36 days of type is a yearly call inviting designers, illustrators and visual artists to share their view on the letters and numbers from their alphabet.

This year I decided to participate in a way that would enable me to explore my own style and develop my skills. I did one letter a day, each building off what I had learned or tried from the previous day. The aim was to not set myself any size, colour or style constraints and see what happened! This is what I ended up with.

You can watch the video ones on my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sambunnydesign/ 

This is a personal project I've been working on for a little while now that is aimed to visualise my personal identity, and consolidate my ideas as a designer. I love black and white, yet I also love vibrant colours so created a brand that was adaptable enough to let me mix n' match things around while still retaining a strong identity. I've also taken quite a contemporary approach in terms of style, but have created it in a way that it has a timeless quality and will not age very quickly.

June 27, 2014

A project I did for 36 Days of type where my aim was to create one interactive letter per day. Interactions were live, and created in the Principle App.

This Te Arawa Māori traditional story tells of two lovers forbidden to meet who find a way to be together. In the legend, Hinemoa lives by Lake Rotorua and Tūtānekai on the island, Mokoia. Hinemoa falls in love when Tūtānekai plays the flute, but Hinemoa’s father considers him unsuitable.

They vow to be together, and every night on the island, Tūtānekai plays his flute to guide Hinemoa to him. With no canoe, Hinemoa must swim the lake with mystical creatures in it to be with Tūtānekai.

The beautiful illustrations are supported by an evocative soundtrack available as a free mp3 download. The soundtrack is voiced by Riria Hotere and features the koauau or flute played by world-leading authority on traditional Māori instruments, Richard Nunns.

This book is also available in a te reo Māori edition.

This is a collection of lettering and typefaces that I have designed, 
and an ongoing exhibit of my personal learning and thoughts.
The work is a mixture of the weird, experimental, elegant and functional.

Please like and share to support.

A collection of personal and commercial logos.

This book traces Māori engagement with handwriting from 1769 to 1826. Through beautifully reproduced written documents, it describes the first encounters Māori had with paper and writing and the first relationships between Māori and Europeans in the earliest school. 

The earliest Māori–Pākehā engagements were vividly recorded by both Māori and Pākehā in drawings and writing in the early 1800's. These beautiful archival images tell stories about how Māori encountered pen and paper, which gives us a new and exciting perspective on the past.

Words Between Us – He Kōrero is a controversial and enlightening book that will stimulate fresh thinking about those first conversations between Māori and Pākehā.

The modern-day classic children's picture book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle, which has been loved by many generations of children world wide, is now translated into te reo Māori.

With the same beautiful illustrations and dye cut pages as the original book, the te reo Māori translation retains the humour and quirky character of the little caterpillar and simplicity of the story.

This book is a great way to learn first words in te reo Māori in a story format that teaches the days of the week, numbers and counting, and names of some foods.

I created this for the 99designs.com PS4 logo contest.

For my concept I have looked to the existing PS1, PS2 and PS3 logotypes, and have created what I believe to be a natural progression of the PlayStation brand.

I have decided not to stray too far from the look of the current PS3 logotype to keep it easily identifiable and true to the brand. Vibrant colours provide a fresh and contemporary feeling, whilst still retaining the sleek look that PlayStation is closely associated with.

I have complimented the logotype with a clean and simple san-serif font, and topped everything off with the trusty ol’ PS logo

Enjoy!

This book, originally researched and written as part of an academic study, sets out and discusses the maramataka or lunar month and the understanding of the days and nights according Te Whānau-ā-Apanui tribal knowledge.

The dependence of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui ancestors on the environment led them to closely study the changes and cycles in nature so they could ensure their survival in their tribal area. Knowledge of aspects such as the sea conditions and best planting and harvesting times at each day of the month were carefully observed and remembered and community activities were arranged according to the phases of the moon.

This book records this traditional knowledge, handed down orally and through practical demonstration to Te Whānau-ā-Apanui elders by their forebears, and from them to the next generations.

For the design, I aimed for simplicity and elegance. The inside pages are done in a bilingual format (Maori and English) with minimal design elements, while the cover depicts White Island and the rise and setting of the Moon. The colours are chosen to help evoke a spiritual feeling of time and reflection.

Living by the Moon won the PANZ 2014 Best Educational Book Design Award http://www.bookdesignawards.co.nz/2014-shortlist-best-educational-living-by-the-moon/

One of my first attempts at creating a typeface! Created using a modular system of right-angled triangles and rectangles to test the boundaries of what is legible and recognisable as a letterform.

TrueType and OpenType formats in development.

This was initially just going to be a single piece of art, but thought it would be much better to give out freely as a wallpaper. Recording my process was really a spur of the moment sort of thing that turned out great!

Many thanks to katlovestock on Deviantart for use of the stock image.

Song: Flight Facilities - Crave You (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix)

The purpose of this project was to create a Literacy Progressions handbook on behalf of the Ministry of Education that is presented in an engaging and user-friendly way to support Māori medium teachers.

I wanted to create something memorable that would stand out from the resources that teachers usually recieve. I felt that most teachers resources were cluttered with unnecessary design elements and effects, so worked on a layout that is contemporary and enjoyable to open and read, whilst still being clean, legible and easy to follow.

Radius is a simple geometric sans-serif typeface created modularly with quarter circles and squares. 

Now available from HelloFont http://www.hellofont.com/vfonts/311

Being a finalist for the PANZ Young Designer of the Year Award, I was approached to develop a short video on my design process.

Looking at previous videos for the awards and other process videos online, I found a lot of stop motion and time-lapse techniques. While these were great to watch, they weren't as informative as I wanted to be about my process.

I decided to create a stripped down motion graphic video to help focus on my design process, and look not only at book design, but all design that I do.

This science fantasy novel in te reo Māori follows four teenagers living on Rēhua, a planet settled after Earth is destroyed by ecological disasters and global war.

The four raise hōkio, giant mystical birds, which take them on flights to explore their new world. On one flight, they discover an island with another colony of people, and here, they are given a quest to interpret hieroglyphic messages drawn on cave walls. Deciphering these symbols leads them to appease the feared tipua wheke, a gargantuan octopus, and help the Tūrehu, fair-skinned sea fairies, who have discovered a way to return to Earth.

Meet Bugs: smart, sarcastic, sixteen and stuck in a small town without a driver’s license.

Bugs has been best mates with Jez forever, they’ve always been Jez and Bugs, Bugs and Jez. That is until Stone Cold, the new girl, arrives in town. Year 12 was already going to be a challenge without adding spoilt, bitchy Stone Cold to the mix. Why would anyone want to be mates with her?

But things are never as they seem on the surface – not the picture perfect postcard views of Taupo, not the drama queen antics of Stone Cold, not the quiet brooding of Jez. Not even Bugs. 

Now as the future closes in each will struggle with expectation; either trying to live up to them, or trying to live them down