BIOGRAPHY

Howdy! My name is Christian I am currently finishing my Bachelors Degree in Communications and Media Design, where I’m having a wonderful experience expressing myself with illustrations, UI/UX design and video production. Design has always fascinated me and I love how there are many different types of designers, but I never understood the difference between them. Not understanding this topic made me curious and this fascination and curiosity has led me to study at the University of Waikato.

My three years here at Waikato have flown by so fast, but I feel like a completely different person than who I was when I first walked into my first lecture. Not to be too cheesy but, The University of Waikato has taught me so many life changing lessons. I have always been fascinated with design but had zero knowledge about the subject. I wasn’t sure if this was the right career choice for me but after the first semester my interest and ambitions grew stronger and I was hooked. Studying Design at Waikato has given me so many opportunities for hands on experience, the chance to explore new things, express creativity, improve my design intuition and step out of my comfort zone. Over time I quickly learned how to force creativity and inspiration, I also learned to use certain tools naturally and picked up many more handy skills along the way.

The studio environment will have designers from other practices of different levels working in the same creative space which really helps with giving and receiving feedback. I have always been quite a shy person but during my time here I became more vocal and gained confidence speaking to a larger audience. I also learned that I was very interested in UI/UX design, branding, signages, print, publication, photography and video production. After I complete my Bachelors Degree I want to continue my study and further elevate my knowledge in design. The University of Waikato has guided me to learn, grow, create good work and most of all encouraged me to become a professional designer.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

For the capstone I am part of a 3 person group creating one large project. What makes this group unique is that we are from different areas of design (communication, media and interface). For our project, we decided to tackle the Hakarimata Walkway. Firstly, we had to visit the site and create a brand identity, after research and trial and error we finalised a colour palette, fonts and our very lovely logo. The Hakarimata Walkway is a wonderful walkway with great views and challenging climbs, however the signage and information about these tracks are quite old and outdated. The current signs show visible wear and tear and are often overlooked, there is also a lack of safety and pathway information on the tracks. During our research we found that there was no modern website detailing the track, only the official government website and old brochures. We also found that there were little to no high quality detailed images of the track.

As Communication Designer I am responsible for redesigning and updating the old signage around the Summit/Waterworks Tracks on the Walkway, and creating new brochures and introducing safety signage. My main goal with the signage is to revamp the old government style signage, creating a more appealing up to date look. I am aiming to add a bit more excitement, boosting the visual communication and providing better visual cues, for example, warning and hazard signage.The brochure will highlight the important details of the Hakarimata walkway and some of the main tracks. I will also give tips on how to successfully and safely walk or hike the mountain. The poster will be used for advertising and will be posted to our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram.

To compliment this, Amish our Interface Designer is tasked with creating a clean (responsive) website and the main theme/design was based off the original website.

Stien, our Media Designer with a background in photography, was tasked with creating a beautiful photo book from the start of the summit walk all the way to the top, a promotional video and social media to complete our Hakarimata Walkway Revamp “Package”. I worked alongside Stien on page layout.

Our aim is to improve the environmental links between urban development as well as strengthen the economic value of the small town of Ngaruawahia. These improvements will attract more tourism and encourage people to get outside and be active, enjoying the fantastic scenic tracks scattered around New Zealand (this targets UN target goal 11.a from the UN goals list).