Up and coming fashion designers in New Zealand have the chance to boost their careers to the tune of NZ$10,000 in sponsorship prize money.

Italian brewer Peroni is giving away the cash to celebrate the launch of Peroni Leggera, a low carb, low alcohol version of the classic Italian beer.

The first annual Lighter Side of Italian Style Fashion Design competition is open to designers aged 20 or over. Entrants can be in their last year of tertiary fashion study or a graduate of up to five years.

The brief is to submit a sketch and working drawings of a unique design inspired by the Peroni Leggera colour palette and the concept of “Lighter Side of Italian Style.”

A panel of industry judges will commission five entrants to turn their sketch into real garments, and these finalists will be flown to Auckland and present their designs at an event in late August, where the winner will be announced.

Entries opened on July 1, so if you’re keen to submit a design, head here.

News from the crew at instinct: WordCamp New Zealand will be held in Wellington, New Zealand on the 8th and 9th of August.

Here’s the Word from the event site:

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

The two-day conference will be held at the Mt. Victoria Bowling Club and will feature Matt Mullenweg (above) aka PhotoMatt, he who set up Automattic, and was one of the founding developers of WordPress, as a keynote speaker along with hands-on sessions focused on the WordPress platform and the community around it.

You’ll also be hearing for Dan Milward from Instinct, Harley Alexander from Aussie designers Baffle Inc and Anthony Cole from Dunedin’s Fresh Pacific Media. And if you have the inclination to speak yourself, head to the content wiki.

Earlybird tickets for the whole weekend are only $75, and you can get them here.

Auckland based web designers Fracture have taken out one of the top spots at 12th Annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Web Awards for their work on www.jasmax.co.nz

Sponsored by Adobe, the SXSW Web Awards honored 20 of the top Web developers and designers chosen from hundreds of entries submitted across the world.

Up against the likes of CNN and home improvement mega-brand Lowe’s, the young guns from Fracture showed they are world class talent who can compete for web design on an international stage. Fracture won the Business category which covered sites devoted to the promotional needs, functions and services of for-profit businesses.

“To win at South by Southwest is just an amazing honour. We were the only Kiwis in the finals, up against the biggest names in web design from around the world and we took it out. It’s quite a coup,” says Creative Director of Fracture Nick Shaw.

Fracture hopes that with accolades like this, savvy overseas client who need amazing work will become aware of New Zealand’s massive creative talent base, a very favourable exchange rate, and start sourcing production down here.

“It’s already happening with our film industry right now, and there’s no reason that design and technology should be different,” says James McKee, Fracture’s Managing Director.

The Jasmax websites was one of the first in New Zealand to use a complete 3D environment; new technology that gives the user a sense of being part of the visual space with elements of the website rotating around them, and brings the buildings to life in their own virtual world.

The SXSW interactive festival is held in Texas and attracts digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs from around the world. The event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology.

Check this interview with Nick from Fracture on KiwiFM.

Dow Design is taking on the world at Design Week Awards in London next month with its world-class packaging work for Robert Harris coffee.

The Design Week Awards is one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions with finalists from London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and now Auckland. Dow Design is a finalist in this influential competition along with some big hitting international companies and are thrilled to be part of this world-leading group. “New Zealand is fast becoming known for creative excellence” says Dow’s Andy Jaquet, “and we’d like to think we are helping to contribute to that wonderful global image. Not only that we get to showcase a great NZ coffee overseas!”

The finalists are:

Robert Harris - Dow Design

JME ( Jamie Oliver Products) – Pearl Fisher

This water – Pearlfisher

Linkwood 26 year old whiskey – The Brand Union

Solerno – Stranger and Stranger

Mr Singh’s Bangras – The Partners Design

Silver Cross Packaging – Love

Nude skincare - Pearlfisher

Going global from New Zealand is an ambition many New Zealanders hold in their hearts. Made From New Zealand uncovered someone who’s been doing it successfully for a while, and discovers the world’s richest photography prize originates from Aotearoa!

