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Design is often at its most successful when it is invisible. When it guides a person through a space or enhances an experience without demanding attention. At GDM, we live by a simple but profound acronym: Good Design Matters. For us, design is the core of our manufacturing DNA and the reason we have remained as a fixture of the Whanganui landscape since 1978.

My own journey to Whanganui was sparked by a creative intersection. In 2018, while living in Wellington, I was awarded the Emerging Practitioner in Clay Award through Whanganui’s Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics. That residency opened a door to a vibrant, dedicated community, where character is visibly defined by its creatives. My partner Jamie and I saw an opportunity to belong to a place that didn’t just house design but celebrated it as a way of life.

Today, as Senior Designer at GDM, I work within a company that understands the value of local roots. Now owned by the Bartley Group, an intergenerational family-owned company, GDM has seen a significant new investment in machinery and capability at our Whanganui facilities. This commitment ensures that, while we have grown to include international supplementary manufacturing in places like China, our design and engineering heart remains firmly here. We 24 rely on the immense skill and commitment of our local labour base to champion design-led manufacturing in an era where quality is often sacrificed for quick fixes.

My background across different sectors, from theatre to public space design, constantly informs my work. In live theatre, you use line and shape to guide an audience’s flow. Likewise, at GDM, we apply those same principles to direct how a person moves through a retail space or interacts with a display. My work with ceramics also plays a vital role as it allows me to bring sculptural elements into industrial design, challenging the trap of choosing purely “safe” functional solutions over creative excellence.

A recent highlight that perfectly captures this philosophy was our involvement in Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment. We designed the display and fixture systems for the gallery’s gift shop and exhibition tables. It was a project that demanded products with high functionality and durability that complemented the stunning architecture of the new wing. On a personal level, this project came full circle for me: I am now one of the artists represented on the very shelving I designed, with ceramics crafted by Jamie and myself, under our PEGLEG makers’ mark, available in the gallery shop.

Being New Zealand’s only UNESCO City of Design provides a global stage for what we do. It connects GDM with a network of the world’s most renowned creative cities, opening doors for international collaboration and learning. But more than that, the title carries a weight of responsibility. It inspires us to uphold the principles of design-led manufacturing and to prove that where you are from matters. In Whanganui, our contribution is greater than our latest product – it is a lasting legacy of craft and innovation.

Discover more about making good design responsive, intuitive and innovative: gdmretail.com

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