IMMERSION Lucy Egan
This issue of Paper & Pixels we aimed to use the theme of Immersion to fuel our tone of voice. Exploring outside of the classrooms, turning off the screens to Engage with creativity in our bare hands again. Energy is never lost, only transferred, so we have Endeavoured for the few sentences below to act as a reminder of the milestones that have passed and all that are yet to come. In 2019 our attention economy has become enveloped by instant gratification. Constantly seeking immediate convenience and appear satisfied with the result we have forgotten it is not only the destination but the journey as well. Living in a frustrated, glowing haze of screens for comparison of other’s idyllic lives we see our own as mediocre. The key to happiness is not tangible, it is not a wallet of money, it is not your face flashed across screens, it is allowing yourself to enjoy all the moments between the “important” ones. It is allowing yourself to be excited by the everyday things. A dappled light, your first morning coffee, even the trance of your headphones. Let yourself actively participate in the moment you are in. Constantly stretching your mind to the next moment leaves your body to obliviously stumble through the one it is in. Be present where your 2 feet stand, don’t just speak, listen. Do not be complacent, be compassionate with others and yourself. Scavenge for the things in your life that provide intrigue and inspiration, because immersing yourself in those moments will ground you when you feel like you’re floating away.
DENIM DREAM Juliet Powley
The snug, inviting fit, hugs me from the hips down, like a second skin. Oh girl, you know how to win me over, through and through. Think and blue, I’ve become dependent. Do you love me too? I wouldn’t trade this relationship for much. In other pairs, I think about your touch. Rough and raw, worth fighting for. Do you love me too? This fibre, this bond. Tightly woven, wore vulnerable than you appear. When I lose you I fear, it’ll never be the same. Do you love me too? The day will come dear, hopefully not soon. When I will have to forsake the best friend I’ve ever had. Always there for me, boosting me up, holding it in. I love you, jeans. What a good friend you’ve been.
COLLAGE Mairead Sluka Collaging is a technique of art production created by assembling different forms to create a new whole. A collage may include magazine and newspaper clippings, ribbons, paint, bits of coloured or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. This cut and paste method can be traced back to Dadaism, an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada was the first conceptual art movement where artists focused not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects, but on creating pieces that often disrupted bourgeois sensibilities and sparked difficult questions about society, the role of the artist and the purpose of art. My obsession with collage began in high school when I was painting a portrait of Grace Kelly and I couldn’t get her left eye to match her right eye. Out of frustration, I simply glued a picture of an eye on top of all my failed attempts and surprisingly it looked really good. I was excited to have just discovered a shortcut to creating art without having to rely on my own artistic talents. Soon I started collecting and hoarding different materials to create collages. I gathered hundreds of old magazines and newspapers from the 1940s to the 1960s. I love the idea of creating a piece of art using only the resources and materials available to me. I rarely source any imagery online because I feel like that's cheating and taking away the challenge. Many artists find that magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, printed words and even rusty metal or dirty cloth are great tools for conveying a message. This may not be possible with paint alone. A flattened pack of cigarettes glued onto a canvas, for example, has a higher impact than simply painting a cigarette. The possibilities of using collage to address a variety of issues are endless. Quite often, the artist will leave clues within the elements of a piece to allude to anything from social and political to personal and global concerns. The message may not be blatant, but can often be found within the context. Artists have used the technique of cutting and pasting as a means of bringing the world around us into unexpected, transformative combinations on canvas.
ADOBE GEMINI Cameron Cook As hardware continues to improve and become more powerful, we can only look forward to a cohort of interesting pieces of software. Adobe, are at the forefront of the design software game and they are really flexing on the competition with their next program, Project Gemini. It is a combination of the best features from Draw and Sketch all wrapped into one powerful program. Adobe have been collaborating with Kyle from KyleDraws, who has made over 1600 custom Photoshop brushes that have been added as stock to Adobe Creative Cloud. And, Kyle has been busy. Working together with Adobe and other digital illustrators who specifically use mobile devices in creating professional artworks, to design the perfect platform and programme. Gemini will most likely be an Apple iPad exclusive app, at least when it’s launched. It’s unsure whether there will be an expansion, but considering the wide reach of prior applications, it’s a safe bet that we’ll be seeing it on our devices in the near future. Now, for some of the more technical stuff. For those familiar with PaintTool SAI, you will notice that there are many similarities regarding the user interface in Gemini. It uses a mix of both raster and vector brush tools, so you can choose for the occasion, thus, you don’t need two different apps to complete slightly different tasks. It’ll all be centralised. The platform is the perfect combination of Photoshop and Illustrator, and it promises to supply us with all our digital creative needs. Gemini is also trying to bring together the traditional and digital artists of the world, who are related, but they’re like second cousins or something.
