Understanding Dawn Raids.
A co-design partnership in practice
Challenges
In 2024 I was approached by the Heritage and Content team at Manatū Taonga to commission a suite of illustration designs to support the promotion and delivery of a Dawn Raids educational online platform. A condensed time frame meant that the project schedule needed to be well planned and efficient, without compromising authenticity and quality. The final designs would feature on the Manatū Taonga website and needed to integrate seamlessly to the existing site design and structure.
Approach
Working with the Senior Pacific Historian and participating in the panel selection process, we selected our successful candidate, Samoan print-maker and artist Noelle Moa (Ula&herbrothers) for our creative collaboration. From first sketches to digital application, I worked closely with Noelle throughout the entire co-design process using online meetings for design and development workshops.
Leading the design and production of the digitisation process, it was crucial to preserve all of the unique artefacts created during the linocut printmaking process. To achieve this, I developed customised vector conversion settings, contributing to the ‘stamp like’ impression overall. The artworks then went through a thematic pairing process before being colourised in Figma and tested and reviewed as protoypes.
I led progress presentations for stakeholder and steering groups, ensuring clear project transparency and effective tracking from inception through to completion.
Outcomes
Together we successfully managed to achieve our project deliverables in under 6 weeks. This was due to efficient co-design engagement which included setting out clear roles and responsibilities from the beginning and providing consistent design and production support through the entire project.
The final designs weave through the multiple web pages on ‘Understanding Dawn Raids’. They act as visual markers to connect between content types whether it be audio and visual material, publications or resources. The colour palettes takes cue from various postage stamp collections across the decades.
These illustrations feature throughout the Understanding Dawn Raids hub on the Manatū Taonga website.
