AKL Launch Party: The National Grid #9

Celebrate the official Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland launch of The National Grid #9 (November 2025), edited and designed by Luke Wood, Katie Kerr, and Matthew Galloway and published by Ilam Press and GLORIA Books.

Copies will be available for purchase on the evening, and pre-orders available for pick up.

The evening will begin with doors open and drinks from 5.30pm, followed by kōrero and a reading at 6pm.

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Based in Aotearoa, is a periodical dedicated to research in the field of graphic design.

The project takes an expansive view on graphic design as it intersects with culture, society, politics and histories. As a practice fundamentally concerned with the reproduction and distribution of language, graphic design—The National Grid suggests—is significantly more interesting, and more impactful, than purely market-led or ‘value added’ narratives tend to imply. Not quite ‘magazine’ and not quite ‘academic journal’, The National Grid attempts to chart a path through the murky wasteland between professional practice and academia, art and design.

The National Grid was originally published across eight issues between 2005 and 2012, edited and designed by Luke Wood and Jonty Valentine. Revived in 2025 with the generous support of the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts, the periodical returns under the editorship of Luke Wood, Katie Kerr, and Matthew Galloway, and is co-published by Ilam Press and GLORIA Books.

The National Grid #9 takes on the current climate of design education, looks back to Pasifika publishing histories and sketches out diagrams for possible futures—and more! It features contributions from Hana Pera Aoake, Luke Shaw, Sheahan Huri, Cameron Tonkinwise, Andrea Low, Wanda Iremia-Allan, Paula Legel, Nell May, Tyrone Ohia, Max Quinn-Tapara, Eva Charlton, David Bennewith, and Warren Olds.

Editors:

Luke Wood (Ōtautahi Christchurch) is a senior lecturer in graphic design at the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts. Katie Kerr (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) is a graphic designer and publisher whose practice revolves around books. Matthew Galloway (Pōneke Wellington) is an artist and designer whose interdisciplinary work often uses the methodologies and tools of design within a contemporary art context.

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