We understand that people’s lives are culturally, socially, physically and financially shaped by the groups they belong to. Our commitment to people and improving lives through design and creativity extends beyond individuals and clients to communities, because that’s where we believe we can make an impact.

We aim to do good. We aspire to contribute to making society better. We do this by fostering connections and relationships with others in Aotearoa and across the globe who are likewise delivering services of value to the public.

We nurture partnerships with people. We understand that authentic engagement is only possible when there is trust. Organisations first have to trust what we can do before agreeing to collaborate with us. Communities have to be confident that we will respect their point of view before they share their stories. We believe the value of trusted partnerships is reciprocal and it forms the foundation of our approach.

We build relationships. Strong relationships built on trust are crucial to the success of the work we do. Our collaboration with Te Rourou: One Aotearoa Foundation has lead to a number of impact research projects exploring approaches to strengthening youth mental health in Murihiku Southland, and understanding the hopes and aspirations of rangatahi, as part of the Foundation’s Invercargill Initiative.

We have built a strong relationship with the Māori alliance Te Tihi o Ruahine in Manawatū working with them across a number of years on various projects including Te Mauri Moemoeā, a digital tool that utilises Māori understandings of wellbeing for tamariki and their whānau.

Other research projects include Our Data, Our Way exploring community perspectives to the use of data; and eliciting people’s thoughts on algorithms and their use in Aotearoa and talking to New Zealand people about their experiences with the Internet.

We continue to collaborate with the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey. Our work with them spans Earthquake Early Warning systems with the Crisis Lab, participatory design approaches to city-shaping and building resilience and exploring ideas of Creative Resilience.