Heading down to the Cloud to watch the game this weekend? Rugby isn’t the only happening thing on Queens Wharf.

Inside the Cloud, New Zealand design store Essenze has put together a selection of Kiwi design showing some of our most talented artist’s and designer’s work. On display from September 26th – 28th, there will also be a fascinating discussion emceed by Mike Hosking, with panelists David Trubridge and Peter Bromhead on 27 September at 5pm. 

Here’s some more information from the organisers:

The Cloud is proud to be exhibiting New Zealand design from September 26th – 28th, displaying a range of contemporary product by New Zealand designers. The New Zealand identity is inexplicably linked to the land, our flora and fauna. We are influenced by, and identify ourselves with, the water, light, form and colour of our country’s landscapes. Couple this with the collision and mutual embrace of the Maori and Pakeha cultures, and this has produced, with growing confidence, a design language that is unique, and quintessentially New Zealand, in identity. It is also recognised that geographic isolation has forced New Zealand designers and manufacturers to seek and discover new and innovative solutions to overcome the tyranny of distance and enter the global market. The above two factors are borne out in New Zealand design. Here, where product design is fundamentally based on a triumvirate of art, craft and design: art as the source of self expression, craft being the knowledge of materials and skills required to create, and design being the use of technology to scale commercially.  It is the successful use of these concepts that allows New Zealand Design to take on the world and carve a path of success.

Stories displayed: 

David Trubridge - Seed System, the complete story
Influence - nature to high end product Cultural
Relevance - borrowed or plagiarized
Kiwis out there - making it internationally 
Design and value add - from raw material to top dollar export
Deeply connected - desirable one-of-a-kind, what do they do for NZ
Deeply Connected 2 - scalable designed craft
Folded Whare - Maori design influenced temporary accommodation
AUT product design Students on display 

Whakaara (to raise) - A panel discussion on the subject of New Zealand  Design and it’s place in the world. The discussion will take place in The Cloud, and seeks to define what is meant by world class, scalable, sustainable, innovative design in a New Zealand context. Realnzfestival.com/queenswharf