Upcoming Events — 2025

The Best of the Best Designers Speak® series represents the highest calibre of design craft and provides the opportunity to kōrero - sharing knowledge that uplifts and connects our community.

Talking to the values - Whakamana Te Toi, Whakamana Te Tiriti, Whakamana Te Ao, Whakamana Te Tangata.

This event is brought to you by Resene

Warren and Mahoney Architects & Space Studio

Purple Pin - Hospitality

Te Arikinui Pullman Hotel - Jonathan Hewlett, Warren and Mahoney Architects & Vee Kessner, FDINZ, Space Studio

Te Arikinui exemplifies the fusion of indigenous culture and architectural design. A partnership between Tainui, the original guardians of the land, and Auckland Airport aimed to create a destination reflecting the unique cultural significance of the location. 

Designworks & Guardians

Gold Pin - Large Brand/Toitanga

Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka - Mike Pepper, DINZ, Designworks; Anzac Tasker, FDINZ, Guardians.

Tuakiritaka. Restoring pride in identity, and pride in Ōtākou as a place of many firsts.

Alongside mana whenua and The University of Otago, Designworks set out to co-design an identity and brand that would speak to the present, be sensitive to and honour the true past, and provide clear momentum to navigate a path into the future.

DDMMYY & Klim Type Foundry

Gold Pin - Design Craft Typography

American Grotesk - Kelvin Soh, FDINZ, DDMMYY; Kris Sowersby, FDINZ, Klim Type Foundry.

A campaign for the launch of American Grotesk®, a reprisal of Franklin Gothic, which has staked its place as a key part of American graphic vernacular history, notably in persuasive communication.

Like Bollywood in relation to Hollywood, this is an America seen from a non-American perspective, an outsider's cocktail of cultural deconstruction and satire — commentary and comedy — inspired by Colors magazine, Adbusters and S.N.L.

Designgroup Stapleton Elliott & Wayfinder Landscape Planning and Strategy

Gold Pin - Public, Private & Institutional Spaces

Waiaroha - Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre - Alex Heperi, Designgroup Stapleton Elliot; Shannon Bray, Wayfinder Landscape Planning and Strategy. 

In the heart of Hastings, Waiaroha invites you to discover the wonder of water in a sustainable green space built around a state-of-the art drinking water treatment plant that pulls wai from an underground aquifer.