In 1998, New Zealander Geoff Blackwell launched an ambitious photographic competition with the unusual acronym M.I.L.K. – Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship, Fresh MILK Photography Competition. The competition received over 40,000 entries from all over the world, culminating in a collection of 300 winning entries – 100 in each category of Family, Friendship and Love, selected by Magnum photographer Elliot Erwitt.

The collection was published worldwide in a series of award-winning books, and received global recognition when an exhibition opened at Grand Central Station in New York City in July 2001, and toured the world. The M.I.L.K. books have subsequently been published in numerous languages and sold over three million copies.

Ten years later, M.I.L.K. Licensing, in association with Elliot Erwitt, is again offering the world’s most generous photography prize with Fresh M.I.L.K. – a USD$125,000 international photography competition. Entry is free and the 150 winning finalists will be chosen by Erwitt, with the overall winner pocketing USD$50,000.

The 150 winning images will be published in a new book in 2009, entitled: “Fresh M.I.L.K.: Friends, Families, Lovers & Laughter,” and on selected licensed products. Photographers will retain copyright of their images in exchange for granting M.I.L.K. a non-exclusive license.

So why is Blackwell doing this? “We wanted to commemorate the tenth anniversary of staging the M.I.L.K. competition. Given the popularity of the original collection, we felt the time was right to once again stage a photographic competition that celebrates humanity and, particularly, moments shared between families, friends and loved ones,” said Blackwell. “I’m really excited to see the diversity in the entries coming in, and can’t wait to begin the selection process.”

Blackwell is also excited to be working with Chief Judge Elliot Erwitt again: “Elliot is one of photography’s great masters. We’re so honoured to have his involvement again.”

When the inaugural competition launched, the internet was still in its infancy, and the task of spreading the word took a dedicated effort from the M.I.L.K. team, hitting websites and publishing adverts in prestigious photographic magazines. This time around, Blackwell is making good use of integrated web communities to spread the word around the globe.

“Using well-established online communities was the obvious way to promote our competition. People are so globally connected and networked these days, it really does make running this type of global competition much less complicated than it was ten years ago,” said Blackwell.

Because this is an online competition, only electronic images submitted online will be accepted – no physical prints or images on disc will be accepted. There are guidelines for submission requirements on the website. There is also a page with the judging criteria, which it would pay to read before you start submitting your favourite holiday snaps!

For a detailed overview of the M.I.L.K. project and full details of entry, visit www.milkphotos.com. The competition closes on the 31st of December 2008 – so get snapping, selecting and submitting!

In 2004, artist Rona Ngahuia Osborne, designer Dan Mace, and Lindsay Mace, business manager extraordinaire, joined forces and launched Native Agent’. Since then their business has grown steadily and has something of a cult following.

Native Agent’s flagship store is situated in the creative suburb of Kingsland.
Best known for their own brand of exquisitely crafted cushions, quilts and clothing, the store also showcases some of the best design, art, fashion, music and culture New Zealand has to offer.

Central to Native Agent’s aesthetic is the creative handiwork of designer and artist Rona Ngahuia Osborne. Inspired by the meeting of Maori and Pakeha cultures in New Zealand’s colonial past, she creates woollen blankets, cushions, linen and clothing that have won a place in many hearts, and homes.

In 19th century New Zealand, Native Agents were representatives of the crown. They were fluent in the Maori language and therefore able to advocate for and assist Maori with land transactions and other matters of law. Osborne’s partner Dan is a descendant of a Native Agent, and this title seemed an appropriate name for their new venture, an agency where the best ‘native’ New Zealand design could be showcased to the world.

Osborne’s work is rich in symbolism, weaving together stories that reflect her family’s history, stories of the blending of bloodlines and the coming together of many people.

Woollen blankets were common items of trade between European settlers and Maori, so it is fitting that they form the foundation for many of Osborne’s works. She adorns them with layers of shape, colour and iconography representative of New Zealand’s cultural history and symbols of the natural world.

Many of the defining themes in the work that Osborne creates as Native Agent make historical references to land struggles that led to conflict and war, the trading of muskets and blankets for land, and the extinction of native flora and fauna. These struggles are as relevant today as they were at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The work created as Native Agent has a profound resonance that speaks of Aotearoa’s combined histories, wild places and people. These stories add to our sense of identity and capture something of the unique place we call home.