Knocking the bastard off
June 7th, 2019 § Leave a Comment
Ed Hillary’s exclamation after conquering Everest was in our minds when we sent Scenic Playground to print. Another team effort with Peter Alsop (surely one of the most prolific people in the New Zealand book industry), the book covers the history of the promotion of New Zealand’s mountains from a largely design angle, showcasing advertising, print and photography.
With over 400 pages and 650 images, it was quite the design journey. Winner of the 2019 Mountain Book Festival and with lovely reviews in various media, the bastard was worth the effort.
The Hudson
May 23rd, 2019 § Leave a Comment
A difficult site and a floor plan butchered by earlier tenants made the design of The Hudson, a bar and charcuterie in downtown Wellington, a real challenge. Gas worked alongside Nott Architects and the client to reimagine a space over two levels that was cosy enough for coffee in the morning, airy enough for a cold beer on a summer afternoon and comfortable again at night for a quiet gin or whiskey. A place where you’d be welcome wearing old jeans or a hand-made suit. The identity system played on the history of the site ( a trading firm in the 1920s) and used images of the first whiskey shipment to the US after prohibition.
Annual
July 19th, 2018 § Leave a Comment
A finalist in this years PANZ Book Awards, Annual 2 by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris was built upon the design of the first Annual, designed by the brilliant Mr Spencer Levine. When you have a start like that, two authors with amazing vision and a black book with NZ’s best illustrators, our job gets that much easier. But if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it, I guess. Dive in.
We’ll take it
July 19th, 2018 § Leave a Comment
L’affare Auckland was recently voted Cafe of the Year by @newmarketnz
We’ll take that (with Nott Architects).
Burning Lamb
April 4th, 2018 § Leave a Comment
Al Brown doesn’t do anything by halves. When he said he was planning a BBQ for some folks and wanted a logo, we were on board. When he said the BBQ was for 1000 people, with transport to a food forest, live art, drink stations and a concert by Dave Dobbyn, we went overboard.
Rita
April 4th, 2018 § Leave a Comment
Rita is the second venture by Kelda Hains and Paul Schrader of Nikau Cafe fame. A small dining room, in a small converted shop, on a small street in Aro Valley. The menu is small too, because its a set menu and changes depending on what’s available from the garden and what’s good from their suppliers. The interior is by Mary Daish. In short, it’s a thing of beauty. We were more than happy to help out with an identity and some small pieces of print work. Go now.
Eat Up
October 9th, 2017 § Leave a Comment
‘Eat Up’ is something we all probably heard while growing up, normally followed by something like ‘or you won’t get pudding’. The fault normally fell at the feet of your mother’s over-cooked Brussel sprouts, or in my case it was mum’s boiled potatoes. Thankfully Al Brown’s new book (which we designed) Eat Up doesn’t include tips on how to ruin good vegetables, but quite the opposite. Humble vegetables and meat cuts are treated like Foie Gras — there are no lesser ingredients in this book. Recipes and writing by Al Brown and Hayden Scott, photos by Josh Griggs, cover by Geoffrey Notman, and a bonus bach and crib poster in the back by Lisa Moes. Eat it up.
No 7 Balmac
July 23rd, 2017 § Leave a Comment
No 7 Balmac is a cafe / restaurant on Maori Hill in Dunedin. For a number of years it’s been faithfully serving locals and visitors with fresh flavours from ingredients largely grown in their own garden. After a recent interior upgrade it was felt the old identity could do with a bit of a refresh too. This was one of those surprise commissions where we had no idea when starting the project just what an amazing place this is, peopled with very passionate, skilled folks in a corner of Dunedin we’d never explored. We worked up a new identity focussed on applewood (which they cook on) and developed new menus, signage, website and postcards. Just go.
The Fed
July 12th, 2017 § Leave a Comment
This post has been a long time coming. Al Brown’s The Federal Delicatessen opened a few years ago and has been going from strength the strength. Gas worked alongside Al and architect Charlie Nott to bring a little bit of NYC to downtown Auckland. An ongoing pleasure.
mploy
July 12th, 2017 § Leave a Comment
Earlier this year we resisted the urge to automatically reach for the black pencils, and instead we dug out our coloured ones to work up an identity for a new recruitment app called mploy. Created by a couple of guys in the hospitality sector, mploy is looking to shake the temp agency market up, and has just launched. 