Gemini has made leaps and bounds using the iPad Pro Gen 2’s powerful hardware to improve their tools from the precursors to this program, but they’re also adding a lot of interesting and cool tools for us to use. Adobe have added layers and layer masks, to help with all the non-destructive editing we all definitely do in the privacy of our own homes. Personally, I always employ best practice in every activity I take part in. However, there’s an even more interesting tool than selections and layer masks. Adobe have announced a live paint tool that interacts with your layer and the brush itself as it goes. This brush is designed to simulate the feel and aesthetic of using oil and watercolour paints. Adobe plans to bring the digital age full circle, through attempting to bring the personal and visceral feel of creating something with your hands to digital and to the iPad. Gemini is looking to be a summarisation and coming together of the past few years of Adobe applications, as well as the past few millennia of artists. I’m personally super excited for this. Now all I need is an iPad…
DAME SUZIE MONCRIEFF
World of Wearable Arts show | Founder The idea behind World of Waerable Art (WOW) manifested in my previous life working as a sculptor. I restored a historic derelict old cobb cottage to use as an art gallery to sell my work alongside some other artists and, as it was in the countryside near Nelson city, I felt we needed something to promote it each year. The idea of wearable art came from an advertisement I saw in the Listener for a wearable art exhibition in Auckland and this ignited my imagination. I went up to see it, only to be disappointed to find a clothes rack with silk garments that had been screen painted hanging on coat hangers. In my mind I saw something completely different. I saw art being worn on the body, sculptures, paintings and strange creatures. I came back to Nelson and the journey of making a wearable art show began. My inspiration comes from all over the place; from films, surreal paintings and photographs, finding images and keeping files, to seeing things in everyday life that ignites my inspiration. I enjoy time in my garden and spending time with my daughter and granddaughter. Having the support of friends and family was paramount in establishing WOW and this crazy idea. From those early days Heather Palmer, my sister, has been a great support as has my daughter, Emma Moncrieff. From the beginning I saw the show as it is today. A total creative extravaganza and celebration of art; encouraging people from any background to discover their creativity. When collaborating with others, I aim to create an environment in which ideas and creative solutions can flow unencumbered. No egos allowed! A level playing field where ideas can be channelled into great ideas, and those taking part in the creative process can share the most divergent ideas without fear of judgement. no idea is a silly idea. I would write the first drafts of the show script as a starting point and this would form the basis of discussion with the collaborative creative team.
I would then write, rewrite, look for more inspiration then write again. Then I’d start to draw up a storyboard relating to the sections in the show and building those ideas into an exciting and engaging story that I wanted to express and share in the show. If you have a dream, the passion and belief that it will happen, it will. Don’t expect to make money initially, expect hard work! Get together a great team of passionate believers. It becomes their dream and will generate powerful results. Collaboration is vital to success. Share the load! Create an environment where everyone feels valued and inspired. Leave your ego at the door!
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IMPOSTER SYNDROME Cameron Cook Ever felt like you are in a position that you do not belong? Whether that’s professionally in your career, or even in your friend group, we all go through it at some stage. The feeling, that many simply refer to as ‘anxiety’ has a name; the Imposter Syndrome. Imposter Syndrome can have many causes within a person’s mentality. There tends to be five main categories that an ‘Imposter’ can fall into and they all have different reasons for becoming prevalent in a person’s mentality. The most relevant for designers; The Perfectionist, The Workaholic, and The Soloist.
The Perfectionist This is one that a lot of designers most likely carry. Our work is so directly tied to our own skills, we want it to be 100% perfect. As it’s a direct reflection of our own ability. Perfectionists tend to set excessively high goals for themselves. If they fail to reach a goal, they fall hard and experience major self-doubt and worry about measuring up to their colleagues and counter-parts. Whether they realise it or not, this group can also be 'control freaks', feeling like if they want something done right, they have to do it themselves. For this subtype, success is rarely satisfying because they always believe that it could have been done even better. That is neither productive nor healthy. Owning and celebrating achievement is essential if you want to avoid burnout, find contentment and cultivate self-confidence. If you feel that you are ticking all of these boxes; don’t worry, I’ve just realised too. The best course of action to improve our collective mindsets is to take our mistakes in our stride. If we view them as a natural part of the process, it can help to give perspective to the underlying problem.
