Welcome to the home of CleverBastards of New Zealand
cleverbastards comes to you from a group of people who are passionate about Kiwi creativity, and equally at home with the idea that the internet allows New Zealanders to do what we were always best at: talking to our neighbours, meeting strangers, sharing a yarn and sometimes doing business.
Hunting for ingenious ideas, designs, art and craft from Cape Reinga in the North to The Bluff in the South, is what they do, so you don’t have to. Kanohi ki te kanohi [being face to face] with the most interesting designers, artists, craftspeople, writers, musicians, foodies and all manner of creative Kiwis, is made possible right here on cleverbastards.co.nz. Not only can you buy something from them, but get an idea how it was made and what the hell made them do it in the first place.
Take a stroll around the site via the Scenic Route, or meet one of our latest Clever Bastards. Or satisfy your shopping lust by going straight for Instant Gratification. You can even search by some pretty interesting categories like Upcycled or Other Clever Ideas or scroll through the A to Z of all our Clever Bastards. Whatever grabs you, read about, look and listen, buy it, or comment on it.
Just go for it… and have a bloody good time! cleverbastards is a values-based brand expressing Kiwi innovation, passion for design, adventure, a can-do attitude, pride, sustainability and environmental and human respect. And a damned good sense of humour. We want you to be as safe as possible while visiting this site and have done all we can to protect your privacy and security.
Our Brand Values:
Design-driven
Creative
Ideas-based
Original
Passionate
Daring
Surprising | Ingenious
No 8 wire
Innovative
New
Unexpected | Captures the Kiwi essence
Authentic/real
Unpretentious
Can do anything
Witty/Quirky
Informal |
Affordable
Accessible
Inclusive | Sustainable
Responsible
Energy efficient
Renewable
Respectful | |
Who’s behind it all?
Paul Kayser [PK] is the leader of the gang, the “Head Bastard”. A designer and ex-creative director in advertising – and the creator of several Kiwi iconic ad campaigns like Watties Tomato Sauce, Molenberg, Olivani and Air New Zealand. PK has learnt a thing or two about what makes the Kiwi consumer tick and building Kiwi Brands and is possibly mad in his passion for things creatively Kiwi-made. “I arrived at a place where I realised the innate passion New Zealanders have for their own country. It snuck up on us. We used to be mildly self-conscious, then suddenly – bang – we realised where our roots really lay. A big part of that is our egalitarian nature: the bloke next door turns out to be a legend in his or her field.”
Nigel Varcoe is the brains and guru of the group, on deep things like the inner workings of the internet and building profitable businesses. Using fancy words like “search engine optimisation” and “bottom line profitability”, Nigel the “Brainy Bastard”, brings his impressive depth of knowledge from years in corporates like Fletchers, consulting to big business and many successful start-ups as well as heading up the web development company, Net Concepts, both here and in the US. Nigel’s fond of asking questions like: “Paul, It’s all very well having all this lovely stuff, but how the hell are we going to sell some stuff?”
Michelle Procter, the “Pretty Bossy Bastard”, has spent 20 years in the beauty business, which not only gave her lots of free product, but also a huge understanding of “business”. She worked in every facet of getting product to customer and, as Marketing and Brand manager, learned how to manage the products from spotting a winner, ordering, promoting and ultimately selling the product at best possible price. Her other passions are creating things with her hands. If it’s not sewing, its mosaics, jewellery, hypertufa pots or soft stone carving. “I jumped at the chance to join Paul’s new venture. Not sure where the “Bossy Bastard” came from, but I know I am an organized and hard working girl who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty!”
Blair Peach. Every web-based business has to have one. The “Geeky Bastard”, expert in all things IT and business systems. And they don’t come better qualified. He’s done time in big organisations sorting out their channels of supply, making sure stuff didn’t get lost along the way, as well as designing business systems for smaller start-ups [like us]. Add to that his experience in project managing the building of many e-commerce websites, qualifies him in his esteemed category. Pretty affable bastard he is too, for the geeky variety that is.
Duncan Stuart, our “literary bastard”, with a background in writing, researching public opinion and creative thinking has led to a career that consists of listening to New Zealanders, and then telling our stories. A philosophy of being a noisy player in whatever community you happen to be in, has led Duncan to be a movie and art reviewer for his local community paper, an outspoken player in the market research profession and a supporter of a school he helped build in Cambodia. “Whatever community I happened to be in ...turned out to be the Global Village.” What is cleverness? For me it is about interpreting our world through a new perspective rather than an old perspective. It involves constant learning and the willingness to cast comfy stuff aside.”
Alastair Jamieson loves to tell stories, whether by his camera, video camera or keyboard. Either way he usually ends up immersed in his Mac for hours, editing the latest profile on one of our new cleverbastards. Hence his title, “Anecdotal Bastard”. Searching for weird stuff under leaves and spending painfully large amounts of time waiting for wild-life or nature to do “it’s thing” [like sleeping sea lions or sleeping volcanoes], comes naturally to this lover of all things ecological. With Alastair’s background in conservation and ecology he’s especially attracted to art and artists that reflect natural New Zealand. When he’s not creating content at cleverbastards, you’ll find him out in the bush somewhere in New Zealand’s wild places.
