of another.
The exterior of the rescue harness is comprised of a mix of Cordura and Gore Tex Pro Shell, with an outer layer of 30 millimetres of webbing split into a front and rear compartments, which ’sandwiches’ and supports the patient.
The materials for the harness, which is adjusted with the use of eight buckles, are suited for harsh alpine environments typical of mountaineering, Mr Graham says.
“The reason the harness is different to others is so that it doesn’t tangle and allows for easy set up in stressful conditions when trying to get the patient down.”
Coming from a keen outdoors and mountaineering family, Mr Graham says it was a natural step to want to base his final year industrial design project around one of the main hazards of mountaineering – altitude sickness, and ways to combat it.
“I haven’t experienced altitude sickness personally, but I have heard stories throughout my research about the effects it has on humans. With 70 per cent of climbers getting at least some level of altitude sickness I found there was an opportunity to look into it.”
His design combines elements of existing mountaineering product, and while it still needs refining before being made available to industry, has been enthusiastically supported by the outdoors equipment company Macpac.
Its former owner and company founder, Bruce McIntyre says, “it shows a lot of thinking and a practical way to deal with specific needs at altitude.”
The backyak is on display at the Exposure exhibition, part of the College of Creative Arts annual BLOW creative Arts Festival at Massey University’s Wellington campus till November 19.
Family and former students of industrial design pioneer James Coe gathered to celebrate the naming of the James Coe Industrial Design Centre on the Wellington campus, from left: Michael Smythe, Mark Pennington, Geoffrey Coe, Lyn Garrett and Brandon Syme and Jonathan Custance. At front is his widow Jemi Coe.
Design centre named after pioneering teacher
James Coe in his teaching days
Industrial design pioneer the late James Coe has been remembered through the re-naming of the Wellington campus industrial design centre.
Mr Coe's widow and son, Jemi and Geoffrey, attended the dedication ceremony on Friday, which coincided with the end of this year’s BLOW creative arts festival.
From 1962-76, Mr Coe was founding head of the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, a forerunner institution to today’s College of Creative Arts.
College Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Morgan described Mr Coe as a “fine artist and visionary” for realising the need in Wellington for a facility specialising in industrial design.
During a teaching career spanning more than 40 years Mr Coe instilled in his students a passion for all aspects of industrial design, but especially ergonomics – the study of improving people’s efficiencies in their working environment. Students he encouraged included Mark Pennington of Formway Furniture.
Mr Coe once described his philosophy: “Most products become the components of a station or the elements of an environment. The operator is not an inert nucleus. Whether the station is a tractor cab, a domestic kitchen or the chair and desk of a communications clerk, it should allow for safe and comfortable input, output and monitoring.”
His contribution to this aspect of design education was recognised in 1992 when he was elected the first Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Ergonomics Society. Other honours included the Queen’s Service Order for public service in design education and pioneering ergonomics in New Zealand and the John Britten Award for Design Leadership at the Designers Institute of New Zealand BeST Awards in 1997. He died in 2003.
Fashion design student Lisa Holmes tries a part of her garment couch on for size.
Is it a dress? Is it a chair? Wearable furniture on show
Expressions like “have a seat” or “take the weight off your feet” take on a different context when the work of fashion design student Lisa Holmes is considered.
Her couch garment design encourages public interaction as the pieces of the soft furnishings can be converted into clothing, which the wearer can then use to once again form a couch.
“Clothes can be more than wearable and should be multi-functional,” Ms Holmes, 21, says of the concept behind her exhibit called Fully Furnished.
While she concedes the world may not be ready for her multi-functional designs just yet, she believes they definitely have potential for the future. “I see this as an eye-catching thing that gets people excited, and that as technology advances we see more multi-functional designs that haven’t made it into the garment world yet.”
The exhibit is included in the Exposure exhibition of work by graduating design students as part of the BLOW 2010 creative arts festival. It shows a conventional set of garments draped onto separate sections of a couch, creating a life-size puzzle. Ms Holmes says it encourages people to work together to try on the various components to form a couch.
"People’s eyes are opened to the world where garments are no longer just clothes to be hung in a wardrobe.”
Ms Holmes’ piece has already been exhibited in Wellington’s Civic Square, where people were encouraged to try out the garments and piece the couch back together. “Participants and onlookers were encouraged to consider the harmony in which garment and furniture combine and are pushed to rethink design normality and with it their current lifestyle,” she says.