The Workaholic Imposter Workaholics are actually addicted to the validation that comes from working, not to the work itself. Start training yourself to veer away from external validation. No one should have more power to make you feel good about yourself than you – even your boss when they give your project the stamp of approval. On the flip side, learn to take constructive criticism seriously, not personally.
The Soloist Soloists often feel as though they have to complete their work by themselves, with no external input. If not done this way, they feel they have cheated the system and used other people’s skills to improve how they appear. Soloists believe that when asking for help, people will be able to see that they haven’t achieved their position based on their own talent and fear they can be seen for the imposters they really (not really) are. It’s okay to be independent, but you need to be able to ask for help. If you’re in a situation where you’re stuck, there’s a much higher chance people will be concerned at the end. It’s better to put yourself out there and risk it by asking for help, chances are you’ll learn something new too. As a sum up, no one knows what’s going on, they’re just pretending that they know what they’re doing and how to do everything. Nothing is original anymore, and that’s okay! It’s okay to copy and paste from stack overflow, it’s okay to get your style from an artist you found on Pinterest, it’s okay to follow a Maya rigging tutorial from YouTube to a tee. The main thing to keep in mind is that everyone feels the same. Everyone has the identical realisation as they age.
“I look in the mirror and I see a child, I am an adult who recognize grown-ups don’t really know shit. And they never did” Focus on your own improvement and self-confidence. Don’t personify yourself in your work and learn to somewhat distance yourself from your work as a designer. Realise that if someone is critiquing your work, they want the best for the client, the business, and your growth.
TIME IS MONEY Tyler Chard
Seller, buyer, competition, product, scarcity, differentiation, availability, investment, gains, costs, loyalty, wealth, satisfaction.
sell their time, they’re happy and if they don’t, they don’t care. Unfortunately, this attitude doesn’t get you very far if you want to make as much money as you can.
These are all words you may know or not, but they all contribute to the same idea – time is money. It’s easy to lose track of how much money your time is worth. That is because of this little hidden concept called opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is what you gave up to get what you have. You experience this every day; you spent $20 getting McDonald’s, but that $20 could have bought you that new graphic novel you wanted.
This brings us to the far less simple answer. You have skills and you would like to sell those skills. There are people who need those skills and they are willing to pay for it. That translates to two values; the LEAST you are willing to be PAID to do something, and the MOST someone is willing to PAY you to do something. Within these two values, a deal can be made and negotiations will determine how much you will earn for any given work.
This can feel obvious when buying something physical, but what you often don’t consider is that the same thing applies to your time. You could spend the day binge watching season 5 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but that same day could have bought you a paycheck.
Let’s talk about what factors dictate the least you are willing to be paid.
You are capable of doing the job. Not only do you study hard, you are also pursuing something you care about. However, you need to know your own capabilities. Doing the job is a good start, but the broader your knowledge Time is money and the deeper your expertise, the more valuable you should Sooner or later, there is a question that we must ask consider your time. Work hard and broaden your skill set, ourselves; how much is my time worth? The simple answer and you will be more willing to put a greater value on is that it doesn’t matter. You can charge as much as you like. your time. You are the only person who can decide how much your time is worth. Others may tell you how much they would pay you, but they cannot tell you what you are worth. This works well and good for the rich or retired because if they
Aside from technical ability, you must value yourself as a person. Without that, you will be unable to sell your time. A big part of your perceived value is in your personality. Work involves collaboration and coordination. Therefore, being likeable is a big part of making any interaction smooth and increases your chances of being considered for repeated business or referrals.
Now consider what determines the most someone is willing to pay you. If you are the only one who can do something, congratulations you are a monopoly and have full control over your value. In this scenario, if someone wants to use your skill, you can charge a lot. But more likely, you will be competing with many others and so you will need to consider how much your competition charges when anticipating your perceived value. There will be times where someone wants the service that you are offering but they don’t understand the actual work and skills involved in producing the final result. If this is the case, you need to explain how they need to value your time. You will need to break down what is involved and in a sense, convince them that they need you. Just step them through your process and explain how much time it will take. Once again, time is money.
The value of your time is a product of how much knowledge you can apply and how effectively you are applying that knowledge. The willingness to accept that value depends on your personality and you may need to break that down for potential employers. Your leisure time has a value equal to the work you could be doing at that time. So don’t let people convince you that your time is worth any less than you think. Work hard, increase how you value your time and walk away feeling like you earned that paycheck.
