The things we make
Description
The messy business of making ideas real.
What does it take to turn a good idea into something people actually want, use and buy?
From rethinking fashion systems to turning plastic waste into building materials and bringing considered design into our everyday spaces, making something meaningful is only part of the challenge. There’s the question of who makes it, who values it, who pays for it, and what happens when an idea needs to become a viable business.
Join us for a conversation with innovators, designers, and founders to explore the messy middle between a great idea and a thing that exists in the world.
We'll explore:
What happens between a promising idea and a finished product, the experiments, compromises, failures and decisions we don't usually see.
How different perspectives on sustainable design, material innovation and art direction shape the things we make.
The tricky business of making good ideas commercially viable, who decides what something is worth?
Whether we need to make more things or rethink how we make them and what we shouldn't have to compromise in the process.
Lineup
Jennifer Whitty
Senior Lecturer in Design | Auckland University of Technology Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles Visiting Professor at Xi’an Polytechnic University Co-Founder of Space Between, the collaborative design activism platform Jennifer Whitty is a designer, researcher and educator exploring how fashion and design can nurture more caring relationships between people, materials and the more-than-human world. A Senior Lecturer in Design at AUT, she brings nearly two decades of international experience, including at Parsons School of Design in New York. With whakapapa to Ireland, Jennifer has lived and worked across four continents and understands herself as a third-culture person. These experiences inform her openness to different worldviews and commitment to the pluriverse a world in which many worlds can flourish. Connecting material practice, systems thinking, futures thinking and speculative design, she explores how we might imagine and make alternative futures. Her work asks what we value when we make, whose knowledge and labour are recognised, and how creative livelihoods can sustain the care, relationships and love of making that give them meaning.
Rui Peng
Founder of Critical. (3 million raise) Head of Growth Astute Access Rui Peng founded Cleanstone, a design-led materials innovation turning plastic waste into panels for beautiful, more sustainable interiors and built environments. An entrepreneur and Startmate alumnus, Rui has raised $3 million, led a team of 12, and built new technology and a product category from the ground up. Through Cleanstone, Rui has worked with organisations including The Warehouse Group, Fonterra, Warren and Mahoney, Unispace and Kōkako, exploring how material innovation can turn waste into valuable resources and reshape the way we design and build.
Shefali Khilwani
Director of Design at The House of Things Based in Udaipur, India, Shefali is Design Director at House of Things, a design destination curating exceptional pieces from established and emerging designers, artists and craftspeople. House of Things brings together luxury, diverse aesthetics and contemporary perspectives on Indian design. In their role, Shefali works at the intersection of design, product and brand, championing creative collaboration and products that balance distinctive aesthetics with meaningful stories and the hands, materials and ideas behind them. Lucky for us she is currently visiting NZ!
Dr Keith Hudson
Dr Keith Hudson is a scientist, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Sapro-Tech, the company developing Sapro+, a next-generation leather alternative designed to combine premium aesthetics and performance with circular design principles. His career spans the University of Oxford and three New Zealand biotechnology companies. Dr Keith brings scientific expertise and commercial experience to developing sustainable materials, with a focus on practical, scalable solutions that reduce environmental impact.
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