No Borders

Zoe took three months off at Alt Group to work at a studio overseas. She was party to a "different design vernacular in Chicago" - the process of design was less fluid and flexible, with people signing off everything that was created in-house, including emails.

"It made me very aware of the design process," she says.

She also found the design itself more constrained by historical principles than in New Zealand.

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Jae Woo Park is a multi-disciplinary young creative. He holds a Bachelor of Communication Design with first class honours from AUT University and has a fancy for all creative products ranging from graphics to physical forms.

During Jae's third year studying at AUT, he went to further his education in the USA, by working as a design intern.

Jae talks about this journey into further education.

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Interior designer Keri Cunliffe is the only New Zealander who won a place on the 2016 DIAlogue on Tour. This is an inspirational expedition,  taking the five winners to London and Stockholm in September 2016, where they met and learned from European and Scandinavian design talent.

Keri explored how one might include a sense of intimacy within spatial settings in her master thesis.
"It is that intimate connection with space that creates impressions and lasting experiences. Reinforcing and establishing that connection between people and interior spaces is what really drives me," says Keri.

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Tyrone was keen to move to Japan for a year to experience a different culture. Alt allowed him to work remotely from Osaka.

He used the time in Japan to soak up the culture and learn a new way of thinking about design.

"The design in Japan is fed by the culture," he says. "I was so fascinated by the architecture and pottery - even the food is design-based."

His trip to Japan reinforced how culture can seep into design practices within a country.

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"At the end of 2014 while on sabbatical in Europe I was offered a job with the Antwerp-based office of Vincent Van Duysen.

Before our paths crossed professionally, I had been drawn to Vincent’s work and was familiar with his approach to interiors. He is an expert at re-interpreting traditional design tropes through a modernist lens, and this was an approach that had strongly shaped my ideas about what constituted a potent interior design language. The opportunity to work in Belgium also appealed as it offered a chance to experience Interior Architecture and Design in a more established context than I could find within New Zealand. The 12 months I spent with Van Duysen offered insight into how considered interior design can be. The approach of the office, which was based around reinterpreting classic, specifically Belgian, forms and crafts through reductive aesthetic principals, was highly pertinent. Simply, it made me question what New Zealand interiors could offer with a similar approach and what, in fact, constituted a ‘New Zealand interior’."

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