Kōtuia ngā Kete
Brand + Bicultural design
My role
User experience and visual design
Team
Roxy Huntington — Creative Director
Richie Jose —User Researcher
Ben Wright — Visual Designer
Awa Randall — Visual Designer
Katie Stringer — Front End Developer
Juliet Brown — Front End Developer
Gisela de la Villa — Backend Developer
Vee Linton — Project Manager
Client
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Overview
Kōtuia ngā Kete (Kōtuia) is a centralised online whare taonga managed by Te Papa that aggregates museum collections from across Aotearoa and shares museum information. Previously NZ Museums, the brief was to create a bicultural experience that reflects a broader understanding of Aotearoa and taonga, including marae and whare taonga.
Awards
Best Awards Finalist Digital — Designers Institute of New Zealand
Best Awards Finalist Toitanga — Designers Institute of New Zealand
Kōtuia ngā Kete (Kōtuia) is a centralised online whare taonga managed by Te Papa that aggregates museum collections from across Aotearoa and shares museum information. Previously NZ Museums, the brief was to create a bicultural experience that reflects a broader understanding of Aotearoa and taonga, including marae and whare taonga.
Connecting collections
The website is grounded in Te Ao Māori. The design embodies the natural world and the pūrākau o Ngā Kete Mātauranga. In the pūrākau, Tāne-nui-a-Rangi ascended to the twelfth heaven, returning with three baskets of knowledge, kete-tuatea, kete-tuauri, kete-aronui, and two sacred kohātu, Huka-a-Tai and Rehutai, which he buried in Papatūānuku.
The name, ‘Kōtuia ngā Kete,’ gifted by Pouako o reo Māori Lee Johnson, further embodies the whakaaro of the kaupapa and weaving together of the strands (organisations, taonga, collections, and knowledge systems) that create the kete.
A bicultural experience
From the skies of Ranginui to the seas of Tangaroa; the night sky, aurora australis, glow worms, jellyfish, and bioluminescence, the colours acknowledge what is natural is connected to the supernatural.
The user experience is based on Tāne’s pursuit of knowledge. As you journey into the site, the dark Kōtuia brand recedes as the organisations and their taonga surface and take focus. Darkness transitions to light, symbolising the discovery of knowledge. The colour palette pays homage to ngā Atua Māori Papatūānuku, Ranginui, and Tangaroa.
Tangata whenua on the team and Te Papa’s Mātauranga Māori experts guided the project. There was also extensive engagement with museums, marae and whare taonga across Aotearoa. Kōtuia is a home for all taonga and collections, and a big community contributed to its design.