Kate Adolph
Inaugural photography award presented
Kate Adolph with her photographic collage and (right) celebrating her award with senior photography lecturer Ann Shelton.
Photographic design student Kate Adolph has snapped up an inaugural prize awarded to a graduating student from the School of Fine Arts photographic design course.
The 22-year-old, originally from Queenstown, was presented with the $1000 prize for the Wellington Photographic Supplies Bachelor of Design (Hons) Graduating Photographer Award at a function held on Friday to coincide with the official launch of the BLOW 2010 creative arts festival.
Ms Adolph’s portfolio of work includes a collage of passport-sized photographs of her great-grandmother, which have all been slightly altered to question the reliability of an archival document as a valid authentication of the past. “By intervening on to personal family photographs, this displacement is pushed and extended,” Ms Adolph says. “Here, photographic objects are fragmented and deconstructed to a state where they transcend into recontextualised art objects.”
In presenting Ms Adolph with her award, senior photography lecturer Ann Shelton also praised her inventiveness with the medium and long hours of hard work she put into the course.
Rachel Moller with an example of her outdoor rest-stop stand below, and above illuminated at night, with engravings of local landmarks recessed into the centre.
Design encourages tired drivers to take a break
Rachel Moller
Industrial design student Rachel Moller hopes her designs of outdoor furniture for roadside rest areas could help counter the dangers of driver fatigue.
The circular outdoor tables are equipped with lighting located beneath the tabletop. By illuminating them at night Ms Moller believes they will stand out and encourage long distance drivers to pull over for a break.
Long-haul drivers, like truckies, are statistically more at risk of falling asleep at the wheel. According to the Transport Agency driver fatigue was a contributing factor in 11 per cent of all road deaths in 2008.
“If they could stop more, it could really reduce the social cost of driver fatigue,” Ms Moller says.
Supported by a central metal stand, the tables also come with engravings of the surrounding tourist landmarks that are recessed into the tabletop. These can offer an educational purpose for travellers too, Ms Moller says, particularly children who take rubbings away of the landmarks from each stop during their journey.
The Wellington-based 21-year-old student, originally from Oakura, Taranaki, came up with the idea for the furniture during a family road trip. “We stopped at different rest areas but found they were no good, with little to encourage you to stay.”
Ms Moller has designed the metallic tables, which are actually made of composite woodboard painted to look like galvanised steel, to be reflective of the diverse New Zealand environment and to potentially provide a range of energy supply options including mains power, solar-power or wind energy.
Her design features in the Exposure exhibition of graduating design students’ work, which is the opening event of the BLOW 2010 creative arts festival being held by the College of Creative Arts from November 6-20.
Design disciplines celebrated at festival opening
Photographic design student Kate Adolph (at right) celebrates her prize with senior photography lecturer Ann Shelton.
Thomas Fechney holds aloft his first-year workbook as he gives the student address at the opening of the BLOW Festival.
Textile design student Kristy Johnstone works on her entry about knitted graffiti for the Exposure exhibition.
Creative arts student designers joined with family, friends and University staff to launch the annual BLOW festival on the Wellington campus tonight.
Over the next fortnight the campus will be the focus for a celebration of the best in arts, fashion, dance and design, including exhibitions, screenings, performances, workshops and public lectures.
The traditional opening event at BLOW is the exhibition Exposure, which explores all aspects of design bringing together top quality work from textiles to typography, illustration to industrial design, and fashion to photography design.
Wearable art, a roadside stand to encourage drivers to take more rest stops, a re-think of the traditional lawn mower and examples of knit tagging or knitting in urban spaces, are all examples of the innovation on show at Exposure which opened before an audience of hundreds of invited guests in the Great Hall of the Museum building.
Communication design student Thomas Fechney was given the honour of making the student address, proudly holding aloft his first-year workbook to signify the completion of his studies and the years of effort he and fellow final-year students had made.
This year the exhibition was preceded by a guest lecture by one of Europe’s best known product designers, Dick Powell, who is chief executive and founder of London-based Seymourpowell, one of the world’s leading design and innovation companies developing everything from express coffee machines to super fit nappies for babies.
Festival director Drew Naika says attracting reputable career professionals like Mr Powell, and the editor of Eye international design magazine, John Walters, to speak at the festival showed the high regard in which it was held.
College Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Morgan says with the festival now in its fourth year, it is “firmly established as a forum for creative practitioners to network and contribute to the learning environment, while also supporting emerging design and talent”.
The School of Fine Arts held a separate function to coincide with the festival launch, which included the awarding of an inaugural prize to one of its graduating photographic design students. Kate Adolph was presented with the $1000 prize for the Wellington Photographic Supplies Bachelor of Design (Hons) Graduating Photographer Award.
The Exposure exhibition runs for the duration of the BLOW festival, which continues till November 20.
Posters showcase iwi creativity
Priscilla McClintock’s Elizabethan armour, tribal scarification and kakahu cloak-inspired creation.
A poster exhibition of work by 13 Māori creative arts students opens on Saturday as part of the of the BLOW creative arts festival.
The Iwi Creativity poster exhibition runs from November 6-20 in the Pyramid at the Wellington campus and features work from students studying a range of disciplines in the College of Creative Arts, including fashion, fine arts, illustration, graphic design, photography and spatial design.
The annual exhibition was first held in 2006 to celebrate the success of Māori students and highlight the contribution the University makes to the creative sector.
Priscilla McClintock (Ngāti Porou), a fourth-year Bachelor of Design student majoring in fashion and business management, says her poster presentation is inspired by the concept of dualism, which is present in most religious systems.
“In particular, I have investigated the relationship between the soul and the physical human body, and the idea that the soul is trapped inside the body until it is freed at death,” Ms McClintock says. Her work attempts to illustrate this relationship through “textural contrast and deconstruction”. The primary material used is vegetable-tanned leather, which has been moulded, embossed and dyed to create a sense of decomposition. “The work is inspired by a range of diverse references, including Elizabethan armour, tribal scarification and kakahu cloaks.”
Other work in the Iwi Creativity exhibition this year has been submitted by: Batreece Morgan (Tainui), Bachelor of Design: Fashion; Jasmine Cameron, (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa), Bachelor of Design: Fashion; Matt Whitwell (Ngāi Tahu), Bachelor of Fine Arts; Mercia Tawhiri-Kerr (Ngāti Kahungunu), Bachelor of Design: Spatial Design; Miriama Grace-Smith (Ngā Puhi and Ngāti Maniapoto), Bachelor of Fine Arts; Rebecca Kereopa (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa), Bachelor of Design: Illustration; Ruth Henare (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngā Puhi and Rongomaiwahine), Bachelor of Fine Arts: History, Biography, Documentary; Sharon Vodanovich, (Ngāi Tahu), Diploma in Photography; Simon Cooke (Ngāi Tahu), Bachelor of Design: Graphic Design; Talitha Te Tau, (Ngā Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne), Bachelor of Design: Toi Atea.
Industrial design student Alissa Richardson with her alternative furniture for blood donors.
Cafe ambience designed to get blood flowing
Watch the video animation on YouTube
Callum Starling's submersible marine craft.
Cafe-style tables and non-clinical chairs designed to make blood donors feel more at ease are the brainchild of a Massey industrial design student who hopes her product will help encourage more people to give blood.
Alissa Richardson, in her fourth year at the Auckland School of Design – part of the College of Creative Arts, says her creation was inspired by regular publicity about blood supply shortages.
Her furniture range, consisting of swivel chairs with adjustable arm rests, a round cafe table and separate tray unit for blood collection can be set up for couples or groups to share a hot drink and chat as they give blood.
Ms Richardson's project, called Share, will be on show at the school's Design Exposure 2010 exhibition of final year industrial, transport and visual communication student work this weekend.
"I wanted to recreate a cafe atmosphere because so many people are familiar with that," she says. Her experience as a first-time blood donor earlier this year sparked her interest in why so few New Zealanders – just 4 per cent – donate blood. Her conclusion was that people needed more incentives, such as a more enticing, less clinical setting.
"I was quite shocked by the layout and how bland the current system is." Her main gripe was the clinical chairs, which she felt suggested illness even though blood donors are required to be in good health.
Her research highlighted the need for a more social atmosphere to distract people from factors that deter so many, such as fear of needles and the sight of blood. Most donors are aged 40 to 60, and she wants to see younger people giving blood. The Blood Service provided funding for the project and is considering the potential for further development of the design.
New Zealand Blood Service marketing manager Paul Hayes says: "Alissa's project and our relationship with Massey University will help raise awareness of the constant need for new donors and especially the need for more young people to volunteer to donate blood for the good of their community."
