Q&A with Jeremy Hansen and a Style Safari Giveaway

Photo by Sarah Grace

Have you heard about Style Safari? It’s a great initiative by HOME Magazine to showcase some of the best of New Zealand and international design available in the country today. Everyone, from the decorating novice to those working in the industry would benefit from this event. The only prerequisite is that you have an appreciation of home decoration and design – but I guess you wouldn’t be reading a blog about it if you didn’t!

HOME Magazine will host Style Safari, this coming Friday 18^th October in Auckland and it looks set to be a fun day. If the idea of being personally chauffeured around from one design destination to another, hearing from experts in the field about the emerging trends and upcoming product releases, not mention breaking in between to dine at an award winning restaurant gets your pulse racing as it does mine, then this event is sure to satisfy. The great news for you is that HOME Magazine is giving away a double pass to this event for one of my readers and you will find how to enter at the end of this post.

Jeremy Hansen, the Editor of HOME Magazine will personally guide this event and has kindly shared some photos of the Style Safari held in May and answered my questions about the day.

Photo by Sarah Grace

Could you tell us how the idea for Style Safari first came about?

We were looking for ways to bring the experience of HOME magazine to life beyond the page. We thought the Style Safari concept was a great way of offering interior designers or people who were embarking on a renovation or building project a stress-free way to see some of the best furniture and homewares currently on the market. We organise the transport, lunch and coffee along the way (and drinks afterwards!), so there’s no need to worry about food or parking. Plus, we organise talks on the latest design developments from the owners of each store, up-to-the-minute info which you’d never get if you were just a regular shop browser.

Why do you believe that your five design briefing destinations are Auckland’s most important design stores today?

I should say that they’re five of the most important design stores – everyone’s allowed to decide on their favourites individually! These are the stores that carry the work of the world’s most important furniture and lighting designers. Aucklanders are lucky in that it’s possible to see the best international furniture in just a few showrooms. Our small population means a vast number of brands are housed in a few places – in most other global cities, you’d need to visit a lot more stores to see the breadth of product we cover in a day. Just as important, the owners of these stores have been in the business for decades and have spent years attending international furniture fairs. They have a huge amount of knowledge to offer our Style Safari attendees in the presentations they’ll be giving. And we shouldn’t forget that some of these stores – especially Simon James Design, Corporate Culture and Backhouse Interiors – also showcase the best New Zealand designers, too.

What should the guests expect during the day?

We aim to strike a balance between having a fairly relaxed pace and offering our guests tonnes of design information. The Style Safari runs from 9am to 5pm: Guests park their cars outside the Coutts Mercedes-Benz showroom in Newmarket and we transport them in Mercedes-Benz vans to three showrooms in the morning, and two in the afternoon. Lunch at Cibo in Parnell is included in the ticket price. We spend about 45 minutes at each showroom, allowing our guests about 20 minutes to browse after each design presentation. We cap the number of guests at 50 so the Style Safari is a friendly, comfortable experience rather than an overcrowded one.

Who would you say the event is targeted towards?

It seems to work for everyone from professional architects and interior designers to individuals who are managing their own renovation or home-building projects, including people from out of town who have come to Auckland to see as much design as they can in a day. And if you’re not building or renovating at the moment but are just interested in design, it’s a great one-day way to stay in touch with the latest design developments. The whole day has a really friendly, approachable feel – so it can work just as well as an introduction to contemporary design as an informative download for those who are more experienced in the field.

Photo by Sarah Grace

Readers for your chance to WIN a double pass to the Style Safari this Friday 18^th October, simply do two steps, “share” the Facebook image linked here and make sure you “comment” here or on Facebook that you have shared it. Note that I have trouble seeing the shares unless you’ve selected public.

Entries close 5pm this Monday October 14 and will be announced that evening on my Facebook page so please check in. If I haven’t heard from the winner by 5pm Tuesday, I will re-draw.

More information about the event can be found over on the HOME Magazine blog and tickets can be purchased here.

It’s going to be a fantastic day; as a blogger and adorer of good design, this event is ticking so many boxes for me and I really look forward to it.  I hope to meet you there!

Best of luck everyone!

Mel x

All images by Sarah Grace and courtesy of HOME Magazine