We love seeing our clients coming up with innovative new marketing ideas. Andy Donnan received his new Queensberry Starter Kit and tweeted about an idea he had to show his out-of-town clients... And we asked him if we could share. Many of his clients won't get the opportunity to see or touch his albums, so he wanted to give them an up close and personal album viewing experience, but which they could have from anywhere in the world. I won't say too much more except check out how Andy introduces his Queensberry album offerings here (click on the image to play). Cheers, Nigel To View More >>

I was invited to join the NZ Government's Better by Design US Study Tour 2012, a four day tour of the San Francisco Bay Area where "up to 25 New Zealand business leaders are exposed to best practice examples of international design thinking". The tour began officially last night over dinner at the Town Hall Restaurant, but mine began a week ago when Ian and I arrived in SF for some much-needed down time. Relax, re-energise, and No Work was our mantra. But paradoxically, when we're travelling or on holiday my brain goes into overdrive. Thinking about ethics and aesthetics, ideology and human behaviour, To View More >>

1. Tell us a little about yourself, your photography business and what you do! I have a Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design. I did a bit of film photography in my last year of University, but it wasn't until I got a job working for the University of Auckland as a public relations photographer that I started to learn the craft of photography. It was there that I learnt about manual settings, studio lighting, editing etc. I photographed hundreds of events and people for the University. I learned how to interact with people when taking their photo, and how to get great photo-journalist shots. I To View More >>

Looking through the design workshop yesterday I discovered a book I made nearly twenty years ago. It reminded me how grateful I am to one of my mentors, the bookbinder Michael O’Brien, a man of enormous talent, insight and good humour, and without a doubt the most eccentric person I’ve ever met. I met Michael in 1994, just before he moved his workshop from Auckland to the South Island. One of the books he was working on was for a European art collector, to mount his Picasso drawings. This was a revelatory experience for me. Do people like this exist? Do they pay thousands of dollars for books? To View More >>

I don't know how you'll feel about this, but a few days ago I unsubscribed from a customer's Facebook page. I just got sick of the bad taste in my mouth from a stream of quite unpleasant political comments and links in my newsfeed. I personally don't think anyone in business should mix business and politics. Or religion for that matter. Not just because it's unwise to turn off people who might be your customers, but because it's wrong to judge people by their ideology or faith, or the lack of either. I don't care whether they're of the left or the right, in my experience if you can get past people's To View More >>