Meet the Designers at Corporate Culture

Auckland design fans, take note: Our friends at Corporate Culture are inviting HOME readers to a very special 'Meet the Designers' event next Wednesday 18 July from 6-8pm at the Corporate Culture showroom (73 The Strand, Parnell).

You'll ...hear designers Nathan Goldsworthy, Emma Hayes, Tim Webber and Christopher Johnson speak about their latest work. Emma and Tim were finalists in this year's HOME Design Awards, and Nathan has been a finalist on a number of occasions before. Entry to the talks is free.

Entry to the talks if free. If you're keen to attend, please RSVP to Christine Lawton, christine@corporateculture.co.nz. It's going to be an enjoyable and informative evening!

Above: The 'Adjutant' table by Nathan Goldsworthy, from our Design Awards 2011. Photograph by Toaki Okano, styling by Jessica Allen and Tanya Wong.

Designer Emma Hayes' 'River Print' fabric series (above) was a finalist in our 2012 Design Awards, as was Tim Webber's series of 'Y' stools (below). Both photographs by Toaki Okano, with styling by Juliette Wanty and Alicia Menzies. 

A little tease

A little tease - we're announcing the winner of our furniture Design Awards at a function in Auckland on Thursday night (the full results will be published in our June/July issue, on shelves Monday June 6). The image below by Toaki Okano shows a few (but not all) of our finalists: the 'Odin' chair by Jamie McLellan (last year's Design Awards winner with his 'Flyover' table), the 'Fiord' table by Sam Haughton/IMO, a 'Weld' vase by Phil Cuttance (on the table), David Trubridge's 'Sola' light, and 'A2' stools by Sam Haughton/IMO.



Not pictured: the 'Isla' chair and ottoman by Alex Webster for Coast, the 'Adjutant' table by Nathan Goldsworthy, 'Band' shelves by David Moreland, and the 'Ruin' side table by Mark Seeney. You can check in here on our blog on Thursday night to see who the winner turns out to be.

Thanks again to our Design Awards partner, Daniel Le Brun, who made the awards possible and will be giving the finalists some of their fine product on Thursday night.

Design Awards 2010 - Behind the Scenes

Our June/July issue - which will be on newsstands on June 7 - features our annual furniture Design Awards. We were delighted with the individuality and all-round pizzazz of this year's finalists, and can't wait to show them to you in the magazine (where you'll also be able to find out who the Design Awards 2010 winner is).

For this year's Design Awards shoot, we had all the finalist pieces shipped to Auckland and photographed at the Union Fish Company building in the Britomart area, where the rough concrete floors and exposed brick walls made a fine backdrop for the very polished entries. Our stylists Tanya Wong and Jessica Allen worked with photographer Toaki Okano and his assistant Lorna to photograph the pieces.

Here's Toaki behind the camera, with Jess and Lorna setting up a group shot of the finalists (Tanya took these pics). In this shot, you can see Jamie McLellan's yellow 'Flyover' table, Andy Irving's 'Matchstick' stools (at left), Nathan Goldsworthy's 'Historian' bookshelves, Stephanie Donald's white 'Tangent' coffee table, and Sam Lennon's red 'Inverted Cube' coffee table:

And here's Toaki again, this time photographing Tim Wigmore's 'Pil' light:

The chair in the image below is the 'Starling' by Cameron Foggo:

Here's Toaki in a lighter moment:

And some more of the finalist objects, waiting for their close-ups. The pink 'Hostess' table at right is by Katy Wallace, and is made of pieces of junk-shop furniture. Beside it, the blue 'Table/Cloth' table is by Juliette Wanty.

The Design Awards 2010 winner was chosen by designer Humphrey Ikin and Michael Lett (of the eponymous Auckland gallery). Remember to watch out for full award coverage in our June/July issue - we just sent the final pages to the printer yesterday, so it won't be long until it hits the shelves.

Design Awards 2009 finalists

We happily present the finalists in our Design Awards 2009 - our picks of the best New Zealand furniture and homeware of the past year.

The 'Spiral Islands' light at the top of the image is by David Trubridge.

The 'Twig' coat stand is by Jamie McLellan for Fletcher Systems.

The black 'Knight' light is by David Moreland.

Both the orange and black steel tables are by Nathan Goldsworthy of Conscious Design.

The wooden lamp base by Ben Pearce with shade by Martin Poppelwell were produced by Sandi Reefman for her company Esther Diamond.

The red 'Hawk' chair is by Simon James.

And because you can't really see the fabric design by Ngahuia Damerell (inspired, she says, by the architectural idiom of Te Papa), here's another image of it:

If you don't mind us saying so, we think it's quite an excellent line-up. Our next issue of the magazine contains all the info on the designs and the winners, and will be published on April 6. We're also planning a series of exhibitions of the finalists' designs at the following locations:

Wellington: At the showroom of our Design Awards sponsor, Staple Furniture + Design (cnr Bond and Lombard Streets) from April 2-9

Auckland: At Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga, from April 17-May 3

Gisborne: At Staple Furniture + Design, 38 Childers Street, from May 7-21.

We hope you can make it to see the objects while they're on display. We'll also be hosting a talk featuring the designers at Te Tuhi in conjunction with the exhibition there - we'll post details when we've finalised them.