NEC New Zealand
IN-HOUSE GRAPHICS / WEB DESIGNER : NOVEMBER 2012 - JULY 2017
IN-HOUSE GRAPHICS / WEB DESIGNER : NOVEMBER 2012 - JULY 2017
I was NEC New Zealand’s sole designer as my first "design" job and it was a life-changing experience. While part of my role at NEC revolved around the usual in-house work such as business-to-business marketing collateral, website updates, and producing a monthly staff magazine, over the years this expanded to cover an enormous variety of work.
One of my first projects was creating over 20 minutes of 4K-resolution animation and motion graphics for display on the office’s 4 meter video wall, which was screened for the opening ceremony of NEC’s new Technology Innovation Centre (officially opened by New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Mr John Key) and at the Wellington Gold Awards finalists announcement, which was hosted by NEC in mid-2013.
NEC New Zealand's head office was given an exciting new interior construction in 2013, created by Custance with artwork support from MSO Design. By 2016 NEC's global branding had changed and the artwork needed a refresh, so I took the project on and worked closely with Concept Signage to bring my ideas to life. The new "Orchestrating a Brighter World" brand was being promoted by NEC Japan with an accompanying photograph of a dramatic sunset over Tokyo, so I gave it a Wellington twist and photographed the sunrise from Mt Victoria, rising over the hills of Eastbourne, to be used for signage on the lightboxes by the office entrance.
In 2015, NEC developed new sensing technologies offering real-time information about issues like traffic congestion, water quality and air pollution, bringing disparate data together across the council and agencies for more collaborative and informed decision-making on important city challenges. Land Information NZ and NEC collaborated to provide funding for a Smart City programme’s early stages in Christchurch. Auckland and Wellington also trialled the technology as it was seen as an important next step in enhancing urban environments globally. I worked with the Smart City development team to come up with branding for sensors around the city. The name “Kite” came from trying to think of creative ways to shift the perception of wireless sensors in a more whimsical, friendly direction. The branding appeared on sensors around Wellington city and I incorporated the brand design into NEC’s office signage.
My work for NEC New Zealand also lead to collaborations with NEC branches in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, including marketing materials, banners and posters for Formula 1 racing events in 2015 and 2016, and promoting the celebration of NEC Philippines’ 20th Anniversary.
A very special thanks to everyone I worked with, particularly Blair Kippenberger, Laura Hogg, Regina Lim, Leonard Dench and Peter Davies.
NEC New Zealand website - design, content management and 100+ product datasheet designs.
Various print projects at large and small scales.
23 issues, 736 pages, 224 articles and 766 submitted photos.
NEC New Zealand had staff spread out across the country, with staff working from offices, homes, customer sites and rural locations. It was hard to effectively communicate important company updates and information with all staff. Bulk emails were being ignored. Remote workers mentioned feeling isolated and removed from the day-to-day action at NEC. Nobody knew what NEC's worldwide offices were working on. There needed to be an effective way to make everyone at NEC New Zealand feel like part of the same team and communicate important messages and updates.
In the pre-email 80's and 90's, NEC New Zealand's staff kept everybody updated with a staff newsletter that was sent out to everyone around the country - printed in black and white, photocopied and hand-stapled, with official updates, jokes, personal staff announcements and stories. We decided to resurrect the concept with a monthly digital magazine.
Tāniko was named after gathering ideas and submissions from NEC's staff. It is a traditional Māori weaving technique and the purpose of this newsletter was to interweave all the threads that brought us together as a business and as individuals. The overall design aimed to break away from a traditional corporate look with a bold, minimalist cover artwork that slightly changed each month. The fonts and colours were far removed from NEC's brand to make it feel more independent.
My job each month was to project manage and design the newsletter. Staff would send in their updates, photos and stories and NEC's management would provide company-wide updates and announcements. Tāniko was distributed to staff nationwide and to a few NEC staff in Japan, Singapore and Australia. Reports from New Zealand's teams were very positive - it gave them something fun to look forward to in their inbox each month and let everyone feel like an equal contributor to the company's culture. Working on Tāniko each month was one of the highlights of my time at NEC New Zealand.
A promo video created to montage the various Tāniko cover designs.
Signage and wall designs for NEC New Zealand's former head office.
Supporting brand graphics for NEC New Zealand's head office official opening.