LIVING WITH LIMITS Dominique Chandler
Limitations may seem like the last thing you would want as a creative, but harnessing constraints in a positive way can be beneficial in helping us work smarter, not harder in everyday life. The word ‘limitation’ tends to have a bad reputation based on common misconceptions. We think that limitations only results in negative outcomes. In reality, the only thing negative about the word ‘limitation’ is our perspectives. As humans, we often restrain our creativity by setting self-imposed limitations based on a whole bunch of factors; including past experiences, comfort zones, excuses, playing it safe, and fear. It is important to have expectation management and self-awareness, but having an endless list of restrictions takes away the choices that are available to us. With them comes the paralysis of choice that stops us from getting started in the first place. This paralysis is usually when the internal screaming starts. It seems to be a balancing act between setting too many limitations, which ultimately results in creating conservative work that doesn’t reflect your potential. This could be because you’re too scared to let that sleep-deprived odd-socked inner creature out of its cage, or not setting enough limitations that leaves you mouth breathing over a cold coffee and a blank page for 24 hours. Here is a list of positive constraints you can swap your negative ones out for.
Set a timer If you’re starting to do the mouth breathing thing or your project seems too overwhelming, try setting a timer for 30 minutes on your phone. This forces yourself to chip away at bits wherever you can. Working in short intervals with shorts breaks can improve your mental agility. Think of this as a series of mini workouts for your brain. Personally, I set up a queue of songs on Spotify and work on a task until they finish, then do the same again for the next task.
Working on everything on your to do list at once? We’ve all been there. Get your hands out of all of those jars. Sharing your focus between tasks can jeopardise your overall output and quality of work. Committing to one task at a time and clearing your mind from anything else will allow you to fully focus and finish it properly. One way I like to implement this is by allowing myself only one internet browsing tab per task. Yes, I said it, only ONE. This helps me to stay on track and not fall into the depths of the internet as frequently as I do when I have endless tabs of freedom and distraction. Projects seem to daunting? Cut it into small task snowflakes. Break down each part into the smallest one imaginable, then proceed with single tasking through them until it hurts. Small progress is PROGRESS. Working through small tasks vs. staring at a full project? The choice is easy.
Ideation cut offs Ever spent hours or days on an idea that you thought would be the best thing since sliced bread yet somehow it flopped and ended up in the trash; only to find your killer idea next and have barely any time to make it a reality? Same. It is said that only 1 in every 5-10 ideas pan out. A way to avoid this is by setting yourself ideation cut offs. Testing an idea for a limited amount of time to prove that it works before moving on allows us not only to save our deadline arses, but also encourages us to produce more ideas, increasing our chances of success.
Keep a tidy digital Nobody shits where they eat, so why do we treat our computers like they're the depths of the local landfill on the daily? It’s time you showed your friendly servant some respect. Make a habit of cleaning your desktop everyday and tidying up files when you first open your computer. You will ultimately feel less stressed because you’ll have a clear space to create and you won’t have to lose your mind when you lose your files . Better still, create a file management system and stay strict about it.
Budget for your creativity
Limited screen time
Limit the amount of money you spend on any given project. This can force you to think of new ways to create or solve problems that you would otherwise just solve with your wallet. If you intend on spending money to increase the quality of your final output, do it on the second iteration and budget on the first so that you can have time to figure out if your idea is worth your funding.
Stuck on ideas or ways to move forward? Maybe you’re suffering from the square screen eyes that our parents always warned us about. When your ideas run dry, a good way to reignite them is to move away from your computer, crack out the paper and all the felts you own, and go through your project drawing and writing every single idea or thought that pops into your head. Don’t you dare discard any thoughts even if you think they won’t work or seem impossible. They could lead to the unicorn of ideas. Note them all down. This can help you recentre your focus or energy.
Brainstorm better Ever thought you knew the end goal from the get go? So you run super fast through the creative process to get to do the part you feel like doing? Creating a piss poor cloud brainstorm just to show that you did ideation? Don’t lie to me. We’ve all been there too. Ideation is a vital part of the creative process. If you cut this part short, you may end up mouth breathing again. If the O.G brainstorm is starting to feel like a mundane part of life, it might be time for you to spice up your style and up your game. Here’s three fresh styles of thought to get you going.
Word Banking Write down your main focus word, then write every other single word that comes to mind when you think of that word. Then write all the words that come to mind when you think of those other words, repeat until you’ve covered an entire piece of paper. You could even hand this to someone else and get them to write all the words they think of when they look at your words. This could go on endlessly.
