What happens to designing from the process out when the factories are half a world away? Industrial designer Tim Rundle spent 15 years abroad, founding his independent studio in London in 2015, before coming back home to Aotearoa New Zealand. His work starts in the factory, from the furniture meccas of Northern Italy to the mass-production powerhouses of the Far East. Logistical limits led to a new finish for raw aluminium with ReFramed in Denmark, and new ways of shaping timber for Morgan in the South of England. The factory shapes the drawing as much as the drawing shapes the factory.

Listen to Rundle discuss how manufacturing processes, materials and factory constraints shape his approach to industrial design at Designing for the Factory, part of the Local Design Conference at NZ Design Week 2027.