we are the future
and it’s by design.
Future. By Design are the agency who bridge the old world with the new.
We are systems shifters, amplifying agents and believers in transformation and possibility.
Katrina Smit
Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa | Ngāti Matangirau | Ngāti Rakaipaaka | Atlantic Fellow
Director | Designer
As an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity, Katrina has championed mātauranga Māori led systems thinking and service design around the world.
Helping organisations get clear about what they want - designing and building from their vision, is where Katrina's skills shine. Creative and collaborative, she has worked across the public sector leading design work for the Tertiary Education Commission, Ministry of Social Development and the Department of Internal Affairs. Skilled at facilitating encouraging and productive practice, Katrina is committed to delivering sustainable outcomes that add value, are clearly communicable and pragmatic. Her experience has been that people will support what they co-create.
Katrina holds a Masters in Social Change Leadership from the University of Melbourne, as well as a Master of Arts (Art History) from the University of Auckland and a Bachelor of Arts (Art History and English) from Victoria University.
While undertaking her Foundation Year with the Atlantic Fellows, Katrina investigated the potential of whānaungatanga in relation to eliminating systemic barriers. Asking the questions "What happens when you create the conditions for collective indigenous intelligence to be activated?" and "What is possible when our relationships with one another and our environment are based on respect and responsibility for each other?"
“I believe the system can be reimagined to create equitable outcomes if we are bold and brave enough to test and discard mechanisms that don’t serve us. By focussing on what matters, not what's the matter, we can design with integrity, the future our ancestors laid the path for.”
Kelsey Gee
Director | Designer
Second Generation New Zealand Chinese | Seyip
Kelsey is an internationally award winning service designer and systems innovator.
Helping organisations maximise the potential of service design and systems innovation is Kelsey's super power. She has worked her magic both in the public and private sector, leading and delivering work for the Justice Sector, Te Puni Kōkiri and the Department of Internal Affairs, as well as working in partnership with iwi and NGOs.
While studying for a Bachelors of Design (Hons) at Massey University, Kelsey successfully designed and pitched two different projects aimed at equitable outcomes for Māori - both of which were picked up and implemented nationally by the Ministry of Education and Department of Corrections.
In 2023 she completed a Masters degree in Strategic Design for Complexity at Elisava - Barcelona School of Design and Engineering in Spain. Kelsey focused her thesis on the decolonisation of design - what might it look like if we were able to truly honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi as tangata tiriti through service and systems design in Aotearoa?
“I’m generating social equity and empowering fairer Futures for all communities across Aotearoa by doing design differently: maintaining trauma informed practices, seeking systemic and generational impact, and being indigenously and multi-culturally led across the design methodologies and solutions we produce.”