Collage Cut up every single magazine and booklet in your vicinity until you can coat a page with rough edged inspiration. Play with the typography, mix and match colours, textures, patterns or all. Just don’t touch Candice’s design books, she will find you. Write broken ideas. Approach creativity backwards by writing down every single idea that you think would never ever be able to work. This may lead you to a brilliant solution that might just be ‘crazy enough’ to work.
You can set a time frame each day to spend away from the screen and work physically. This can help you stay inspired and give you a moment to let out your creative frustrations or those inner doodles that would otherwise be forever trapped inside your mind. So next time you feel like you’re on that tightrope, don’t let it lead you down a negative road. Create some positive limitations for yourself and get your shit together! Let that odd-socked sleep deprived thing that you are out of the cage and throw away the key.
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TROPICAL RIDE
Frida Lindström – Creative Digital City Road Tropical Ride - This is my take of the talented artist Gal Shir’s “Winter Cycling”. I submitted this piece as my first post on Dribbble and I was absolutely STOKED to find it on the “popular” page just after a couple of hours of posting. I was literally expecting that no one would see it at all!
CHARACTER DESIGN Juan Janse Van Vuuren – Animation Bunny Street
Character concept generation, from sketches to final turn around. Includes facial expressions and character poses to create an appealing character design for animation.
WELLINGTON POLICE STATION BUILDING Ethan Bloxham – 3D Production Bunny Street
This is a CG replica of the Police Building in central Wellington. I chose this building to create as it is a particularly unique building within Wellington which includes a lot of detail and depth. It is designed to withstand a large earthquake showing off large structural reinforcements.
TRIP CALCULATOR Simon Watson – Web & UX Bunny Street
For this project I created a single page JavaScript appellation of a trip calculator that utilised the Google Maps API. For this application I was given a data set of vehicles and their relevant data on hire time, amount of people and fuel efficiency.
GLASS FOREST
Tyler Chard – Crative Digital Bunny Street
After discovering how mystical terrariums are, I decided to search into their history. This research spawned a drive to create a brand that does the beauty of a terrarium justice. This then led to the creation of the brand ‘Glass Forest’ which is a project I hope will continue to develop and grow from here.
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Fat Cap is a Wellington based graffiti collective aiming to strengthen the respect of spray painting within society. Their branding aims to deliver on 3 main values of inclusion, inspiration and facilitation. Despite stigma, creativity is never onesided, proven in the transferable elements of street art to digital graphics.
Bunny Street
Lucy Egan – Creative Digital
FAT CAP
NINTENDO ANNIVERSARY Jessica Carran – Creative Digit City Road Campus
I choose to do this as a Nintendo anniversary piece, Each section is a piece from a Game Boy colour that is themed to the world of each original Nintendo game. These are part of a limited edition sticker collection.
RAD-Z
Ben Elwood-Smith – Web & Graphic Bunny Street
Set in the world of the game Fallout., this packaging was designed for RAD-Z which is an anti-radiation chemical that can significantly reduce the danger of irradiated areas.
DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CLIENTS Rogier Goossens Dealing with difficult clients. Oh boy, where to start… It can be daunting working with a client for the first time. You can never really be sure what to expect. What you can always be certain of is the fact that at some point things will go south and you will screw up. Recognising and learning from mistakes is a big part of developing your skills as an artist, a designer and an individual. Indubitably, working with clients can be hard and quite stressful, but rest assured there are always tactics to employ and things you can actively do that will make the job so much easier to manage. Firstly and most importantly, the key to excellent collaboration, relationships, or team dynamics is communication. Communication or sometimes known as soft skills are the makeup of a good designer. You will have heard it time and time again and it will be reiterated to you that communication will make or break a project. Even if its a solo project the majority of your of success will be determined by how well you can communicate your ideas and sell yourself and your work. In a collaborative space however, communicating is even more critical. It’s always best practice to communicate as well as possible with your team or client. Proper communication has the capacity to quell torrents of potential conflict and stress. It can, and will, prevent mistakes and stop you from having to waste time. Stay on top of projects by communing on a regular basis. Depending on the project at hand, ask questions, and address any problems as soon as possible. Another invaluable skill is patience. For some clients approaching you will be their first time working with a creative (designer). It’s important to realise when this occurs because, simply put, not everyone is a designer. Not everyone knows what designers do. Building trust and understanding is a great way to create a connection.
