Travel & tourism | MagentaDot Brands

A boy in a studio posing in a terracotta coloured weta New Zealand t-shirt.

Weta New Zealand. Insect dinosaur.

April 28, 2021 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Celebrate your love for nature and wildlife with this art print featuring New Zealand’s largest native insect, the weta. Don’t say “oooh!”, say “aaah!” for this is one of the best-looking weta you’ll ever see. The recently rediscovered Bluff weta can be found in scree and on rocky bluffs at Mt Somers in North Canterbury, and all over this t-shirt.

Designed by Chrissie and I and printed in the USA and Europe. Available as an ‘all-over’ teeshirt design for adults, and a two-sided placement print design version for adults and kids.

All purchases storewide made using this link to the weta design will receive a 5% discount that is applied automatically at checkout. Promo code: “PERFEC”.

For our New Zealand customers we have established this Digitees Surface Active store so your weta t-shirts can be printed in New Zealand, with a fast turnaround, shipping in 3–5 days + courier. Sale price: The NZ-based store prices are 10% discounted storewide.

A woman wearing a dolphins leaping New Zealand t-shirt with her hair all over her face.

Dolphin watercolour print

February 8, 2021 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Designed by Chrissie and I and printed in the USA and Europe. My new absolute fav dolphin watercolour ‘all-over’ teeshirt print. All purchases made using this link to the global store will receive a 5% discount, use promo code: “PERFEC”.

Or shop at our New Zealand-based store: Sale price, the price of all the goods in the NZ store are 10% discounted.

The colourful print of four common dolphins leaping is brought to life with a watercolour splash. Common dolphins (Delphinus delphus) are seen in Kaikoura mainly in the summer time. Kaikoura is one of the best places in New Zealand to view marine wildlife and rated as one of the best in the world to swim with dolphins.

Spotted shags are the best kind

December 1, 2020 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Now designed & printed in New Brighton

This t-shirt wildlife art print features a trio of Banks Peninsula spotted shags during breeding season, when nature gets heavy-handed with blue-green makeup and punk hair-dos. It is a multimedia design featuring a woodcut portrait of the birds and an airbrushed sky.

With their distinctive spotted feathers, bright blue-green colouring and tufted crests, these spotted shags/parekareka are thinking of romance (and fish.) What else does a shag do in it’s pre-nuptial plumage?

You can choose between having the large art printed on the front or the back of the shirt. This design looks great on grey marle, royal blue and deep royal. Email Shaun at mailto:hello@surfaceactive.nz to order direct from the graphic artist.

Shop for the double-sided version at our international store here with the big print on the back, and the single-sided version here with the big print on the front. Or shop at our Tauranga New Zealand-based online store here.

Close up of a woman wearing a black Surface Active paua t-shirt under her denim jacket.

My kind of shellfish

November 30, 2020 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Just for you a Paua Pacific t-shirt 10% off link is here, use promo code “ARTYKIWI.”

These black and navy tees with the double-sided Paua Pacific print are perfect for the summer. For a 10% discount use the promo code “ARTYKIWI” here:

Cool, clean Pacific waters produce the bright iridescent colours of the paua shell—a watery treasure of New Zealand to keep you cool.

This art print is a composite of a charcoal drawing and hand-separated paua shell pattern printed in 6 colours which gives the paua design a shimmering quality. Illustration based on a photo by Rod Morris.

A young couple wearing two different Surface Active New Zealand nature t-shirts leaning against their VW kombi campervan. He is wearing the jewelled gecko design on a black t-shirt, she is wearing a cardinal red iconic kiwi roundel t-shirt.

Awesome New Zealand nature inspired t-shirts

November 23, 2020 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Surface Active storewide 10% off, storewide, here, use promo code “ARTYKIWI.”

What a way to spend lockdown! As Surface Active’s graphic designer I built this new collection of awesome New Zealand Nature Inspired T-shirts from a mix of our legacy drawings, photolitho artwork and some new hand-rendered digital illustrations.

To celebrate the launch of Chrissie and my new store we’d like to share a storewide 10% discount offer. You can shop here https://surface-active.myteespring.co/?pr=ARTYKIWI to get your Surface Active teeshirts, use promo code “ARTYKIWI.”

The jewelled gecko is available here, and the kiwi is available here.

Surface Active: making waves in a sea of sameness.

Three women smile brightly, each wearing a different Surface Active t-shirt showcasing New Zealand wildlife: an Adélie penguin, a jewelled gecko, and a giant weta.

New Zealand Nature T-shirt Store

November 18, 2020 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Celebrating our Surface Active New Zealand Nature T-shirt Company store launch

Chrissie and I are happy to announce the launch of our Surface Active New Zealand Nature T-shirt Company store. You can shop here to get your Surface Active teeshirts.

Chrissie and I created our New Zealand nature t-shirt company and clothing brand, Surface Active, in 1985. As design pARTners we create wildlife T-shirts in the spirit of fun. Our subject matter is native flora & fauna, landscapes and Kiwiana—designs that celebrate some of the unique and beautiful assets of our country that we love.

We have had many requests to make our most popular T-shirt designs available again. So I made it my lockdown 2020 project to complete the job of launching our brand new Surface Active Teespring store.

From whales to wetas, paua to penguins—please browse through our store to see if there’s something for you.

All the best,

Surface Active design pARTners: Shaun Waugh (boss), Chrissie Terpstra (bossier)

A coolie steps off a wooden cargo boat gangplank. These magnificent Makassar schooners called Pinisiat at the port of Sunda Kelapa, Jakarta, Indonesia.

