New Zealand Nature T-shirt Store

November 18, 2020 / / 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)

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Events Management Group branding

June 28, 2019 / / No Comments

EMG Events Management Group was a Christchurch firm established to support the performing arts and project manage the creation and development of large and small scale events such as outdoor theatre for the city council’s parks & recreation department, conferences, conventions and bespoke corporate events such as product launches and fundraisers.
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Pomeroys Boutique Accommodation logo and hand-crafted three dimensional sign.

Excellent design conveys care

March 22, 2019 / / 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.

Entrance to Pomeroy’s on Kilmore Boutique Accommodation.
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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Pomeroy’s Press newsletter front page, masthead, leading article, Pomeroy’s family greeting, photo of Steve and Victoria Pomeroy.

Pomeroy’s pub newsletter

March 11, 2019 / / 2 Comments

The restrained look for Pomeroy’s English style pub newsletter is pure news

POMEROY’S OLD BREWERY INN, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

THE QUARTERLY POMEROY’S Old Brewery Inn and restaurant newsletter had a name inspired by their brand, “The Pomeroy’s Press”, it was well-edited by Chrissie Terpstra who was also chief reporter between 2005–2010 and was designed and laid out with a look that made the news.
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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 / / 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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Poster Mr Fungus International Comic Mime

Fungustic slaprobatics: a poster for Mr Fungus

July 26, 2018 / / No Comments

A poster for New Zealand‘s loudest mime

After training in London at the Desmond Jones School of Mime and earning a living on the competitive streets of Covent Garden and at various international busking festivals, at age 25 Fergus returned to New Zealand to work full time as an entertainer. He needed a logo and self-promotional publicity kit to enable him to market himself and provide to talent agencies. This poster is a photo montage produced using old school paste up and photolitho methods. Inverting the chair handstand ‘fungustic slaprobatic’ trick into a free-falling Mr Fungus was to play with the audience with a sort of Irish parachute sight gag, and making a poster that could be hung “correctly” upside down and still not make sense.
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Vinevax PWD brochure redesign cover

Trichoseal-spray: pruning wound dressing makeover

July 17, 2018 / / No Comments

Vinevax_logo_radiused_256pxMore compelling design doesn’t mean prettier, or more arty. By more compelling I mean richer, more complete, better because it is more efficient, better because it is attractive in useful ways. The design of Vinevax’s new brand collateral isn’t merely about their product looking better on the shelf, but actually functioning better as an advertisement for itself in a competitive retail environment. The design has to do with the work of increasing sales by making Vinevax’s packaging beautiful and clear.

It’s exciting.
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Verso of Mr Fungus business card

Mr. Fungus logo & card: make a big impression at close range

July 17, 2018 / / No Comments

Graphics must be purposeful

Recently returned to settle back in Wellington from the U.K. in 1991, having done his time entertaining Covent Garden and international festival audiences, Fergus Aitken was a busker, a young exponent of clowning, juggling, mime and the bizarre who needed a logo and a business stationery promotional kit to advertise and promote his comic mime character Mr Fungus. More broadly he needed to promote his availability for various performing arts roles and as a mime workshop teacher in community, school and tertiary education settings. The first project, a card, would be handed over personally or included in direct mail campaigns to various audiences, where it would be viewed mainly at very close range.
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MTC 2015 launch catalogue

July 16, 2018 / / No Comments

MTC_logo_greys_256Once a mainstay of the graphic design business, nowadays print brochures are more the rarity but my fascination with ink on paper is perennial. I was inspired by the opportunity to create a small company launch and product catalogue brochure for MTC Equipment, that is short and to the point.
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