Starting with a design proposal is a go to for almost any situation. Outline the key tasks and clearly state what the outcome should be, look, or feel like. The proposal will also act as reassurance for you and your client. It will clearly outline what the client can expect from you and what you can expect from the client. Adding a rough timeline is also quite beneficial. Including this can help you and your client stay in touch and stay on the same page when it comes to parts of the process/project. When things get rough, and stuff just isn’t going your way, it’s more than a good idea to take a step back. Take a break from your project and focus your attention somewhere else. Re-invigorate your creative passion, or take a break from things all together. Find what it is that fuels your creativity, and go after that. Whether that’s collage, painting, sport or just getting some fresh air. Take the time to stop and refuel. Following these simple ideas, or principles will lay the foundation for growth. However, this is merely the start. The rest is to be yet lived. Take solace in the knowledge that much like design, life is one giant process of failing, learning, and achieving. A good, fleshed out and well developed project takes time, and the more developed the project the better the outcome.
GOAL SETTING Lucy Egan Most of us would rather kick footballs in a net then commit the time to take a pen to paper for our goals. Throughout school, calls of “Miss why?” echoed anytime goal setting was mentioned. Only a few years on and now the importance of goal setting has done a complete 180.
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We may not all want the white picket fence or to go bungee jumping but goals are not confined to a cheesy bucket list, based off movies. If you are unsure of where you want to go or who you want to be, do not worry, that doesn’t mean you can’t start drawing your own treasure map. The ‘X’ may not be on the map yet but you’ll only get closer if you set sail into the open sea.
Force yourself to re-read the list and prioritize. Which ones can you do today, what ones you can do this week and what ones you can start figuring out how to complete them. Tick something off every time you do it. Got veggies from the supermarket? TICK! Memorise the keyboard shortcuts on an Adobe programme? TICK! Checked in with a friend you haven’t seen in awhile? TICK! There is something undeniably satisfying about the two short swishes of a pen in a box beside a task you’ve set.
A goal can be as small or as broad as you choose, size and time do not define the significance of it. With ongoing arrivals of imposter syndrome, existentialism and general self deprecation, one of the strongest counter attacks is goal setting. Deciding a particular action, mindset or dream that you want to execute is the first step. Don’t shut yourself down because it’s going to be hard or because it will take too long. Choose it, write it down, write a list with a bunch more. Make some small and some astronomical, it’s all up to you.
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Goals are not just “get more than 85% on my assignment” or “get an internship next year”. These are good big pictures but if you want to get there then you need to orchestrate the composition of the photograph. What is your light source, what is the focal point, do you want it to be a-symmetrical or centred? You need to challenge yourself to blueprint the goals you want to reach and begin prototyping. No one can tell you how or what but if you have challenges set then others can offer you the tools they have to assist.
Goal setting is self reflection. It is taking where you have been and how it got you to where you are, into consideration. It is not dwelling on this but analysing where you are now and where or who you want to be. That path may feel like staring at a cliff face one hundred metres away with a dark cavern between it and you, but find a way. Rather than trying to bridge the impossible gap, set smaller journeys to explore all the other ways to reach the otherside. In order to set these goals you must choose to be an active participant in your own life. You know what is helping you and what is hindering you, goals simply create a rubric for you to go back and re-engage when you begin to feel lost again.
HOROSCOPES Aries Wake up on time, go to sleep on time and watch Adventure Time because Jake is your spirit animal. Learn from his wisdom.
Sagittarius That little voice that tells you to stay in bed is a liar. If your body moves fast enough you can outrun it and before you know it you’ll have your shit together and that voice will be simply saying “never mind”.
Capricorn Power poses are you friend so you don’t need friends. But keep your friends because friends are the greatest. On second thought you do need friends. Go out and make a new friend, right now. Quickly before you scare them off with your epic power poses!
Aquarius Stop putting off calling your family because they miss you. Don’t wait for the call because you have too many things in life to wait for already.
Pisces There are more phones than people on this earth. Leave your phone on silent and embrace the real humans that are right there to make your life more fulfilling. Keep a packet of cat biscuits on your person at all times for those chance cat encounters. You’re welcome.
Libra Its a rough day and getting worse. That’s because when it rains it pours. Just look at the clouds, stick out your tongue and feel how quickly you forget about your wet socks when the pure rain water collides gently with your taste buds.
Taurus If you think you know, you don’t know. Know you know, because assumptions will take your uncertainty and slap you in the face with it!
Gemini How many chocolate bars does it take to make you feel happy? All of them! But not when you eat them. You’re a designer so notice the bad packaging, appreciate the clever and get on with your day without the guilt!
