Wellington Design Trip

On Monday 20 May, a group of AS and A Level Design and Technology students travelled to Wellington on a day trip, accompanied by Mr Hey and Mr Summerville.

They caught an early flight and first visited the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. There they saw Peter Jackson’s exhibition called ‘The Scale of Our War’. This focused on the Gallipoli campaign and one of the key features of the exhibit were the six giant models of various soldiers and nurses. These larger than life figurines were visually stunning, giving the students lots of inspiration for their own models and projects, but also showed some world-class artistry that taught them a variety of techniques they could adopt in their own work. Smaller dioramas and displays were just as useful when it came to thinking up modelling techniques appropriate for a solo project.

The second stop of the trip was the famous Weta Workshop. The students experienced two full-length tours, both more creative in tone than the war exhibition. The first tour around the main workshop space was led by a professional guide, which meant the students picked up lots of new knowledge about creative industries and modern modelling techniques. There was also a lot of detail regarding materials and manufacturing techniques which helped the students to expand on some of the pre-existing knowledge they had bought with them.

Interestingly, the artists at Weta Workshop did not always rely on expensive machinery or materials. There were many low-cost tricks they passed onto the tour group, including the use of aluminium tinfoil and the re-purposing of old assorted modelling kits. It was also exciting to be shown so many iconic props and costume pieces.

The day was an informative and enjoyable one which gave the students the opportunity to gather new ideas for their own models which are to be made in Term Three.