Smart technology is rapidly changing the way we interact with the world through products. The trend for decades now has been towards ever smaller, better designed technology that is more focused on user experience and lifestyle. Most designs are now available in multiple colors or finishes, offer different features between models or are customizable to a customers needs. Smart Product Design looks at the latest innovations in smart home, health and wellbeing, sports and fitness, business, travel and more. Featuring almost 100 products with details and concept sketches as well as interviews with some of todays leading designers on their inspiration, concept design and philosophy, and how they balance aesthetics with functionality.

Bind: hardback

Dimensions: 220 x 265 x 25 mm

Alexander Lebedev is best known as the Russian businessman and public figure who bought the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers in the UK. A former KGB intelligence officer in the USSR’s London Embassy, his book covers the years from his birth in 1959 to 2016. Written in a wry and humorous manner, the book is mainly a memoir of Lebedev’s own hair-raising experiences as someone who aspires to show that an ‘honest banker’ is not an oxymoron. There is the thread of a whodunnit as his attempts at constructive and charitable business enterprises are systematically torpedoed by a person or persons unknown. He describes the dirty tricks used against him and the attempt to assassinate him and details how the Russian and international political and business elite live. Lebedev openly tells of his relations with leading politicians, businessmen and cultural figures in Russia and abroad, and investigates corruption scandals, dodgy multi-billion-dollar deals and contract killings. A comical episode on how he faced five years of imprisonment for a minor fracas during a television talk show, and how world show business stars (Elton John, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, John Malkovich, Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry) rallied to his defence. He describes in detail how and why he became involved with two prominent newspapers. Lebedev reveals his access to inside sources of information, with policemen and secret policemen slipping him memoirs and transcripts of episodes which would otherwise have remained unknown. It is ultimately a portrait of a political system which ensures that genuine attempts to improve the fortunes of the country and its citizens are built on sand. Author Alexander Lebedev is a Russian banker, philanthropist and public figure. A member of the KGB’s Foreign Intelligence Service, he worked in the USSR Embassy in London in the 1980s. Since 1992 he has been a businessman, founder and beneficial owner of financial & industrial group National Reserve Corporation, including National Reserve Bank, he has property assets throughout Europe and enterprises in aviation, agriculture, engineering, catering and beyond. He is also the proprietor of UK newspapers The Independent and the Evening Standard, London Live TV channel, and is shareholder and investor of investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Russia. He also has a Ph.D in Economics.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 156 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 26-07-2019

Upstart! showcases an exciting range of visual identities for start-ups and young businesses. Upstart! presents fresh branding ideas for entrepreneurs and designers. To stand out in a land of consumerist plenty, the new generation of small business entrepreneurs has learned to set high design standards. Poised between playfulness and professionalism, their holistic visual identity concepts become an integral part of their core business. From hemp farmers to local box clubs to eyelash extension services, fresh startups and spin-offs from all sorts of sectors present themselves as inventively and stylesavvily as ever before. Communicating through vivid visual languages that unfold across media applications, they involve the customer in authentic styles and stories. Upstart! explores the contemporary startup scene’s manifold ventures. With a focus on creativity and transformational branding ideas, the compilation covers classic stationery designs, innovative merchandise, interior concepts, and fresh digital applications that have been skillfully orchestrated to leverage business.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 240 x 280 mm

Publication Date: 12-10-2018

Designers and students structure their portfolios following their instincts and according to their own professional development. A portfolio principally contains print designs, which are used to plan, organise and document the designer’s personal experience, work samples and skills. These selections are collective representations, through which designers seek to highlight their best accomplishments for the purposes of appreciation and promotion. This is precisely the object of this unique book: to present a selection of samples of the best works by young designers from all over the world. Fresh, inventive and full of original and ground-breaking ideas that use new materials and experimental techniques, Portfolio Design aims to offer not only visual delights but also invaluable references and solutions for those who are looking for inspiration in producing an eye-catching portfolio of their own.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 210 x 285 mm