Cancer It’s time you learned that you are the playful combination of a butterfly and a snowfox! Dive nose first in the fresh icy powder everyday because life is short you nutty foxerfly.
Leo You choose your limitations so make them irrationally far away. That is how you will learn to do things that others could never comprehend and why you are the best creative you will ever meet!
Virgo It might rain on the weekend which will make you sad, get your washing done now and you'll have nothing to worry about. If you’re lactose intolerant you don’t need that flavoured milk, and if you weren’t going to, sorry for bringing it up.
Scorpio Line up your favourite tunes, set your desktop background as a design studio, get snacks that won’t grease up your keyboard and sink into the glorious project that you are about to own. It’s immersion time baby.
UPCOMING EVENTS Te Wiki o te Reo Māori/Maori Language Week 9–15 Mahuru (September) 2019 Māori Language week has been celebrated each year from 1975.Māori Language Day is September 14 and commemorates the presentation of the 1972 Māori language petition to parliament. Mahuru Māori is an initiative begun in 2017 to promote the use of te reo Māori throughout the month of September. Why a week? Why not a year? Why not a decade? A century? Because New Zealand is revitalising the Māori language and a part of that is celebration of our success and promoting te reo Māori. Māori language week is an opportunity for concentrated celebration, promotion and encouragement. Every minute of every hour of every day is a Māori language minute – we can choose to use te reo – every time we do, even just a ‘Kia ora!’ contributes to revitalisation. Te Wiki o te reo Māori is becoming a major fixture on the national calendar providing an opportunity for concentrated promotion, raising awareness and giving an opportunity for expert and advanced speakers to encourage others on their te reo Māori journey.
Te Wiki Tiaki Ao Tūroa/Conservation Week 14–22nd of September New Zealand’s wildlife is still in crisis with more than 4,000 of our native animals and plants threatened or at risk. Conservation Week is a chance to bring everyone together to do something, big or small to create change. Every year Conservation Week sees thousands of New Zealanders getting involved through doing conservation activities at home or attending one of many events hosted across the country. Creating change can be big or small, when we pull together, we can make a big difference. Celebrate 50 years of Conservation Week! With more than 4,000 species threatened or at risk, nature needs us to take action now.
Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 23–29 September 2019 Run each year by the Mental Health Foundation, is back The 2019 theme is Explore your way to wellbeing – Whāia te ara hauora, Whitiora. The week is an opportunity for you to explore the experiences, actions, relationships and surroundings that make you feel good and uplift your wellbeing.
Two When you go into a flat, it pays to take time to find good flatmates. Three Sort your Study Link out. Check if you are eligible for student allowance that’s free money. Also if you need extra money, you can get out living costs and course-related costs. Four Don’t buy coffee every day, $4 to $5 a day adds up. Instead, buy it every so often and bring your own warm beverages to uni/course. Five Get a keep-cup. Look after the environment and some places offer discounts if you bring your own cup. Six If you are still studying the following year and it is the end of year break, you can actually get Jobseeker Hardship Support if you haven’t found a job - literally like student allowance but for the break (so you can still pay rent). Seven Call your mum. Eight Go to the vege market every weekend. Then you can do meal prep. This will help you save money and time in the long run. Plus your meals will be healthier. Nine Make the most of your student ID. Most places offer student discounts. Also take the time to get a Countdown One Card and/or a New World Club Card. The money you will save in the long run is definitely worth it.
Ten When it’s winter, definitely get the flu shot. Eleven Remember to hang out with your friends. A balance between study and your social life goes a long way.
Twelve Download the Niesh app - you get mean student deals.
STUDENT HACKS
Pearl Pan
One Don’t live in a mouldy, cold, damp flat. Your health suffering is not worth it.
CHEAP EATS Tyler Chard It’s 8:30pm. You’ve been sitting at your desk slowly working on your current project with a side tab that’s about to ask you if you’re still watching. It’s going on seven hours since you last ate something. You start to hear that patronising voice in your head sternly inquiring as to why you didn’t organise dinner at 6pm when it crossed your mind. Well good news! Remember that packet of Mi Goreng noodles in your pantry that’s been ready for you to not eat? It was once a glorious lifestyle discovery but has long become a sad reminder of your bank balance. Let’s change that. I have been mastering the art of the Mi Goreng instant noodles for 10 years and I have developed the ultimate strategy. From this basic preparation strategy, I will show you 3 easy variants to help redefine, ‘cheap and easy’.
