Graduand has good reason to make some noise

Rosa Nevison has good reason to be in a celebratory mood come Otago Polytechnic’s graduation ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall on Thursday 22 September.

Rosa will join more than 300 graduands, many of whom who were denied earlier opportunities to celebrate in person because of Covid-related issues.

“I’m super-excited to be attending the grad ceremony, especially after thinking we wouldn’t get one at all,” says Rosa, who completed a Bachelor of Design (Communication) at Otago Polytechnic at the end of 2021.

“It will be so nice to catch up with everyone from my degree programme, see where they’re at and what they’re doing, and also just allow ourselves to bask in the achievement of getting our degree for a day.”

The occasion will cap off a positive few weeks for Rosa, who was last month named a finalist in the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards.

One of eight Otago Polytechnic projects amongst the finalists, Rosa’s Newzician magazine is a contender in the “Graphic – Student” category.

“I’m really stoked about being nominated as a finalist,” says Rosa, adding that Newzician is an ongoing project that aims to celebrate and amplify the profiles of Aotearoa musicians.

“I’ve always loved music and the music scene, so when my friends, Sam and Flynn, messaged me last year out of the blue with an idea to start this magazine, I was pretty much immediately on board.

“The timing lined up with my final polytechnic project, in which we had the opportunity to develop our own project briefs.

“I love working on something that combines so many of my interests – music, photography and print media, and is especially gratifying to be able to put something into the world that people enjoy and find value in.

“It is really exciting to feel like we’ve created something that is of value to people and get recognition from the industry for the design I’ve done.”

Since finishing her studies at Otago Polytechnic, Rosa has juggled a range of roles.

“At the moment I work at Print Room, a screen printing/embroidery merchandise studio. I also do photography at UBar at the University of Otago campus, as well as graphic design for artist-run space Wave and, of course, co-run Newzician.

Yes, it’s busy, busy at the moment, but it’s all fun stuff!

“I’m keen to keep doing Newzician and see where that goes. It would be great to establish ourselves a bit more and for the project to be sustainable for us sometime in the future.”