Quick overview

Professional development
2011 — Speaker and workshop: A Type of Improvisation
, Design Assembly, NZ
2010 — Speaker: Together, Alone, Designers Speak National Tour, NZ
2009 — Organiser: TypeSHED11, Wellington, NZ (created and organised with Typevents Italy)
2009 — Speaker: Beautiful World of Typography, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ
2008 — Speaker: Journeying through the Landscape of Passion, Disappointment and Hope, Alaska Design Forum, Anchorage and Fairbanks, USA
2007 — Juror: Typography, D&AD Global Awards, UK
2006 — Speaker: Arts Institute of Bournemouth, UK
2006 — Speaker: Fast Type, Slow Type, Birmingham, UK
2006 - Speaker: SPARK, International Festival of Media, Arts and Design, NZ
2005 — Organiser and speaker: the inaugural Designers Speak, NZ (created, organised for DINZ)
2005 — Speaker: I live at the edge of the universe, like everybody else, ATypI Helsinki, Finland
2005 - Book reading and interview: Typeradio, ATypI Helsinki
2004 — Juror: 20under40 annual ideas competition, Architecture Centre, NZ
2003 — Juror: BEST Design Awards, NZ
2003 — Speaker: (x)periment, Adelaide, Australia
2002 — Speaker: Landscape Design Conference, Wellington, NZ

Installations / interventions
2012 — Light sculpture, OConnell Street, Auckland, NZ — in progress
2012 — Two Studios, and House, a collaboration with Bruce Connew, Karekare, NZ
2
012 —
Fifth Movement, the third in the vowels, private commission, Auckland, NZ
2012 — The Trestle Leg Series, eight exerpts of poetry and prose, Auckland Harbour Bridge, NZ
2011 — Sound Tracks, for Hit the Wall (12 month installation), The Dowse Art Museum, NZ
2011 — A Hillside Intervention, Wayfinding at Athfield Architects, Wellington, NZ
2010 — The Jets, Short film, Paris, FR
2009 — AEIOU, a typo/sound sculpture, Wellington, NZ
2005 — Distance Markers, Wellington, NZ
2003 — Ponatahi, a house wrapped in a Jenny Bornholdt poem, Wairarapa, NZ
2002 & 2004 — Wellington Writers Walk, a series of 15 large-scale concrete text sculptures, Wellington, NZ

Group exhibitions
2012 — memento :: motif, Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo Alzheimer, Valparaíso, Chile
2011 — Club de Conversation Dial series, Maquettes for the Floor, Dilana Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2009 — New Zealand Identity: le cadavre exquis, curated by Leonardo Sonnoli, TypeSHED11, NZ
2007 — Protest Vessel, 1/2 Price, (collaboration), Norsewear Art Awards, NZ
2006 — Just Hold Me, curated by Jonty Valentine, Objectspace, NZ
2003 — Conversation Pieces, Michael Hirschfeld Gallery, NZ
2000 — Up:date//The Active Eye: Contemporary New Zealand Photography, PhotoForum, NZ

Published
2013 LetterScapes by Anna Saccini, published by Thames and Hudson, UK
2
009 Small Studios, published by HESIGN, Germany
2007 Typo — the beautiful world of fonts by Fabiola Reyes, published by MONSA, Barcelona
2006 — Lettere Nascoste (Hidden Letters) published by James Clough and students, Riccardo Bauer School, Milan

Teaching
Since 1994 I have taught and continue to assist students in NZ and overseas, give workshops, lectures and portfolio assessments. I am a Professional Member of the International Liaison Group at the Arts Institute of Bournemouth, UK.