Cook time: 7 minutes | Cost: $2-3 per serve Satay Ingredients 1 Packet of Satay Mi Goreng 1 Egg White sugar (1tsp) Soy sauce Cabbage (diced) Small handful of peanuts (crushed) Dried shallots
BBQ Chicken Ingredients
1 Packet of BBQ Chicken Mi Goreng 1 Egg (fried) 1 Carrot (use a peeler to peel the whole carrot into strips) Half onion (diced) Quarter broccoli (diced) Dried shallots
Original Prawn Ingredients: 1 Packet of Original Mi Goreng Small handful of frozen prawns 3 Cloves of garlic (finely diced) Half onion (diced) Dried shallots
In a deep bowl, place the brick of noodles. Fill the bowl with boiling water until the noodles are fully covered. Microwave for 2 minutes on high. Cover the bowl with a tea towel, rest a fork over the bowl to stop the tea towel from drooping into the bowl and sit the liquid flavour packet on the fork. The tea towel will keep the heat in and help the noodles absorb water while the steam melts the oils in the packet making it super easy to get the flavour out. When the flavour packet is clear and heated, drain all excess water from the noodles, add and stir flavour sachets through the drained noodles.
Choose your flavour Prep your ingredients as listed above. Heat a pan with a small amount of oil on low-medium heat. When you add your ingredients, you should hear them sizzle, but keep them moving while cooking to avoid burning.
Satay Fry cabbage and crushed peanuts, stir together. Mix 1 egg, a tsp of sugar and a splash of soy sauce. After 3 minutes, add the egg mix to the pan and stir to distribute until egg is fully cooked through. Add stir fry mix to noodles and mix though. Garnish with a generous sprinkling of dried shallots and extra peanuts.
BBQ Chicken Fry onion for 1 minute. Add carrot and broccoli, and continue to fry for a further 2-3 minutes, moving often. Set veggies aside and fry an egg until firm. Add stir-fried veggies to noodles and mix through. Slice fried egg into strips and place on top of noodles. Garnish with a generous sprinkling of dried shallots.
Original Prawn Fry onion and garlic for 1 minute, constantly moving to avoid burning. Add prawns and 2 Tbsp of water to the pan. The steam will help speed up defrosting and cooking the prawns. Fry until there is no liquid in the pan and the prawns are hot and have a little colour. Add the mix to the noodles and stir through. Garnish with a generous sprinkling of dried shallots.
Don’t underrate the noodle cooking process. The tea towel strategy will turn this cheap meal into a proper treat!
MACRAMÉ PLANT HANGER
In this tutorial, you will be shown how to create a Macramé Hanging Plant Holder, using 4 knots with varying degrees of difficulty.
Shay Wellington
For this you will need: A pot plant, scissors, a trigger ring and copious amounts of macramé cord.
WRAP KNOT How to create a wrap knot: Cut a strand of cord that is 30cms long. Make a V shape over your strands and using the longer end, start wrapping it around ensuring to encase the V. Once you have wrapped it enough, take the long strand and pass it through the V. To complete the knot, pull the shorter strand to trap the longer strand under the knot. Cut off excess. Step 1: Cut 6 strands of cord at 300cm long each. Pull them through the centre of the trigger ring until all lengths are equal. Step 2: Create a wrap knot to secure all lengths of cord to the trigger ring. Step 3: Separate strands into 3 sections (each section will include 4 strands of cord). Step 4: Knot a length of half square knots (I created 22 for this piece).
HALF SQUARE KNOT How to create a half square knot: Simply put, we are taking our two outer strands and are creating a simple knot (like you would use to tie your shoelace) that envelopes our inner 2 strands of cord. Pull the cords tightly, and repeat this for the desired amount of times. You’ll know you are doing this correctly is the length begins to spiral.
JOSEPHINE KNOT Step 5: Create 2 Josephine Knots 5cms lower than the previous knot.
Now the tricky part, the photo will explain this clearer.
Take the right cord and carry it over the left cord that is How to create a Josephine knot: Separating your cords into coming from the knot up top, the right cord under the next two sections (each section containing two cords each), take length of the left cord,t he right cord goes over itself, then your left section and loop it under itself. Take your right under the last bit of the left cord. Then tighten! cord and place it over the loop we just created. Continuing with the right cord, carry it under the end of the left cord.
SQUARE KNOT Step 6: Create a square knot using two 2 strands of rope from two different sections.
How to create a Square Knot: To begin, we are going to create a half-square knot but we are then going to repeat the knot below but in reverse. This can be more easily understood through the image.
Step 7: Tie all strands together one a standard knot. Cut off excess cord.