Event recap
And that's a wrap!
On 20 October 2026, Auckland designers came together at the Akarana Event Centre for Creative Freedom Brunch. The brunch went down a treat, the view across the bay was spectacular, and we talked openly about what's going well, what's hard, and what more freedom could look like for each of us.
Kristy Campbell says forget the cringe
Kristy from Pink Pony Creative sat down with Rocketspark CEO, Grant Johnson, around the campfire and told the story of building her business, awkward bits and all. Her biggest piece of advice was to get yourself out on social media and stop caring whether it makes you cringe. She kicked off with a 100-day challenge, and her very first client came out of it. This went on to transform her business.
Kristy has also been future-proofing by opening her work up to clients overseas. To do that she’s gone location neutral, so you won’t find a mention of where she’s based anywhere. Even if international clients aren’t on your radar, it’s an idea worth borrowing, because dropping the local label opens you up to clients right across New Zealand.
Thank you, Kristy, for being so open with your story.
A massive thank you to our speakers
Every speaker brought something different to the day, and we’re so grateful for everything they passed on.
Our three panellists opened up about their own businesses, with hard-won advice and the boundaries they wish they’d put in place much earlier. Kimberley Torrie told us about the time she put hours of meetings into a prospective client, only to hear her advice had been so useful they didn’t need her services anymore. It led to a great conversation about how to protect your time and value before anyone has paid for it.
Jeremy’s seven steps gave everyone practical ways to build more freedom - and more profit - into the way they run their business. Everyone went home with a copy of the Creative Freedom book, where Jeremy unpacks each step in detail, so it’s well worth a read with a highlighter in hand.
Paul’s session went table by table, with each group digging into the AI challenges designers are dealing with, and they’re showing up at both ends of a project. At the start, there’s the client who hands over a really long AI-generated brief. At the end, there’s what Elise Syme has been dealing with, as clients take her finished designs, expand or change them with AI. The best part was the discussion about how to get ahead of it, by setting expectations with clients from day one and writing AI clauses into your Ts & Cs.
Kimerbly Torrie
Studio Dawn
Jeremy Johnson
Rocketspark co-founder
Elise Syme
Mauka Creative
Paul Gray
Rocketspark head of marketing
Laykanne Coetzee
Rae Creative
Community over competition
Most of the designers who came along spend their working days at home, so it was lovely to see everyone together in one room, catching up with familiar faces and meeting new ones between sessions. The conversations kept flowing all morning as people shared the tips and tricks that keep their businesses running and compared notes on what’s worked for them.