He says new donor numbers were down by 20 per cent last year. Around 42,000 New Zealanders need blood or blood products each year.Other industrial design projects include a footwear system to help runners make the transition to barefoot running, and an automated strawberry picker.
Among innovative transport projects on show at the weekend is a personal submarine design by transport designer Callum Starling. He says his 1Atmosphere Bio-Submersible, which resembles something out of the cult science fiction television series Thunderbirds, moves silently through the water like a stingray and is powered by a zero emissions electric drive train.
Designed to be manufactured using cost-effective rotational moulding techniques, Mr Starling estimates it could sell for the same price as a trailer boat. "This shifts the realm of the personal submersible away from the toys of the super rich, to an affordable consumer product," he says.
The exhibition is open from 10am-6pm from November 5-7 at Shed 6, Upper Deck, 90 Wellesley Street, Auckland. It is part of the annual BLOW festival run by Massey's College of Creative Arts in Wellington.
Alice and Mike Fitzgerald at the presentation of the poster collection to Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey.
Psychedelic poster collection presented to campus
More than 40 posters, including psychedelic designs promoting rock gigs for 1960s bands like The Grateful Dead and The Mamas and the Papas, have been formally gifted to the University by Mike and Alice Fitzgerald of Stokes Valley.
Mr Fitzgerald, who started the collection while carrying out biology studies at the University of California, Berkeley, on a Fulbright scholarship from 1965-69, decided to give them to Massey after he saw an exhibition of modern but classic poster designs by American designer Jason Munn at last year’s BLOW creative arts festival in Wellington.
Many of the eye-catching posters are designed by some of the well-known illustrators of the era, such as Stanley Mouse, Wes Wilson and Victor Mosco, and instantly identify them with the psychedelic look and sound of the late 1960s.
“I collected them because I was really taken with them, and I like the idea they might [now] encourage students to do things that inspire them,” Mr Fitzgerald says.
Institute of Communication Design senior tutor Matt Clapham says while he could not be absolutely sure, it was unlikely such a comprehensive poster collection from the late 1960s period would be found elsewhere in New Zealand.
This year's BLOW festival opens on Saturday and runs for a fortnight.
Right: Examples of the posters gifted to the University advertising gigs by The Grateful Dead, The Canned Heat and others.
Manos Nathan
Truncated career to be honoured in Hall of Fame
Avis Higgs
Fane Flaws
Nearly 60 years after making her name as one of New Zealand’s foremost textile designers, Avis Beere (nee Higgs) is to be honoured as an inductee of the College of Creative Arts’ Hall of Fame.
Mrs Beere, along with musician, songwriter and graphic artist Fane Flaws and ceramicist Manos Nathan, will be formally inducted at a special ceremony on November 19 as one of the highlights of the University's BLOW 2010 creative arts festival.
Instigated in 2007, the Hall of Fame recognises past staff and students of the college and its forerunner institutions, the Wellington Technical College School of Art and the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, who have made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand's economy, reputation and national identity through art and design.
It will be a particularly poignant moment for Mrs Beere, 92, who seemed destined for a long and successful career after training at the School of Art in the late 1930s. She then left for Australia and became head designer for Silk and Textile Printers in Sydney. In 1948 she returned to New Zealand, where she produced a portfolio of designs featuring Australian and New Zealand motifs, many of them sourced from the designs on the carved house Te Hau Ki Turanga, on display in what was then the Dominion Museum building.
From there she moved to Europe but her career ended in a car crash near Rome in 1951. After a long recovery, she returned to New Zealand and took up painting. She has always been known among artistic and creative circles by her maiden name. Her work was celebrated and honoured in the retrospective exhibition Avis Higgs: Joie de Vivre at the Hawke’s Bay Museum in 2000 and in 2006 she was awarded the Governor-General’s Art Award for her contribution to New Zealand design.
Mr Flaws is another who has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s design landscape. He graduated from the design school as a graphic designer in 1971 and was a member of bands including Blerta, Spats and The Crocodiles. He has directed many award-winning music videos and been responsible for the animation on alternative music TV show Radio With Pictures and retained his links with Massey by designing orientation week posters. He is co-author, with Arthur Baysting and Peter Dasent, of the children’s book The Underwater Melon Manand otherunreasonable rhymes which went on to be produced as film and also live in Wellington theatres in 2002.
