Wildlife art | MagentaDot Brands

A smiling boy wearing an orange Surface Active Iconic Kiwi t-shirt beside New Brighton Pier.

Kiwi T-shirt: Unique New Zealand Native Bird Design for Kids

May 19, 2024 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Our eye-catching kiwi design features a bold, two-colour roundel illustration on the front showcasing the most famous New Zealand native bird on a crew neck, mid-weight (185gsm) kids’ t-shirt. A playful mini kiwi icon graces the back for a touch of whimsy. This design pairs best with white, pastels, lights, and brights for maximum contrast. Can be customised with the large art printed on the back and the mini kiwi badge on the front left chest at no extra charge.

Shop Across our Stores

Shop for this flightless bird design across our Surface Active stores:

by ordering here to have it locally printed and DTF heat pressed right here in New Brighton.
Price: $30 plus shipping via Courier Post. Shipping starts at $8 (varies by quantity).
International customers will be charged the actual shipping cost based on the weight and the destination of their order.
As a guide a Large Surface Active 185 gsm t-shirt weighs 130–150 grams.

Or you can shop at either:

our NZ based or
our international DTG printing partner e-stores.
(Use code: “PERFEC” for 5% off your international store purchase.)

*Front and back view of happy twin girls wearing red and blue Surface Active Kiwi t-shirts at a park.*

Playful Surface Active dolphins leaping design t-shirt, designed and printed in New Zealand

Dolphins Leaping T-Shirt: Kaikoura Wildlife Art

May 16, 2024 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Channel your inner Jacques Cousteau with this t-shirt featuring four playful common dolphins leaping out of the ocean as they pass along the Kaikoura coast. A perfect conversation starter for any nature enthusiast.

Our Common Dolphins Leaping T-Shirt—Kaikoura Wildlife Art Printed by the Artist

Having had the magical experience of a free-range childhood in Titahi Bay, encountering pods of common dolphins in Kaikoura during our summer holidays at Goose Bay and when snorkelling for Paua with friends near Barneys Rock, enjoying the spectacle of seeing them traveling in large groups parallel to SH1 near Oaro, playfully leaping out of the water, and, as a child being enchanted by their surfing and breaching alongside boats in the waters of the Hauraki Gulf I was seeking a way to express my sense of how dolphins symbolise how wonderful and beautiful New Zealand is.

Prices For Shirts Printed in New Brighton:

Order here to have your dolphins leaping shirt locally printed in Christchurch and DTF heat-pressed right here by the designer, Shaun Waugh, in New Brighton, or shop online at our NZ based and international DTG printing partners. (Use code: “PERFEC” for 5% off your international store purchase.) You can visit Shaun at the Surface Active stall Saturdays 10:00–2:00 at New Brighton Seaside Market, or shop at one of our two retail outlets in New Brighton Mall, Brighton Gallery and The Creatives Edit.

Two smiling women modelling both sides of the Surface Active Adelie penguins, Antarctica t-shirt on New Brighton beach in New Zealand, alongside the New Brighton pier.

Simple Adelie Penguins Two-Sided T-shirt Design Brings a Smile in the Mind

May 15, 2024 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Show off your love for these tuxedoed Antarctic cuties with this fun t-shirt. Featuring a colony of Adelie penguins in a comical waddle on the front, and their speedy escape from a leopard seal that suddenly hauled up on the edge of the sea ice on in front of them on the back, this shirt is sure to turn heads.

Because the colours of snow and ice is white and the penguins are in Antarctica waddling across that surface, the only colour for the shirt is white, with the two colour black and blue print creating a 3D effect. Clever shading with cool sky blue and perspective tricks the viewer into thinking that the Adelie penguin group is really waddling towards you on the front and dashing away on the back. The Adelie penguin design is also available on white longsleeve tees.

Prices For Shirts Printed by the Artist in New Brighton:

By ordering here to have it locally printed in Christchurch and DTF heat-pressed right here by the designer, Shaun Waugh, in New Brighton, or shop online at our NZ based and international DTG printing partners. (Use code: “PERFEC” for 5% off your international store purchase.)

Black and white image of a Surface Active tuatara portrait printed on a black t-shirt, the tuatara is a lizard native to New Zealand.

Tuatara Portrait T-shirt: A Living Fossil on Two Sides

May 3, 2024 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

This unique two-sided t-shirt design explores the fascinating world of the Tuatara. The front features Shaun Waugh’s original pen-and-ink portrait of an 80 year old Henry, the revered tuatara residing at Invercargill’s Southland museum who is now over 120-years-old. The intricate details capture the reptilian skin texture, while the Southern Cross constellation hints at Henry’s age and connection to the ancient Southern Hemisphere. In the background is a glimpse of Stephens Island, a sanctuary for these “living fossils” extinct on the mainland for over a century.

Optional Back Design: For a complete story, choose to include a complementary map on the back. This map pinpoints Stephens Island and showcases fossil ammonites from Farewell Spit, Tasman Bay, further emphasising the Tuatara’s being a “living fossil” link to New Zealand’s prehistoric past as part of the supercontinent Gondwana, along with Antarctica and Australia, 85 million years ago.

Celebrate New Zealand’s unique wildlife and geological heritage. Get your Tuatara t-shirt today!

Native Animal Lovers Rejoice!

December 6, 2022 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

You can order your very own New Zealand nature t-shirts from our brand new exhibition at Brighton Gallery, open until January 8th. All works, t-shirts & original prints, are designed & printed in New Brighton. To order contact: www.surfaceactive.digitees.co.nz/contact

Looking for the perfect way to show your love for your favourite native animal? Order your kiwi t-shirt today. T-shirts are available in a variety of colours and styles for adults and kids, making it easy to find the right one for you.

Photo of a young man with a cup of coffee engaged in art print production with a red-billed gull, New Brighton pier sunrise composite illustration on the computer monitor of his iMac alonside a matching large format framed poster of the same print sitting on his desk. The headline is on the dark navy blue background of the wall and reads: “Let's celebrate our passion for New Zealand… on your wall. Surface Active wildlife art prints. Canvas & specialty papers available.”

Surface Active Wildlife Art Gallery Prints

December 10, 2021 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Surface Active Wildlife Art Gallery Prints

Surface Active design pARTners Chrissie Terpstra and Shaun Waugh welcome orders to reproduce fine art prints from our collection of wildlife artworks, linked here. We provide archival/fine art quality reproduction prints of our works—perfect for your walls or as a gift.

Our offering of limited edition wildlife art prints celebrating New Zealand nature is founded on two strong foundations:

Tree fern t-shirt

April 30, 2021 / magentadotbrands.com / No Comments

Feel like a walk in the forest downunder? It’s hard to avoid the familiar sight of tree ferns, or punga, no matter where you go in New Zealand. Cool and bushy, this attractively umbrellarific all-over printed t-shirt design is repeated on the shirt back. Available in adult sizes XS–3XL on forest green or black shirts.

Shop using this link to the treefern design in our global store to receive a 5% discount, use promo code: “PERFEC”.

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.