Publication Date: 22-10-2018

Sue Bradford is half American and sixth generation Kiwi on her father’s side -- her European missionary genes date from 1820s Northland. Despite her grassroots New Zild twang, she was raised in Auckland by middle class, bohemian intellectuals and survived a childhood made difficult by her brilliant but domineering father. Fast forward through the tumultuous Vietnam War protest era, the 1981 Springbok Tour and 16 years in the invisible community sector where she became, with husband Bill, a loud voice and a highly effective organiser for society’s marginalised, and Sue suddenly and unexpectedly found herself in Parliament. From December 1999, as a hardworking, and much admired Green MP she managed a hefty portfolio and succeeded in getting three member’s bills into legislation, including her contentious bill to amend section 59 of the Crimes Act. Her mainstream political career ended, abruptly and disappointingly, five months after she lost the May 2009 Green Party co-leadership contest. Subsequently she achieved a PhD and transformed herself into Dr Sue Bradford -- activist and academic. Her readable thesis on the need for a major left wing think tank in Aotearoa has been downloaded in full almost 3,000 times and Economic and Social Research Aotearoa (ESRA), the infant left think tank she set up as a result, is growing lustily. Sue Bradford is still evolving but in terms of what matters most, her core social justice principles, she remains constant. -----------------Quotes from Review by Bronwyn Elsmore, Flaxroots Productions - "Jenny Chamberlain’s writing is fluent, polished, and definitely not dry to read.... It needed all those pages to give a full appreciation. Having read them, it leaves me wondering how one woman has fitted so much into her life. My respects to both the subject and the author".

Bind: paperback

Pages: 400

Dimensions: 170 x 240 x 25 mm

Publication Date: 03-07-2017

The Working Woman’s Handbook is a detailed, practical guide that covers the spectrum of establishing and growing a self-made career: from choosing a path and finding clarity, to obtaining clients and setting up a workspace. Author Phoebe Lovatt offers tips for negotiating and setting rates, improving creative skills, and networking. Finally, she coaches readers on how to look after themselves through nutrition, exercise, and finding a balance between work and play. Along the way, she includes words of wisdom from other successful women such as Teen Vogue editor Elaine Welteroth, musician Neneh Cherry, and WAH Nails founder Sharmadean Reid; worksheets and goal-setting outlines; and specific, helpful “how-to” sections. This feisty, philosophical, and feminist-leaning book will help young women find happiness and professional fulfillment by following their dreams—and Phoebe’s hard-won advice.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 176

Dimensions: 130 x 190 mm

Publication Date: 04-09-2017

‘New China Eyewitness’ is the fascinating account of the 1956 visit to the People’s Republic of China by a group of prominent New Zealanders – including Roger Duff, James Bertram, Evelyn Page, Angus Ross and Ormond Wilson – and of how Canterbury Museum came to acquire the largest collection of Chinese art in New Zealand. At the centre of the book is the eloquent diary kept by Canterbury Museum director Dr Roger Duff, detailing his efforts to bring to Christchurch the collection of antiquities gifted to the museum by long-time China resident, New Zealander Rewi Alley. Through Alley’s contacts with premier Zhou Enlai and Duff’s diplomatic skills they obtained the sanction of the Chinese government to circumvent its own export ban on antiquities and permit the gifting of seven crates of treasures to Christchurch. These objects were the basis for the museum’s Hall of Oriental Arts and their arrival led to a collections policy dedicated to Chinese art. Beautifully written and illustrated, ‘New China Eyewitness’ offers a rare glimpse of foreigners’ views of China during a period of rapid social, political and cultural change, and at a time of unusual political and cultural tolerance.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 176

Dimensions: 173 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 07-12-2017

From election results to catastrophes to wars to scientific discoveries: the stream of data we are exposed to daily becomes ever more complicated. Infographics help make sense of it, transforming difficult to grasp facts and figures into accessible visualizations. Print media are increasingly making successful use of them. Visual Journalism reveals the masters of this discipline and their finest works. The portraits of studios and individuals within this compendium illustrate how the world of infographics continues to evolve as it informs data and graphic trends. A visual revolution showcases the myriad possibilities of non-verbal communication.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 245 x 330 mm

Publication Date: 10-11-2017

New Branding and Design for New Businesses Creative outsiders and first-time founders are redefining what used to be called corporate design in a more holistic and playful way. A breath of fresh air from a new breed. Striking corporate design is a must-have for any new business. For the outsiders and first-timers entering the market, corporate design is not an add-on, it is part of the soul of the business itself. And it demands fresh ideas unfettered by standard approaches. First Things First! presents real examples from shop owners and mechanics, dentists and organic farmers —businesses discovering corporate design for the first time —as well as from traditionally creative companies like marketing agencies or restaurants, and hotels. With profiles and photographs it explores their novel approaches to corporate design.

Bind: hardback

Those of you who want financial freedom and/or have a need to create a legacy to leave a secure money machine behind for your children, need to read this book. Herein you will learn the tools needed to invest in the commercial property sector, be it a building of your own or a share in one. No longer is this investment vehicle an exclusive domain for the rich, many mums and dad’s are learning how to play and making substantial gains to secure their future. “This is a well-written and interesting close view of investing in the Commercial Sector with some really good advice for a beginner and some good guidance to those people already involved with investing in property. I learned a lot and in the main it is a straightforward, helpful manuscript.” Rae McGregor – Editor

Bind: paperback

Dimensions: 155 x 234 x 15 mm

Publication Date: 10-08-2018