Ceramicist Manos Nathan graduated from the design school in 1970. A co-founder of Nga Kaihanga Uku, the national Maori Clayworkers organisation, he has been at the forefront of the development of the Maori ceramic movement. Starting out working as a sculptor and wood carver on his tribal lands, including carving the meeting house Tuohu at Matatina Marae, Waipoua, Mr Nathan eventually crafted an enduring reputation for himself with his clay works. As a foundation member and former chairman of Te Atinga, the Contemporary Maori Visual Arts Committee of Toi Maori Aotearoa, he has been active in the promotion of contemporary Maori art for more than 20 years.
Portraits of the latest inductees will join images of recipients already mounted on the wall above the foyer of the Old Museum Building in Wellington. Among them are the late Len Lye (artist and filmmaker), Sir Richard Taylor (special effects designer at Weta Workshop) and Rebecca Taylor (New York-based fashion designer).
Design discussion promises to be a BLAST
John Walters
International design magazine editor John Walters is to chair a three-day exploration of how emerging New Zealand designers are collaborating across design disciplines.
The conference, called BLAST, brings together designers working across the fields of web, animation, illustration, spatial, conceptual, installation and graphic design, and some whose work crosses into fine arts.
BLAST takes place from November 11-13 at the Wellington campus as part of the BLOW creative arts festival. It opens with a look at the backgrounds of some of the designers represented. The second day features short presentations and a panel discussion with the event concluding with a panel discussion on the final morning.
London-based Mr Walters, who edits Eye magazine, was convinced to visit New Zealand after learning about the mix of emerging and established talent who would be there.
Institute of Communication Design head Associate Professor Chris Bennewith says designers invited were those "whose work we admire that seem to work naturally across different areas of design. We’ve noticed that this cross-discipline approach is becoming a recognisable trend in the industry, with many designers working in collectives as well as more traditional design practices.”
Guest speakers include design sector identities Clem Devine (from Alt Group), Paul Kayser (Clever Bastards), Patrick Loo, Sarosh Mulla, Katherine O’Shaughnessy and James Pearce (Oh.No.Sumo).
“We’re very excited by this line-up; it promises some fresh and inspiring design approaches that should have wide appeal to anyone interested in contemporary design,” Professor Bennewith says.
Performers Urban Devas, an eight-strong ensemble of women whose style of dance and sonic performance look set to transform civic spaces during BLOW10.
Creative arts festival nears lift-off
Opening the night after Guy Fawke’s, the University's creative arts festival BLOW 2010 is a sure fire way to end the university year with a bang.
From November 6-20, the College of Creative Arts in Wellington and Albany will offer an intriguing variety of events featuring art, fashion, music and especially design.
The festival includes exhibitions, screenings, performances, workshops and public lectures, continuing a tradition of excellence that has cemented itself on the public consciousness. Since 2007 the festival has showcased the talents of staff and students as well as international visitors.
College Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Morgan says the festival has become a popular forum for creative practitioners to network with each other, contribute to the learning environment and support the next generation of creative talents entering into the design and art industries.
Highlights this year include an interactive entertainment conference, a controlled cacophony of sound called Musicircus, everyday objects converted to a different use in the Surplus and Creativity exhibition, lectures on robotics and the ever-popular BLOW fashion show in which the work of graduating fashion design students is proudly paraded.
BLOW adds Blast to its line-up this year too. This forum offers a series of design events that promise a wealth of provocative ideas and debate for design practitioners, commentators and the wider public. International speakers at Blast include design critic and editor of Britain's Eye magazine, John Walters.
The next generation of artists and designers will also be making their presence felt at the annual Exposure Exhibition by graduating students, now running throughout the two weeks of the festival to enable more opportunity for the public to see their innovative work
The festival foreshadows a still bigger year of celebration next year, when the college celebrates 125 years of art and design education. It traces its history back through the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design to the first School of Design established in 1886.
This heritage has enabled Massey to induct nine artists and designers to its College of Creative Arts Hall of Fame, including Sir Richard Taylor from Weta Workshop, artist John Drawbridge and fashion designer Kate Sylvester. Three new inductees will be named later this month.
Examples of Tomas Cottle’s faux horror film posters.
Graduates and students among the BeST for 2010
Nick Eaton’s snowboard boot design.
College of Creative Arts students and graduates have won 11 gold pins in this year's Designers Institute BeST Design Awards.
