The New Cool
Respect - Ambition - Success
Exhibition Resources
The New Cool Website
Visit The New Cool website for further information about the featured companies and useful links that may assist you in business, whether you're starting out or already established. It includes links for advice, courses and funding information for Government agencies, business memberships and networks, specialist funding, legal issues, marketing, youth enterprise, eceonmic development agencies and incubator programmes.
Websites and Information about the 12 companies featured in The New Cool Exhibition
Dawn Raid Entertainment
Aotearoa's leading hip hop company - they also operate a screen printing business, design graphics and streetwear, and manage artists & events!
Disruptiv
Disruptiv is Aotearoa's first ever business specialising in graffiti art services. It was the brainchild of two freelance professional graffiti artists, Elliot "Askew" O'Donnell of Auckland, and Jonny "4Higher" of Christchurch, who joined forces in 2001.
First Floor Publishing
While First Floor Publishing was established in 2003, the seed for the company was planted in 1997 with the launch of a free black and white skateboarding magazine, called Manual. Seeing a gap in the market, they also launched Spoke, a free mountain biking magazine and trialed Staple, a contemporary Kiwi culture magazine.
Huffer Clothing Research & Development
The foundations of the Huffer brand were ultimately formed through years of first-hand experience (and arduous research!) by two friends growing up on Aotearoa's skateparks,surburban streets, and ski fields. Huffer was founded in 1997 and is now a leading outdoor street style clothing label.
Illicit Streetwear
Illicit is a successful streetwear label that has continuously diversified it's range and reinvented itself over its life time. Their most recent expansion has been Illicit H.Q., a retail complex encompassing Illicit Clothing, a tattooing and piercing studio, the Misery Boutique, and a gallery for art with an edge - the Cross Street Orphanage Gallery.
Inject Design
Creative director Harry A'Court established Inject Design in 2002. Having graduated from design school, he quickly recognised a prohibitive gap in the market for young designer and Inject Design was set up to provide an arena where young designers are allowed creative expression, within a supportive environment without being typecast into inferior roles by big design companies.
Insidious Fix
Designers Kylee Davis and Jason Crawford launched Insidious FIX in 1995, having won the esteemed Benson and Hedges Fashion Awards Supreme Award. 10 years on, FIX is a much-loved brand, renowned for designing progressive, unique and innovative knit-wear which is proudly 100% New Zealand made.
LOOP Aot(ear)oa Recordings
LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa was formed in mid-2001, as an outlet for the fresh urban sounds of Aotearoa New Zealand. LOOP began life as a magazine with a CD of NZ music and culture clips attached. The CD proved so popular that the Wellington-based independent record label was formed, and has now released over 30 albums and has distribution in British, European, American and Australian markets!
Metia Interactive
As a teenager, Maru Nihoniho spent her formative years hanging out in spacie parlours playing video games. Having completed a Diploma in Multimedia, she transformed her passion for gaming into a business opportunity, launching Metia Interactive in 2003. Metia now design and create game art assets, interactive games for CD-Rom and creative solutions for 3D art and animation.
Misery
Tanya Thompson began her career as a street artist. Her dark characters earned her the nickname Misery. She began designing Misery t-shirts for Illicit in 2001, and in 2002 established Misery Ltd as an independent label. In 2004 she opened her own Misery Boutique next door to ILLICIT HQ on Auckland's K ' Road.
Sidhe Interactive
In 1997 Mario Wynands, Tyrone McAuley and Stuart Middleton had completed uni and were working in the 'real world'. By night however, they were designing their own video games that would later form the basis of Sidhe Interactive, New Zealand's leading game development studio. After Sidhe's breakthrough in 1999 with games giant Sony, their part-time passion, became a 'real job'!
Sticky Pictures
After working as a successful director and producer in the UK, Mark Albiston and his partner, lawyer Amy Bardsley returned to Wellington in 2000. Wanting to make innovative television, they set up Sticky Pictures Ltd, and pitched The Living Room, a series celebrating home-grown creative culture, to NZ On Air and TV3. The Living Room has won numerous awards and is now into its third series, and Sticky Pictures' TV programmes have been broadcast free to air in New Zealand and in more than 60 other countries around the world!