In July 2011, NEC New Zealand won a contract to supply a large format digital wall, comprising of 32 of NEC’s 46" LCD monitors at Wellington International Airport. The enormous video wall was 8.2m x 2.4m in size and would display advertisements, promotions and event notices to airport visitors around the clock. This video wall was taken down in 2015 to make way for new airport developments.
NEC were permitted to display promotional content in the form of 10 second clips, so in 2013 I created several animated videos to promote the latest range of NEC's projectors and to assist the New Zealand International Film Festival with advertising their upcoming season.
The video I created that was shown on the airport video wall.
4K animated video content for Wellington International Airport's video wall, promoting the 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival.
The video I created that was shown on the airport video wall.
NEC's Head Office from 2013-2016 featured a massive video wall installed in the central Innovation Centre. This video wall could be used as a large computer screen to demonstrate software or presentations, but its real power lay in dazzling graphics that could really show off what NEC's world-leading LCD displays were capable of.
I worked for several months developing unique animations, motion graphics and edited video to be used for NEC's promotional events. There was up to an hour of content available for anyone to run, edited into several different videos depending on event suitability. I included my own animated short film Trapped Like Caterpillars, re-edited to fit the 4K resolution of the wall, as well as guest animation from students at Victoria University.
Various film festival programme sponsorship advertising designs for the New Zealand International Film Festival (years 2014 - 2017) and the Alliance Française French Film Festivals (2014 and 2015).
GhostWorks was NEC’s all-in-one digital signage solution. From 2012 to 2014, I worked with a variety of small-to-medium sized businesses around New Zealand, acting as their account manager, software trainer and graphic designer/content producer. Some of the businesses I worked with during this trial included LJ Hooker, Professionals Real Estate, Super Loans and the New Zealand International Film Festival. I also produced digital and print collateral to promote GhostWorks, and later developed and maintained the GhostWorks website. The logo was designed by Proximity New Zealand.
In 2013 the GhostWorks project branched out into mobile gaming, with the intention of developing games designed for use on digital signage in public installations. This new division was named GhostPlay and I designed the logo.
In 2014, GhostWorks and the New Zealand International Film Festival collaborated and rolled out the GhostWorks bundle to cinemas around the country, with changing screen content that I designed to promote the films in the festival.
As part of NEC’s partnership with Wellington City Council in 2014, we conceptualised some high-tech installations around the city and presented the concept art.
Some of the ideas we pitched included large-scale projections on buildings, interactive gaming, touch-screen projection in shop windows - even projections on to large water installations. We were inspired by similar installations around the world, including Tokyo, Las Vegas and Times Square in New York, where digital content is brought to life on the side of buildings and the public can easily interact with the dynamic content using their smartphones or nearby devices.
These drawings were a collaboration between myself and NEC’s ex-business development manager Laura Hogg (frankworks.co.nz) - she traced my photos and I added designs for digital content, colours and effects.
The finished concept artworks were published in The Wellingtonian, Stuff and The Dominion Post, with an accompanying interview by members of the NEC team and the Council.
In 2015, NEC developed new sensing technologies offering real-time information about issues like traffic congestion, water quality and air pollution, bringing disparate data together across the council and agencies for more collaborative and informed decision-making on important city challenges.
Land Information NZ and NEC collaborated to provide funding for a Smart City programme’s early stages in Christchurch. Auckland and Wellington also trialled the technology as it was seen as an important next step in enhancing urban environments globally.
I worked with the Smart City development team to come up with branding for sensors around the city. The name “Kite” came from trying to think of creative ways to shift the perception of wireless sensors in a more whimsical, friendly direction. The branding appeared on sensors around Wellington city and I incorporated the brand design into NEC’s office signage.
Logo animation I created for the Kite brand.
An animation I created for the Smart Cities and Kite collateral for NEC.
Various design projects for the NEC Asia-Pacific region, including collateral, digital content and design systems for events, conferences, national holidays and websites.
In 2015 NEC Mexico and the Formula One team Sahara Force India announced that NEC would be the team’s Premium ICT Partner, with the relationship focused on short and long-term opportunities including the installation of NEC technologies at Sahara Force India’s headquarters in the United Kingdom.
NEC´s logos appeared on the top of VJM08’s engine cover, on the drivers’ suits and helmets, and on the team clothing.
I worked with NEC Asia Pacific to produce a variety of collateral in support of Sahara Force India’s races and appearances in Singapore in September 2015. This included designing a large poster for fans of the event to sign messages of support, promotional mousepads, pull-up banners and web/email imagery, including promoting special event appearances of Hello Kitty.
