DINZ Designers Speak - Three's Company

Ever wanted to know what makes the country’s top creatives tick? Then come along to “Three’s Company” on Tuesday, March 30, at Dunedin Public Art Gallery when three of the country’s top design studios will attempt to prove that culture is not just something that grows in a Petri dish. 
The three creative teams, Steve le Marquand from Resn; typographer Catherine Griffiths and photographer Bruce Connew; and Dean Poole, creative director of Alt Group, will talk about collaborations, creativity and how to realign your “pixcillary preconceptions.”

About the design teams: Steve le Marquand is from Wellington based Resn. After gaining a Diploma of Design in 1999 Steve intended to pursue further education at Victoria University’s School of Design, but instead founded a successful interactive agency Boygirlboy Motion Media in 2000. After four years leading the way for the New Zealand interactive advertising industry, he formed Resn with business partner Rikki Campbell with the aim of producing truly exceptional digital brand experiences.
Resn has been nominated for three years running for Best Digital Agency at the Australasian Hot Shop awards, winning the award in 2009.
Steve has been instrumental also in Resn’s string of highly sought after awards, including three years consecutively with the Pixel Awards & South by South West (SXSW), merits for the Webby Awards & One Show, as well as consistently featuring as judge, winner & runner-up in the New Zealand BeST Design Awards during the past nine years.
Steve has been featured and published in many international industry publications and books and Resn has just been awarded as the #1 Digital Production agency in Australasia by the Campaign brief Hot+Cold chart.

Catherine Griffiths is an independent designer with a passion for typography. Bruce Connew is a social/political artist and photographer. Based in Wellington and Paris, they work opposite each other in their disciplines, frequently crossing over, and occasionally throwing up a challenge. Catherine’s trajectory is ‘intuition with a stab of strategic thinking’, culminating in a mix of book, exhibition and visual communication design, while working with typography in public spaces.
In addition to the Wellington Writers’ Walk concrete text sculptures and TypeSHED11, a five-day international typography symposium held in New Zealand, her most recent public artwork is a five metre high typo/sound installation, A E I O U.
Meanwhile, Bruce’s practice is characterised by a driving interest in social issues, particularly conflict, dissent, emancipation and struggle. Key projects have been shown as solo exhibitions in most of the major public art galleries in New Zealand.
His artist books, including Muttonbirds – part of a story, I Saw You and I Must Behave have slowly become recognised as genre-bending extensions of his art practice, as his late-career work continues to develop apace.

Dean Poole is Creative Director at Alt Group, a multi-disciplinary design studio based in Ponsonby, Auckland. He graduated from Elam Art School in 1993.
Alt Group combines a core of creative people with a rich diversity of design, business backgrounds and experience. This intermix of viewpoints, combined with a multi-disciplinary approach, creates innovative results for a diverse range of projects.
As creative director, one of Dean's roles is to foster an innovation culture within Alt and to meet every project as a problem to be solved.
Alt's work has many forms including brand development, promotional campaigns, interactive design, research studies, and innovation programmes for companies. The group works with retailers, global fashion designers, national and local government agencies, lawyers, wine makers, academic institutions, architects, artists, dancers, filmmakers, furniture designers, energy providers, and restaurateurs.
Alt has worked on a number of national interest projects including the 'Better by Design' initiative and the New Zealand New Thinking brand.
Alt's work has won numerous International awards including the Black Book Annual Report Awards (New York), the ARC Awards (New York), SEGD Awards (Washington) the Australian Graphic Design Awards (Sydney), and the Best Design Awards (New Zealand).
Dean is a professional member of the Design Management Institute (Boston) the Australian Graphic Designers Association, American Institute of Graphic Arts (New York) and the Designers' Institute of New Zealand.
Dean is currently developing material for a collaborative publication about innovation and design thinking.