Hall of Fame

Film

Annie Collins

Annie Collins studied at the Wellington School of Design,  and went into film editing under the guidance of filmmaker Pat Cox, where she grew over the past four decades into one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed film editors.

Photography

Anne Noble

Anne Noble is one of New Zealand’s most recognised and respected contemporary photographers, with a career spanning four decades over which time she has produced landscape, portrait and documentary photography, installations, and moving imagery.

Music

Jon Toogood

As Shihad’s high profile founding frontman and leader of The Adults rock supergroup, Jon Toogood has spent 30 years at the forefront of Aotearoa’s music scene, writing, singing, performing, mentoring, managing, directing, producing, DJ-ing, programming and promoting.

Art

Gordon Tovey

Gordon was one of the most influential people in the history of New Zealand education, and lead a revolution in the teaching of art and craft in schools in New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Fashion

Kate Sylvester

Kate Sylvester was a student at Wellington Polytechnic between 1985-86. Kate is one of New Zealand’s most commercially successful and respected fashion designers.

Fashion

Collette Dinnigan

Collette Dinnigan is a global fashion phenomenon. The Australia-based fashion designer studied fashion design at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design.

Industrial

Danny Coster

During a visit to the United States in 1993, Danny showed his portfolio to studios in New York and California and began working for Apple Computers. Since then, his contributions to Apple's industrial design team have been recognised by numerous international awards.

Design

Arthur Riley

In 2016 the College celebrated the 130 year heritage of the Wellington School of Design and honoured its founding director Arthur Dewhurst Riley (1860-1929).

Textiles

Avis Higgs

After graduating Avis soon became the head designer for Silk and Textile Printers in Sydney, a firm famed for its avant garde approach to textiles. With her inspired and refreshing ideas Avis quickly earned a reputation as one of Australasia's most innovative textile designers.

Design

Bill Toomath

Bill Toomath headed the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design for ten years (1979-1989), and was a key player in the development of modernist architecture in New Zealand for over five decades.

Graphic

Donna Cross & Scott Kennedy

Donna Cross and Scott Kennedy have shaped how Wellingtonians see themselves.

Art

E. Mervyn Taylor

Mervyn dedicated his life to being both an artist and a communicator; bringing art close to people. He was of a generation that wanted to cast off colonialism and discover a way to see the world and interpret its character from a South Pacific perspective.

Music

Fane Flaws

Fane Flaws has spent the last 30 years working in multiple media art forms. He has worked as a musician, songwriter, painter and graphic designer, and has directed music videos, short films and TVCs, as well as writing and publishing children’s literature.

Art

Gordon Walters

Gordon’s iconic, and at times controversial, contribution to New Zealand culture is largely due to his synthesis of Māori and European symbols through geometric abstraction.

Graphic

Grant Alexander

Grant Alexander graduated from Wellington Polytechnic in 1969 with a diploma in graphic design and has since become a stalwart of the New Zealand design industry.

Industrial

Grant Davidson

During his time studying industrial design at Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, Grant Davidson was introduced to Philips, the largest and most prestigious electronics company in Holland and a global corporation of significance.

Design

Grenville Main

Grenville Main has made a significant contribution to the design profession and to design in general in New Zealand.

Design

Gus Hunter

Gus has been enormously successful in carving out a career for himself in the film industry driven by his talent and passion. His work has gained international recognition, helped the New Zealand economy, and he has been a great role model for those inspired by his work.

Art

Guy Ngan

Guy Ngan is described as one of New Zealand’s most prolific artists, with many large-scale public artworks located throughout the country.

Photography

Jane Ussher

Joining the New Zealand Listener as chief photographer in 1977, Jane went on to photograph almost every major figure and documented the changing political and cultural landscape of New Zealand over the following thirty years.

John Drawbridge

John's career spanned more than 50 years and his work attracted international recognition, while informing the reception of Modernism in New Zealand, and of New Zealand art overseas.

Design

Joseph Churchward

Joseph Churchward (1932-2013) was one of the world’s most productive typesetters in his lifetime, having handcrafted more than 600 original typefaces.

Art

Judy Darragh

Judy Darragh’s multi-disciplined and multi-media works have transformed found, recycled, industrial, and domestic materials into new contexts and new meanings. In the process she has transported the imaginations of many New Zealanders and provided them with a new way of seeing.

Art

Julia Morison

Julia Morison has had a stellar career spanning more than three decades with extensive exhibitions throughout New Zealand and internationally.

Fashion

Kate Hawley

Kate Hawley’s feature film credits include Pacific Rim and The Hobbit, along with numerous other costume and set design credits ranging across film, television, theatre and opera in Europe, the US and Australasia.

Art

Kura Te Waru Rewiri

Kura Te Waru Rewiri is one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most celebrated Māori women artists.

Art

Len Lye

Len Lye (1901-1980) was a pioneer of kinetic sculpture and experimental filmmaking and one of New Zealand’s most renowned modernist artists.

Art

Manos Nathan

Graduating from the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design in 1970, Manos Nathan has been at the forefront of the development of the Māori ceramic movement in Aotearoa New Zealand since the mid 1980s.

Design

Mark Cleverley

Mark Cleverley has had a distinguished and varied design career, spanning architecture, graphic design, ceramics, packaging and postage stamps.

Industrial

Mark Elmore

Today Mark is the head of industrial design at Fisher & Paykel, a multi-award winning design-led company that produces user-centred products for people around the world.

Industrial

Mark Pennington

Mark Pennington is design director and consultant for Formway Design, a Petone business respected as a major global player in the design of inspirational, leading edge high performance office seating and furniture.

Design

Matt Holmes

Matt has moved from creating some of Nike’s most iconic and successful shoes to directing Creative Strategy for Nikes 100+ footwear designers.

Art

Maud Sherwood

Maud Kimbell's family moved to Wellington in the early 1890s and it was then that Maud’s long association with the Wellington Technical School began.

Music

Paul Dyne

Paul Dyne is one of New Zealand’s most experienced and highly regarded jazz musicians and teachers.

Fashion

Rebecca Taylor

Rebecca Taylor is one of the best known New Zealand designers living abroad. Today there are 51 Rebecca Taylor stores worldwide, 40 of them in Japan alone.

Photography

Robin Hammond

Robin Hammond has produced an outstanding concentration of revelatory documentary photography.

Design

Sharon Murdoch

In a short space of time Sharon Murdoch has become a professional cartoonist and in so doing become a trailblazer for other women interested in creating a role in political cartooning.

Design

Sir Richard Taylor

Sir Richard Taylor is famed for his work alongside Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A multiple Oscar winner, Richard studied at the Wellington School of Design from 1982 to 1984, where he tended to ‘alter the brief to suit his skills’.

Music

Warren Maxwell

Warren Maxwell has made a significant contribution to music both in New Zealand and internationally as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and a driving force behind many musical projects.