Blogs

Well 2011 disappeared in a haze of deadlines, meetings, general stress and of course Deflux Day.

Deflux Day was a wet affair, with much golf-related action, a trip down memory lane to the sacred halls of Time Out, breakfast at the new Drexels - when I pointed out the toothpick holder from Hereford St with excitement I was met with a bemused "yeah so what" smile, proving not all of us miss the old days as much as perhaps I do! - bowling, Osaka, and soujourns to Pomeroy's and Cassels for some restorative ales.

Events are great things to work on, and Deflux have been lucky to work alongside some great people on some amazing experiences over the years (Southern Amp and Beervana spring to mind).

Post-quake Christchurch is of course an odd affair, so when we were approached by the newly established Team Event to work with them on a couple of festivals then we naturally jumped at the chance - it's just what Christchurch needs.

There's a good deal of excitement about QR codes at the moment. In fact we even designed a label for good friends the Yeastie Boys Digital IPA that is basically all QR codes, with 6 of them scannable taking you off into their virtual world.

The earthquakes that struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011 did more than destroy roads, houses and workplaces. The resultant rise in unemployment, shared living arrangements and ongoing aftershock stress were also some of the factors behind a 30% increase in demand for the services of the Christchurch Women’s Refuge.

People in Christchurch talk about the "new normality" and what I think they mean is how we all seem to have adapted to forget to need a whole lot of the things we previously orbited around - shops owned by friends, cafes, bars, parks, streets, the Arts Centre, Cathedral Square, for a while there surfing out front at New Brighton.

After a small sabbatical in the studio of Lumo Photography gazing down on our city from the heights of Cashmere, Deflux are now comfortably ensconced in an office at C4 Coffee's HQ2 at 278 Tuam Street. Feel free to stop by and say hello!

Team Red Bull snowboarder Jake Koia has just had a site facelift care of Deflux, with plenty more room for his Twitter feeds and a streamlined blog interface to share his journeys - of which there have been many in recent times with a winter in Canada just completed (and rumours of a winter in New Zealand still to be confirmed)....

When our good friends at the Yeastie Boys and 8 Wired (the latter with a Deflux designed website!) mentioned they needed a quick label for their Charity craft beer collaboration with Renaissance Brewing, how could we say no? The perfect antidote to the #bagofsuck that has happened in Queensland and Christchurch of late, by merely drinking this wonderful craft beer you're donating money to charities in each city.

Deflux enjoy the odd craft beer, truth be told. Over the last few years we've been very lucky to be able to work with a number of this country's craft brewers, boutique pubs, and the Brewer's Guild of New Zealand who organise the BrewNZ Beer Awards and the country's best beer featival, Beervana.

Last week we made it back into the building for a scant 2 hours to recover essentials and reminisce about the good old days - and that crazy morning prior to the quake when we were blissfully unaware that we were about to be rocked - and not in an awesome Bon Jovi way - for a second time.