Art and design alumni

Logistics Co-ordinator, McDonald Textiles
Bachelor of Design in Textile Design

Being able to gain workplace experience at Auckland Theatre Company was the highlight of her textile design degree, says AUT art and design alumna Charissa McGrath.

“For my workplace experience I worked as a costume assistant for the Auckland Theatre Company’s annual youth theatre festival, the Next Big Thing. I was responsible for helping an established costume designer create costumes for avant-garde production Giant Teeth, which had a sell-out season at the Basement Theatre.”

The workplace experience is a great networking opportunity, Charissa says.

“I learned so much about costume design and the theatre world, and made lifelong friends in my placement. The contacts I made also led to a number of costume and set design jobs on TV shows, commercials, short films and theatre shows.”

Close knit and collaborative
Being able to learn in a close knit and collaborative environment was another standout for Charissa.

“My textile design class was a tight knit group of about 12, which was great. I also found my current job through a girl I studied with who is now working at the same company.”

There were plenty of opportunities to collaborate with students from other design majors too, she adds.

“In the final year, fashion design student Lauren Holehouse and I collaborated for her swimwear collection, designing a collection of digital prints made from my watercolour paintings. Lauren is now selling her swimwear designs under the label Malola Swim, the first season of which featured my textile design work.”

A range of career opportunities
After graduating in 2014, Charissa now works for McDonald Textiles, which specialises in luxurious possum and merino garments and accessories made in New Zealand.

“My job involves overseeing the warehouse, and delivering our goods to shops across New Zealand and Australia and to online customers worldwide. While I’m not designing the garments or running the Shima Seiki knitting machines, I developed all of these skills at AUT. I love working in an industry where I understand the background of the products I’m dealing with.”

Studying textile design prepares you for a wide range of careers, Charissa says.

“The beauty of textile design is that it’s a blend of both fashion and art. The skills I developed at AUT enable me to move into many areas of the business: designer, technician or market/trend researcher. I’ve learnt skills to start me off in any of these roles.”