The Curve Crusher

The Curve Crusher’ artwork and campaign was conceived in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, and n two weeks it raised $146,410 for Women’s Refuge New Zealand.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and a nationwide lockdown, an opportunity rose to collaborate with The Print Room to produce and sell merchandise to raise funds for Women’s Refuge NZ, an incredibly important organisation who support women and children experiencing family violence.

The concept itself - The Curve Crusher - was inspired by media coverage about how well New Zealand was doing in response to the pandemic, and how we might not just “flatten the curve”, but completely crushed it.

The nation-wide efforts were personified in Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, an incredible cool, calm and collected character who gave us scientific knowledge mixed with empathy, and most importantly, he entitled us to trust the system. I decided such a man deserved to be immortalised and celebrated as a kiwi icon of the time, so I coined him “The Curve Crusher” and designed this artwork to feature on tote bags, tees, and hoodies for people to buy and wear proudly.

This merchandise was printed and sold by The Print Room, who need a special mention at this point for their role in making the campaign happen and for doing the hard yards in printing and fulfilling thousands of orders. Thanks guys!

As creative ideas (combined with a bit of goodwill) sometimes do, the campaign went viral, and after three weeks we had sold nearly 10,000 items and raised $146,410 for Women’s Refuge New Zealand. We were thrilled to be able to help an organisation during difficult (unprecedented) times with such a meaningful sum of money.

Today, a sample of this merchandise lives at Te Papa museum in Wellington for future generations to admire.