Awards (a selection)
2012 — Honorable Mention, AEIOU, Zgraf 11, Zagreb, Croatia
2010 — Gold Pin, For the record, TypeSHED11 book, BEST Awards, NZ
2010 — Silver, I Must Behave, artist book, BEST Awards, NZ
2010 — Bronze, AEIOU, a typo/sound installation, BEST Awards, NZ
2010 — Gold Medal, For the record, TypeSHED11 book, Pride in Print Awards, NZ
2009 — Winner, Best Cover, BPANZ Book Design Awards, NZ
2009 — TypeSHED11 voted Best Design Event of the Year, Urbis Magazine, NZ
2008 — Finalist, Books, D&AD Global Awards, UK
2006 — Recognition for Contribution to the Environment, Architecture Centre, NZ
2003 — Finalist, Typography, Wellington Writers Walk, D&AD Global Awards, UK
2002 and 2003 Winner, Environmental Graphics, BEST Awards, NZ
2002 — Winner of the Stringer, BEST Awards, NZ
1999 Best in Show, Strathmore Graphics Gallery Award, USA
1994 Gold Medal, Pride in Print Awards, NZ


Clients (since 1995)
Architecture+ / Athfield Architects / Auckland Council / Bruce Connew / Boffa Miskell / Creative New Zealand / CCS / Dance Aotearoa New Zealand / David Cohen / Four Winds Press / Fulbright New Zealand / Gecko Press / Gecko & Co. / Hanne Johnsen + Gyldendal, Norway / Information Tools / Justine Clark / Medical Council of New Zealand / Minty Architecture / MORST (Ministry of Research, Science and Technology) / Parlour: women, equity, architecture / Naomi Stead / Random House NZ / REANNZ (Research, Education Advanced Network New Zealand) / Stevens Lawson Architects / Southern Petroleum PLC / Sydney Yoga Space / Victoria University Press / Victoria University of Wellington / Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors / Wellington Waterfront Limited / Wellington City Council / Wools of New Zealand


Selected projects
Typography in the landscape / The Trestle Leg Series, typographic work, Auckland Harbour bridge, commissioned by Boffa Miskell / NZTA

Installation / Sound Tracks, a seven metre long wall work, The Dowse Gallery, New Zealand

Public sculpture / AEIOU — a typo/sound installation — where the observer delivers the sound — constructs five vowels in steel, and lightly stacks them five metres on a first level terrace in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand

Symposium / TypeSHED11 — a five-day international typography symposium held in Wellington, New Zealand, 11-15 February 2009, organised in collaboration with Typevents Italy

Exhibition / NZ identity — le cadavre exquis curated by Italian designer Leonardo Sonnoli, one of nine in an exhibition

Artist book and exhibition / I Must Behave, a sideways glance at behaviour and control by Bruce Connew

Corporate visual identity and wayfinding / Athfield Architects Limited

The book as object / I Saw You, a photographic series on surveillance by Bruce Connew

Short film / Making Waves with 20 Artists — a 9-minute film mixing poetry, art and music. The film references themes of science, research and technology, and was commissioned by MoRST

Book and exhibition / Stopover — a story of migration by Bruce Connew

Campaign / Our Stories for CCS, to help raise disability awareness among New Zealanders. The charity work included a logo, exhibition, website, DVD and associated items

Corporate visual identity / REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand) and its network KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network)

Corporate visual identity / The Oxygen Group — a group of young scientists who formed a group initiated by MoRST, as well as the visual identity for runninghot! — a bi-annual conference organised by The Oxygen Group

Exhibition / Wonder-land — logo, poster and website form the package for a touring exhibition first shown at Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma in April 2006, followed by Pingyao, China, and New Zealand. The show featured nine New Zealand photo artists, curated by Harvey Benge

Exhibition catalogue / Luncheon under the ash tree; the Elespie & Ian Prior collection by Luit Bieringa and Damian Skinner, with Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History

Environmental design / Fran Wilde Walk — a set of 5.5m high glass signs based on the city signage project, for the walkway to the Westpac Stadium, Wellington. Collaboration with Athfield Architects

Corporate visual identity / Ministry of Research, Science and Technology — design and implementation: stationery, guidelines and interior signage

