Select an issue:
Interact
8 Bring me your poorest (they’re the most creative)
Now
19 Leading light
A Kiwi inventor is wowing Tokyo kids—and winning awards
20 Emerging talent: Mardo El-Noor
Former dentist turned DJ turned graphic designer, Mardo El-Noor is Idealog’s pick for future greatness
22 Vin de Te Teko
An abandoned GE containment building is put to new use—and our wine industry has reason to be grateful
24 24-hour party person
How to turn sex, drugs and rock’n’roll into peace, love and a tidy campsite
26 Small screen, big thinking
TV fans unite: another take on IPTV. Plus ‘Follow this sheep’, ‘Deal me in’, and ‘Running on water’.
28 Liddell treasures
Chris Liddell, Microsoft CFO, wants New Zealand to embrace its creative gene (for profit only, of course)
Features
32 Monster baby
Forty million killer sheep and four million terrified Kiwis—one simple idea has transformed the life and career of Jonathan King, director of schlock-horror film Black Sheep. Now King is courting Hollywood and turning down scripts world-wide. Just don’t ask if he’s the next Peter Jackson. By Deborah Hill Cone
40 Immigration nation
They speak funny. They look different. They don’t behave like us. Excellent! New Zealand needs immigrants more than ever. Simon Young rebuts the anti-immigrant shift
48 Lightning strikes
Is it religion? Is it advertising? Is it, what? Kiwi company Exile Films is poised to perplex viewers world-wide with the launch of “Rodney the Air Healer”—a brand and advertising campaign for MTV. Rodney is a postmodern puzzling farce, says Catherine Smith, but maybe the real question is how did a Kiwi firm win the business?
54 The numbers are up
That ‘Big Idea’ can take half a lifetime to arrive, so it deserves a bit of fanfare when it does. Hamish Edwards and Rod Drury planned to launch Xero, a breakthrough software accounting system, five years ago. Then they waited. Now, reports Gena Tuffery, their number is up
60 Seeking trouble
What’s behind the $6 million redevelopment of Lower Hutt’s Dowse gallery? A vision for a creative city, reports Mary Parker
66 Cooking, creativity and chaos
What’s the common thread between Crazy Frog, French cuisine and the British racing industry? David Walker describes some new ingredients in the economic soup
Workshop
86 General Genii
The intermittently-published architectural journal, Interstices—which has chalked up seven issues in 17 years—won’t be on most summer reading lists. Bursting with deeply intellectual material, it’s not for the faint-headed
86 Get rich, stay rich
I read a lot of business books. Three in a good week (or a very dull one). Every so often I read one that makes my palms sweat … Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence; Gonzo Marketing by Christopher Locke and John Grant’s After Image and New Marketing Manifesto all come to mind—I can trace shifts in my thinking to each of them
87 The awkward question about art
Art isn’t easily measured, but it can pack a mighty wallop
88 The risk of avoiding risk
There’s no safety in being ordinary while others push the boundaries
89 TV times
Will Xbox usher in a golden age of television?
90 Xiamen style
New Zealand’s next big opportunity is on display—in China
92 How to ... blaze your blog
Have something to say? Here’s how to get it read
95 Protecting the family jewels
DRM isn’t dead yet, so enjoy it while you can
97 What I've learned about ... beating fear
If you can’t beat it, improvise, says improv expert Wade Jackson
98 Bigger than 'Braindead'
We’re good at Hollywood blockbusters. But who watches our own films?
Plus
73 Creative showcase
Multichannel marketing | As the media world fragments into a zillion niches—from obscure magazines to interactive TV—marketers face a challenge: how to choose the right medium for the right message? We showcase four examples of how the multichannel world is creating new and effective ways to reach your customers
