Kia Ora!
My name is Ren Hartley.
I’m currently completing my final honours year in the Concept Design degree at Massey University, Wellington.
My work explores the space between digital design and tangible craft; I’m interested in creating works that exist beyond a screen, through physical making, puppetry, and handcrafted objects.
I approach design as a way of giving ideas form and presence, combining iterative development with material experimentation to bring imagined worlds to life.
I grew up in the mountains of Colorado, USA, a very long way from where I am now; Though my dad’s from Bulls, New Zealand, so I guess I always had one foot here anyway. My family says they can’t remember a time when I wasn’t making something. I was always jumping from craft to craft, trying out whatever I could get my hands on.
In 2022, somehow, I managed to move to New Zealand in the middle of COVID to start at Massey University. I began in Fine Arts but ended up switching to Concept Design because I fell in love with the storytelling side of it, the chance to build worlds instead of just images.
I’m still in Wellington, and I really love the life I’ve built here. It’s creative and full of good people, even if I do miss my family and my cat back home.