Industry-ready design graduates put bold ideas on the national stage
In Brief:
- Bachelor of Design and Contemporary Art graduates – Marina Fepulea’i, Hein Khant Lin and Grace Twigley – are finalists in the 2026 Best Design Awards, earning national recognition for industry-ready design.
- The graduates’ success highlights the quality, creativity and social impact of capstone projects developed with support from their design lecturers.
Three recent Bachelor of Design and Contemporary Art graduates have earned national recognition in graphic design, app development and product design after being named finalists in the prestigious 2026 Best Design Awards.
Marina Fepulea’i, Hein Khant Lin and Grace Twigley have each been recognised for three very different capstone projects – from reimagining Shakespeare through newspaper design, to connecting teenagers with native birds, and creating a culturally grounded Māori food brand.
Their success highlights the range of creative and socially focused work being developed by our ākonga ‘learners’ in the School of Creative Industries.
The Best Design Awards, run annually by the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ), celebrate excellence across graphic, spatial, product, interactive and motion design. The Awards provide a launchpad into the professional design industry for young graduates.
Grace Twigley and family.
Grace Twigley, who was also a Best Design Awards finalist in 2025, has two projects shortlisted in the Graphic Design category: The Verona Herald and Romeo & Juliet Publication.
Her final-year project The Verona Herald uses contemporary newspaper design to explore the deeper, often unseen layers of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
“The design reimagines and transposes Shakespeare’s themes and the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet through the use of contemporary newspaper typologies,” says Grace.
For her Romeo & Juliet Publication, Grace offers a fresh, comprehensive perspective on a beloved story that everyone knows.
“I proposed exploring how these literary systems might provide key frameworks for visualising variables and data in information graphics and publication design.
Hein Khant Lin’s mobile app RERE a finalist in the Social Good category.
Hein Khant Lin (pictured right) wanted to reconnect young people with Aotearoa New Zealand’s native birdlife through his mobile app concept RERE, which is a finalist in the Social Good category.
“RERE combines birdwatching with conservation and makes it engaging to a teenage audience,” Hein says.
The app uses social interaction and digital engagement to encourage teenagers to get outdoors, discover native birds and share what they find.
“Research drove the project from the start. Competitor analysis revealed a clear gap in the market for a youth-native conservation app.”
The result is a design concept that brings together technology, social engagement and conservation, demonstrating how contemporary design can be used to address real-world challenges.
Marina Fepulea’i is a finalist in the Toitanga category for Inanahi, a Māori food brand concept designed to reconnect people with traditional kai Māori. It includes a short film showcasing the gathering of watercress, preparing ingredients, boiling, and plating to shift the focus back to the relational origins of kai (food) and whānau (family)
Ms Fepulea’i identified an opportunity for a food brand that reflects Māori heritage and culture while fitting into the realities of everyday life.
Marina Fepulea’i’s Māori food brand concept Inanahi.
“Inanahi is a culturally grounded concept project dedicated to bringing traditional kai Māori into everyday life,” she says.
Its purpose is to reconnect people with whakapapa, whenua and memory through food that is nutritious, accessible and culturally meaningful.
Marina drew on values including whakawhanaungatanga, manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga throughout the design process.
Marina’s design project included a short film showcasing making a boil-up.
“The design should serve the community and whenua first,” she says.
The graduates were mentored by lecturers Jonty Valentine, Design Discipline Lead, Dr Cris De Groot and Associate Professor Leon Tan.
Jonty says having three recent graduates recognised by the Best Design Awards is a significant achievement and reflects the diversity of work being produced within the programme.
“Being finalists in the Best Awards gives us great design-industry recognition for what we already knew were very impressive final-semester capstone projects,” he says.
“They also reflect the wide range of design discipline outputs that our students are engaging with, including graphic design, app development and documentary video.”
The finalists will find out whether they have won their respective categories at the Best Design Awards ceremony at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre on 9 October.