The right picture: Batavia, old harbour of Jakarta

August 28, 2019 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Sunda Kelapa, the old harbour of Jakarta, whispers tales of a bygone era.

Known as Batavia until 1949, the port was a centre of trade and cultural exchange; students of Captain James Cook are generally cognisant of Batavia’s prominence in the first voyage story. In this post I’ll take you on a visual journey through Sunda Kelapa, using this captivating location as a springboard to explore the art of choosing the perfect image.

The practice of self assignment can be one of a photographer’s most useful exercises. It is a highly personal experience in which the photographer becomes his own audience—there is no client to please, no specific requirements by which the photographs will be judged. It serves as a way to test your abilities should they ever be offered the “dream” assignment. This is an opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. Some good images may be captured in the bargain. The purpose beyond any such practice should be to move beyond the ordinary, to break the photographic cliché.
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Pionair website, aircraft charter page, Tauck group photo centre, Pionair Cargo page to the left, Tailormade travel page to the right.

Pionair websites for N.Z. & Australia

June 27, 2019 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Pionair.com, Pionair.com.au overview

The Australian and New Zealand private air charter and inbound tourism wholesaling firms had two websites side-by-side, Pionair.com, and Pionair.com.au which I designed and maintained through three iterations between 2003–2009. In 2008 the new combination “affluent travel/private air charter/air cargo” themed redesign for both websites was briefed.
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Excellent design conveys care

March 22, 2019 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

POMEROY’S ON KILMORE BOUTIQUE ACCOMMODATION, CHRISTCHURCH

Excellent design conveys care, craftsmanship, professionalism, it is beautiful to see and fun to do

THE BEST DESIGN—design that moves people’s hearts and minds—has something more. It expresses a concept, a great underlying vision that combines imagination and wisdom. Without a great concept, it is fair to say, design is only superficial decoration. A great concept is what gives purpose to the communication art of design. The design of Pomeroy’s on Kilmore Boutique Accommodation’s brand and corporate identity components, from signage to print & web, to bathroom products is all about vision—the art of imagining and thinking and seeing a world that does not yet exist, and that needs graphic design to bring that to life.

Pomeroy’s on Kilmore boutique accommodation signage

Entrance to Pomeroy’s on Kilmore Boutique Accommodation.

Pomeroy’s on Kilmore Boutique Accomodation custom bathroom product range packaging.

Pomeroy’s on Kilmore custom bathroom product range packaging.

“Pomeroy’s and daughters and son” is a family business, having welcomed lots of guests through its doors over the previous eighteen months, in 2007–8 Steve and Victoria Pomeroy decided to complete their plans to fully refurbish, upgrade and rebrand the colonial villa, formerly known as Pomeroy’s B&B from 2006. Snug, comfortable Pomeroy’s on Kilmore Boutique Accommodation is centrally located next door to Christchurch’s own historic, English-style pub! Managed by Ava the atmosphere is private and personal, complete with delicious continental breakfast, what more could you ask for but their fantastic value tariff? Steve’s career in construction and Victoria’s flair for interior design came together in a great luxury b&b concept that positioned Pomeroy’s on Kilmore as a top of the line B&B.
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Wildlife Photo portrait of a Cheetah at Orana Wildlife Park

Where the wild things are

December 14, 2018 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Orana Wildlife Park is a great place for wildlife photography

ORANA WILDLIFE PARK, MCLEANS ISLAND, CHRISTCHURCH

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE GENRE of photography concerned with the documenting of wildlife in their natural habitat, Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch, is New Zealand’s only open range zoo. Visiting Orana Park therefore offers a unique opportunity for the self-assignment of exercising your photography skills because in the wild animals are difficult to approach, predicting their actions is hit and miss, whereas the animals at Orana Park are not perturbed when viewed from quite close up and because there are mostly no bars or cages capturing great images of them in interesting situations just takes a little patience to be in the right place at the right time.
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Antarctic Centre Adelies on ice Antarctica design on a white and a dark blue T-shirt

Cool T-shirts for Antarctica

September 28, 2018 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

WILDLIFE ART FOR THE ANTARCTIC CENTRE – Surface Active design pARTners’ good art achieves standout 1991 competition win

Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica, has been for well over a century. The International Antarctic Centre was established in 1990, the visitor ‘Antarctic Attraction’ was opened to the public two years later.

Getting Antarctic people to vote on the Antarctic T-shirt designs

In 1991 the Attraction’s “Antarctic shop” merchandising and trading manager invited New Zealand’s leading souvenir T-shirt screen printers to each enter a set of Antarctica T-shirt designs into a competition, speculatively, to be judged and voted on by staff members of the various national Antarctic programmes based in Christchurch—hundreds of world-class scientists, explorers, transport support staff and the likes involved in preparing for their work in Antarctica. The brief was wide open, wildlife art designs, historical designs pertaining to Christchurch’s involvement with the 1912 epic of Captain Scott’s race to the Pole.
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Orana Park Chapman’s Zebra screen prints on front and back of a navy T-shirt

Wildlife Park T-shirts for Africa

September 28, 2018 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Our 1992 competition winners, a range of wildlife art t-shirts that celebrate an international wildlife conservation success story: Orana’s African savannah top five

ORANA WILDLIFE PARK, MCLEANS ISLAND, CHRISTCHURCH

The retail market of the garment trade is tough, for an open range zoo like Orana Park, with one foot in the quality recreational experience sector and the other in the tourism sector, trading is highly seasonal. The competition for the customer’s discretionary spending dollar and the fact the park is a charitable trust that generates 95% of its income from gate takings and their ‘Trading Post’, demanded that the very best way of developing the Park’s new T-shirt range be used for this custom T-shirt design and print project.
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