Kate Benge

My grandfather and father both being artists gave me the creative gene plus the patience to work with art directors after a childhood of artistic over-the-shoulder advice. I officially started my creative career at art school in London where following that my tutor gave me summer work at Peter Gabriels art studios, then it was up north to Hull for a media/photography degree. Then after riding around the countryside (literally) photographing horses for a while I made my way to London and discovered my antipodean other half who brought me to the land of red bands and number eight wire!

Once here I immersed into a small design house in Tauranga working on a number of Kiwi brands. We then tripped back overseas a couple of years later to Brighton and a publishing design house, up-skilling my layout skills and expanding my mind with educational books for Dorling Kindersley, among others. Then to another design house based in London and after doing a campaign for Great Ormond street hospital it was back here to Auckland.

For the past six and half years in Auckland I have run a design team, learning to manage clients expectations and creative minds before moving into advertising and working for the likes of Draft, Lowe, DDB, WRC and RAPP, in the wonderful world of direct marketing. This has lead me to work on some of New Zealands biggest brands with some of the most creative people in the industry.

My artistic background has always crept into my everyday work, which is why I love what I do, to spend everyday being creative on any level doesn’t ever really seem like work to me.