I was patiently waiting for an excuse to use Sandrine Nugue’s Orientation, and the opportunity presented itself when the good people at Garage Project came to us with their “Turbine” beer. Their brief was to explore the concept of the local wind turbine as a pinwheel, and Orientation’s sharp blades and sense of motion seemed perfect.

We created the illustration and type treatment, and designed the label, box and street posters. The team at Garage Project took care of the small text on the labels – set in Trade Gothic. Among the other typefaces on the packaging are Erbaum (“PALE ALE”) and Sofia (text on the side of the packaging box).

This learning resource was developed for Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (New Zealand’s Māori Language Commission) and New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC). The collaboration of Te Taura Whiri and DOC combined environmental messaging with Te Reo Māori (Māori language) phrases to coincide with the back-to-back 2018 Māori Language Week and Conservation Week. These phrasebooks could be picked up at DOC visitor centres throughout New Zealand.

Te Taura Whiri and DOC wanted these resources to stand on their own, and didn’t specify any typefaces as a mandatory. We had used Egyptienne Bold Condensed as the hero typeface in previous pieces of Te Taura Whiri work for its bold retro charm, but wanted to change it up for this co-branded project. Recoleta’s Windsor-meets-Souvenir feel has a similar charming character as Egyptienne, with the added bonus of several weights.

Basic Sans has a nice cheery character that worked perfectly at the small sizes required. As always for any work in Te Reo Māori, macrons are a must and typefaces without them can’t be considered. The monospaced Pitch is used for page numbers.

A set of small format language guides, developed in collaboration with Te Taura Whiri (The Māori language commission) to engage people with Te Reo Māori (Māori language) in a practical setting, during the 2017 and 2018 “Te Wiki o te Reo Māori” (Māori Language Week).

The posters and cards were distributed at café counters and public transport stations around Aotearoa, designed to make it inviting, clear, and easy to practice Te Reo in your everyday routine.

Te Taura Whiri were open to these resources having their own look and feel, and didn't specify any typefaces as a mandatory. Egyptienne Bold Condensed was chosen for its bold retro charm, and Publica Sans for its classic futura/avant-garde feel. Basic Sans has a nice cheery character and refinement that worked perfectly at the small sizes required.

Both Egyptienne and Basic Sans were used in a new typeface combination for another booklet for Te Taura Whiri.

Te Reo Māori educational resource that focuses on the events of the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand. The resource was designed to engage year 11–13 students and provoke them to explore the concept of social consciousness, while improving their research and literacy skills.

The typeface selection was unbound by any identity guidelines. A custom font wasn't an option within the budget (and skill levels!), so Brush Up was selected to represent the protesters’ hand-painted signs that were a symbol of the tour. Jockey was chosen for its bold geometric quirkiness, and was used to avoid hand-painted overkill from Brush Up for secondary headers and infographics. Stag’s texture felt right for the running text in the students’ resource, and Graphik was used for the complimentary captions and instructional text within the teacher’s guide.

The full kit includes a class set of student resource books (Te Reo Māori), teacher resource (bilingual) with picture card pack, DVDs of Patu! and Try Revolution, and the containing box. Published by Huia, the book won the Edify Award for Best Educational Book 2017 in the PANZ Book Design Awards.