Environmental design / Heritage Trails signage — a comprehensive signage system of illuminated beacons for Wellington city (work in progress), with the Maritime Trail being the first series installed along the city waterfront. With Athfield Architects

Interpretive artworks / Graving dock and a set of typographic windscreens for Waitangi Park, Wellington (on hold). With Megan Wraight and Athfield Architects

Environmental design / Distance markers — a series of cast-iron numerical markers inserted into the footpath along the Wellington waterfront to Evans Bay, marking out distance

Artist book and exhibition / Muttonbirds — part of a story by Bruce Connew with Dean Tiemi Te Au

Environmental design / City Signage — a series of 14 way-finding information signs, constructed in glass and illuminated. With Athfield Architects

Installation / Ponatahi‚ a house wrapped in literature — a large-scale typographic glass work that circumnavigates Ponatahi House, a private residence north of Wellington. Commissioned by Architecture+

Books / Montana Estates Essay Series launched in Sep02 and Mar03, two sets of three essays edited and published by Four Winds Press

Public sculpture / Wellington Writers Walk — a series of 15 large-scale concrete text sculptures, positioned unexpectedly around the city’s urban waterfront, celebrating writers: James K Baxter, Lauris Edmond, Maurice Gee, Denis Glover, Patricia Grace, Robin Hyde, Pat Lawlor, Bill Manhire, Katherine Mansfield, Bruce Mason and Vincent O’Sullivan, Barbara Anderson, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Eileen Duggan and Fiona Kidman

Books and exhibition / Bruce Connew’s Suburbs exhibition, his book On the way to an ambush, and Press Escape to Cancel, an exhibition on the return home of refugees, Kosovo, and accompanying publication in literary journal, Sport

Book / Looking for the Local: Architecture and the New Zealand Modern by Justine Clark and Paul Walker

Campaign / The Super 12 Rugby Campaign for the Hurricanes (1996)

Corporate Identity Guidelines and Communications / Wellington City Council Corporate Identity Standards and Guidelines, a 3-year project (1997—2000)

Exhibition / Peopling of New Zealand exhibition for Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand

Brand Identity and Communications / Wools of New Zealand (1993—2000); Creative New Zealand (1995—2002); Victoria University of Wellington (1993—2001): establish brand identity across all communications employing typography and documentary photography

 


Photograph: Catherine Griffiths, 2013

 

00 the designer & typographer


Catherine Griffiths

b. 1966

An independent designer and typographer, I work from Auckland, and intermittently from Paris. I studied Visual Communication Design at the School of Design, Wellington Polytechnic, New Zealand (1984–1986), spent three years as a designer in London, then opened my own in studio in 1995. My work is a mix of visual communication design, self-published artist books, typography in public spaces, architecture and the landscape, and writing on design. In 2009, I co-organised (with Italy-based Simone Wolf) TypeSHED11, a one-off international typography symposium held in New Zealand.


telephone or write to me

+64 27 664 6132
studio@catherinegriffiths.co.nz


current

memento :: motif 2012, Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo Alzheimer, Parque Cultural de Valparaíso, Chile, 23 August — 23 September

The Trestle Leg Series, 2012, Auckland Harbour Bridge, commissioned by Boffa Miskell / NZTA

Club de Conversation Keyhole Series, 2012, made by Dilana

Sound Tracks, 2011, The Dowse Art Museum, NZ

in progress

Fifth Movement, the third in the vowels series, will soon appear photographed, on my website. A private commission, with Athfield Architects

A new book by photographer Hanne Johnsen, with interviews and 12 essays, has just been published by Gyldendal, Norway


further reading / listening

Life in Italics by Helen Walters, Print

Typeradio Book reading and interview, 2005


Website design and build by Catherine Griffiths; Typefaces: Dala Floda in Bold, Black, and Fat, by Paul Barnes, for the main navigation; with two weights of Verlag by Hoefler & Frere-Jones for the logo; and Courier New by Howard Kettler, 1955, as the backdrop to all.


 


 

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