Silver Print and Published Media Design · 2025
Te Po And Te Ao Marama Special Ed.21
by Kyra Clarke
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Print and Published Media Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 69,075
- Verification code 3DC2A7154A · Verify this award
About Te Po And Te Ao Marama Special Ed.21
Threaded Ed.21 is conceptually underpinned by a Te Ao Maori viewpoint with cultural and collaborative frameworks that adhere to tikanga Maori (Maori customary practices) and Matauranga Maori Kawa (Maori knowledge and protocol). The structure and navigational system of Threaded Ed. 21 is based on the Waiata song Ko te Pu and incorporates visual, augmented, and sonic design queues to communicate the multi layered beginning story.
Te Po And Te Ao Marama Special Ed.21 by Kyra Clarke emerges from a rich tradition of editorial design that honors indigenous visual languages while embracing contemporary typographic sophistication. The publication's cover demonstrates remarkable chromatic sensitivity, deploying an earth-toned palette that moves from warm ochre through verdant greens, suggesting connections to natural landscapes and traditional pigment sources. The geometric patterning draws upon diamond and rhombus forms found across numerous indigenous artistic traditions, where such shapes often carry cosmological significance related to concepts of interconnection, celestial navigation, and the weaving together of temporal and spiritual realms. The metallic typography introduces an element of preciousness and ceremony, its warm copper tonality harmonizing with the earthen ground while establishing hierarchical prominence through material contrast. Technical execution reveals careful attention to registration and layering, with the overlapping diamond forms creating subtle transparency effects that reward close examination. The designer appears to engage with questions of cultural continuity and contemporary expression, finding formal solutions that feel simultaneously rooted and forward-looking. The visible interior pages hint at a sustained visual program carried throughout the publication, suggesting editorial coherence and intentional sequencing. As a special edition, this work invites consideration of how print objects function as cultural artifacts, vessels for knowledge transmission that engage multiple senses through their material presence. What stories of origin and becoming might unfold within these pages, and how does the cover's visual language prepare readers for the journey within?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Threaded Ed.21 is conceptually underpinned by a Te Ao Maori viewpoint with cultural and collaborative frameworks that adhere to tikanga Maori (Maori customary practices) and matauranga Maori kawa (Maori knowledge and protocol).
The structure and navigational system of Threaded Ed. 21 is based on the waiata (song) ‘Ko te Pu’ and incorporates visual, augmented, and sonic design queues to communicate the multi-layered beginning story.
Visual motif and colour are signifiers for the metamorphosis of time and space, of the realm of Te Kore (darkness) – which operates as the Z-fold cover and binds Te Po (the night realms) and Te Ao Marama (coming into the light), connecting them metaphorically and physically. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Size: 210mm (w) x 270mm (h) x 20mm (d)
150 page publication
Embellishments
Z-Fold Cover: Foil, PMS 876
Cover: PMS 640, PMS 376
Section 1: PMS 640, PMS 376
Paper Stock
Z-Fold Cover: Sirio Color Range 350gsm (x7 different colours)
Cover: Freelife Cento Extra White 350gsm
Section 1: Arena White Rough 140gsm
Section 2: Arena Natural Smooth 140gsm
Section 3: Arena Natural Bulk 140gsm
Section 4: Arena White Smooth 140gsm
Section 5: Arena Natural Rough 140gsm - Tags
- Te Ao Maori, Publication, Augmented Reality
- Production Technology
- Sonic artistry and augmented reality animated vignettes activate motifs, to incorporate the breath of life into the printed page. Combining the visual and linguistic, the spatial and temporal, sound, and virtual reality to graphically symbolize: the realm between being and non-being.
- Design Challenge
- The special issue Threaded Edition 21 Te Po and Te Ao Marama was conceived thematically, graphically, and structurally in acknowledgment of Te Ao Maori (Maori world view) and its contemporary applications in publication design. Visual and textual signifiers, coupled with AR sonic experiences – through moving image and oral resonance were used to synthetize, communicate and disseminate specific Māori cultural and spiritual concepts. Each interview showcased in Threaded magazine is strongly premised on the notion of speculation and reflection, examining unique methods that arise from personal and collaborative meaning-making processes through the sharing of criticalities about practice. Threaded magazine is a practitioner-focused international design publication, published in Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Project Duration
- Project started: January 10 2021
Project completed/launched in Auckland / New Zealand: May 25 2022 - Operation Flow
- QR codes embedded throughout the publication unlock visual and sonic artistry, bringing its motifs to life through augmented reality. This seamlessly adds an immersive layer of engagement and depth to the printed experience.
- Research
- A fundamental part of Threaded magazine’s methodology is underpinned by Kaupapa Maori values, principles and philosophies. It’s a holistic approach that considers synergies and ways of working that draw from ontological and epistemological positions. Guidance from elders, and Maori and non-Maori partnerships aim to disseminate local and international profiles, and give perspectives on practice and promote a convergence of cultures and discourse.
- Inspiration
- Initial thematic concepts grew out of responses to the physical, emotional and spiritual impacts of Covid-19. Invited practitioners were asked to respond and reflect on how they creatively navigated and overcame the challenges of social separation and cultural disconnection.
In response to this, we visually linked ideas of connection (through Te Ao Marama (light)) and utilised Te Po (the night realms) to celebrate the growth and development that came from periods of isolation and reflection.