Peter Haythornthwaite

Peter Frank Haythornthwaite (born 1944) is a New Zealand designer whose consultant practice, entrepreneurial initiatives, contributions to design education, and professional leadership have achieved recognition on many levels. One entrepreneurial project became a 1988 best seller at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) shop, and a 2008 design was the first New Zealand product to be selected for the MoMA Permanent Collection.

Early life Peter Haythornthwaite was born in 1944 to William "Bill" Haythornthwaite (1913–2009) and Ann Haythornthwaite (née Pilkington, 1913–1988) in Auckland, New Zealand. Bill's advertising agency, W. Haythorn-Thwaite Limited Along with exposure through international magazines to British, European and emergent Japanese design and designers, strong influences on Peter included Bill's model of design-led quality, creative tenacity, and his learned-from-experience mantra: "When there is no way, make a way".

Peter Haythornthwaite's direct experience of the wider world began in 1953 when the family set off for London so Bill could research the application of the new medium of television to advertising. Bill's grand plan to establish an agency on Madison Avenue, NYC, was thwarted by a US economic recession and issues requiring his attention at the Auckland office. The return voyage through France, Switzerland and Italy laid the groundwork for Peter's global perspective and international standards that characterised his career. When Zagorski in retirement visited New Zealand 35 years later, Haythornthwaite recalled his impact:

We experienced a whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm. Ed had the rare ability to inspire students with raw talent to take giant leaps—way beyond their original vision. ... He gave me a new sense of what design could be.

After graduating from the Elam School of Fine Arts with a DipFA Hons (Design), Haythornthwaite took up Zagorski's suggestion and continued his studies at the University of Illinois. He took his qualification to Bachelor level, then spent two years undertaking the Master's program. His thesis project, an under-water propulsion unit, expanded his active interest in scuba diving and led to his first post-graduate job. was in its fifth year. He found opportunities to meet the requirement to undertake "real world" assignments while teaching. His first professional project, a 1972 corporate identity for Temperzone, led to product design assignments. A decade later, speaking at the NZIDC Product Design for Tomorrow seminar, he expanded the conversation by advocating for design to be positioned at the centre of corporate culture as "a philosophy that should be embedded at the very heart of the company".

As president of NZSID (1981–1983) Haythornthwaite facilitated talks to the local profession from visiting overseas designers including Roberto Lucci, Rick Valicenti and Chuck Pelly. In 1992 he arranged for Niels Diffrient and his tapestry artist wife Helena Hernmarck to visit and deliver Design Week lectures. Haythornthwaite's encouragement of design students included establishing the Kent Student Design Award in 1982 and helping to initiate the James Dyson product design award in New Zealand. in 1991. As its 2000–2001 president, Haythornthwaite wrote thoughtful and challenging columns for each issue of its official journal, ProDesign. committee in 1997, he supported its evolution through a critical phase by providing organisation and administration through his design practice. The following year he helped consolidate its viability by co-establishing a joint venture company with the publishers of ProDesign to facilitate the input of sponsors and volunteers as well as the Designers Institute which eventually took full responsibility for what is claimed to have become Australasia's largest annual showcase of design excellence. included design among the creative industries that could benefit from government support. Responsibility for the creative industries was placed with the newly established Ministry of Economic Development (now MBIE). Commissioned to produce a Design Industry Scoping Study, the Massey University School of Design recruited Haythornthwaite to generate the core content. He was later appointed to the resulting Design Industry Taskforce. Its 2003 Success by Design strategy recommended enabling business to embrace design as a core value—as advocated by Haythornthwaite 22 years earlier. CEO Bruce Moller summed up the contribution:

Peter keeps us on 'true north'. He brings a really good design eye and asks a lot of questions. Most importantly, he gets the design team thinking for themselves so they will find their own answer. His approach is gentle but firm ... In 2015 Haythornthwaite led a successful design education visit to Denmark for senior managers of D2B graduate companies, some of whom described it as "transformational". In 2017 Equip stepped back while Australian consultants continued the D2B evolution.

Family Peter met Carol when he was living and working in California; They married seven months later in October 1969.

Simon (b. 1981) undertook work experience in the United States and Germany before completing a Diploma in Marketing Communications at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). His entrepreneurial enterprises include cwic footwear. Design Plus and iF Product Design Award, Peter Haythornthwaite was made an IDSA Fellow in 2022 —the premier DINZ award—recognises "leadership, vision and achievement both in New Zealand and internationally".

2012: Honorary doctorate conferred by Victoria University of Wellington, Te Kura Hoahoa / School of Design Innovation, in Wellington. The citation at the ceremony read:

Peter Haythornthwaite has produced some of New Zealand's most original, creative and outstanding industrial design. He is an inspirational figure who has enriched the creative life of this country. Victoria University, an institution committed to the creative disciplines and which recognises design as a knowledge-based subject, is proud to recognise his immense contribution towards excellence in design.

2016: Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) appointed in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

2018: A survey exhibition at Objectspace and a book entitled Design Generation: how Peter Haythornthwaite shaped New Zealand's design-led enterprise. Explaining his main motivation for putting his words into action he said: "As a painter has to paint, I had to design and make." He saw a need, designed a response and set up the entity required to take the outcome to market.

Carol proposed the är'ti-fakt-s brand name. The FlipFile was the first of a suite of products distributed in Japan by Apex Marketing and North America by Stelton USA. As the German representative for är'ti-fakt-s, Henrik Gacnik encouraged Haythornthwaite to visit the annual Messe Frankfurt Ambiente trade fair and ensured är'ti-fakt-s products were entered in design awards in Frankfurt, Hanover and Stuttgart—where they won accolades.