A snowboarder’s boot, illuminated faux horror film posters and a commemorative tribute book are among the projects to receive gold awards, in which 33 of the 48 student design finalists were from Massey.
The awards, presented at the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland last night, recognise New Zealand’s best graphic, interactive, product and spatial design.
Past and present Massey students also collected 11 silver and nine bronze awards.
The gold winners included product design graduate Nick Eaton, whose practical yet aesthetically pleasing design of snowboard boot called duotrek combines elements of mountaineering as well as snowboarding for adventure-seeking backcountry alpine explorers.
Graphic design graduate Tomas Cottle explored the concept of irrational fear with his collection of faux horror film posters, which are mounted in antique illuminated poster cabinets.
Sarah Ny, who was also a gold winner for graphic design, produced a 120-page book Cab 83, which is a commemorative tribute to her father, one of New Zealand’s first Cambodian taxi drivers, and the taxi where the book can be found and read.
Other gold award winners were Tessa Gourley (graphic design), Amber Jean Hornsby (graphic), Sabrina Malcolm (graphic), Tanya Marriott (interactive design), Kyle Labad (interactive), Amy Millar (spatial design) Emma Jepson, with Katie Bevin and Amy Potter (spatial), Aidan Turvey (graphic).
Institute chief executive Cathy Veninga says the University is “one of the country’s top incubators” for New Zealand design, which also produced some of the country’s most talented students. “These students represent New Zealand’s design future, and I’m happy to say that based on the sort of work that these students are producing, our design future looks to be in safe hands.”
Associate Professor Chris Bennewith, who heads the college's Institute for Communication Design, says the number of awards speaks volumes about the high regard in which its students are held. “An accolade like this puts a young designer's name up in lights, and often attracts industry attention that can lead to jobs and other opportunities."
Massey sweeps wearable art student category
Shadowlands by Luka Mues Image courtesy of World of WearableArt Ltd.
College of Creative Arts students Luka Mues and Loren Shields took out first and second places in the tertiary student category of last night's Montana World of WearableArt Awards Show in Wellington.
Mr Mues used velveteen, wool, alpaca and silk to create the mood of the shadow world of fungi with his entry, called Shadowlands.
“Crochet, felting and embroidery tell a personal story of process and craft," Mr Mues says. "I have chosen a distorted silhouette to bring a sense of fungi as instruments of decay.”
He won first prize of $5000 in the Shell-sponsored student design award category.
Ms Shields used as inspiration for her garment, Smouldering Energy, based on a burning coalmine underground on the West Coast, where she was raised. Embellished with real coal, it used resin, building paper, rubbish bags, headlamps, weed mat and cellophane. The judges agreed with Ms Shields’ comment that her garment “captures the emotional beauty of a burning coal mine".
She won $1000 for being runner-up in the category.
A third student from the college, Renee Ingram, was also a finalist in the awards, which celebrate the best in creative design from around the world.
Earlier this year Mr Mues was the recipient of a $2500 exchange scholarship funded by global telecommunications company AT&T, providing him with a place for a semester at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and automatic entry to the World of Wearable Art Awards.
In 2008, the Supreme Award winner at the Wearable Art Awards was presented to Massey University design graduate Nadine Jaggi.
International award for face protector design
Annabel Goslin with her award-winning face protector modelled by fellow graduate Morgan Terry.
Design graduate Annabel Goslin's hockey face protector has won a top international Red Dot Design Award.
Ms Goslin, 22, called the protector, which featured at last year's College of Creative Arts BLOW arts festival, the Guardian. It is aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of injuries experienced, often after penalty corners in field hockey, something she experience personally while playing.
Red Dot is an internationally recognised label for excellent design. Ms Goslin's entry was one of more than 12,000 from 60 countries, of which just 7 per cent received awards.
It is the second year running one of her sportswear designs has won a Red Dot Award. Last year she entered an all-purpose sports rain jacket called the Armadillo.
“The 2009 design award gave me a distinct advantage when applying for my first job and the award ceremony in Singapore put me in contact with international design businesses. The 2010 design award is a confirmation of the level of design work expected by Massey University," she says.
Ms Goslin, who graduated Bachelor of Design with first-class honours in May, is now working in Palmerston North as an industrial designer for Unlimited Realities, a company that develops applications for consumer software. In her spare time she is also carrying out contract work for New Zealand field hockey equipment manufacturer OBO, developing their new range of field hockey goalie bag and goalie top.
