Kia ora and welcome to the Kātoitoi 2021 podcast series. This is a special limited edition podcast series of five interviews commissioned by Creative New Zealand as a part of the 2020 Kātoitoi pilot. This interview and illustration sits within a series of commissioned essays, interviews, podcasts and artworks to be published over 12 weeks supported by CNZ. In this special series we’ll hear from five of the review panel, each of whom looked at work within three categories to help select the final complied archive for this year. Kia ora I’m Louise, Design Assembly Founder and Director and today I’m talking to Emma Kaniuk and Tana Mitchell from Akin Emma and Tana co-founded Akin in 2015, a strategic design studio focused on creating engaging, seductive and effective brand solutions that grab people’s attention and hearts. Previous to starting Akin, they both spent time at Designworks. Emma has also worked at Special Group in Auckland and Sydney and Tana has worked at studios in Auckland, Wellington and overseas in New York and Berlin. They have been awarded for their work at the Best Awards with purple pins and overseas in the AGDA awards, D&AD and Designweek awards amongst others.