About ‘us’

The Creative Bureau is the design practice of Theunis Groenewald—an experienced multidisciplinary designer & art director based in King Country, Aotearoa

T is just fine, though.

His two labradoodles, Parker and Obi, round out the team most of the time. But we’re big on collaboration, and regularly engage some talented specialists across a variety of disciplines from around the world.

Quite often, that help comes in the form of casual conversations and a critical outside look from fellow design-obsessed friends. The way in which we tend to work; by becoming a (remote) part of the in-house team; is why ‘we’ talk about ‘us.’

Theunis Groenewald portrait

The bureau in our name refers to a very real one: a mid-century family heirloom, and prized possession. T’s grandfather—Theunis M Groenewald, Snr—made the bureau back in their native South Africa, almost 70 years ago. As it has always done, the bureau serves as the household’s official stationery cabinet, and its allure as the source of creative expression through the supply of paper, pens & pencils hasn’t waned.

Capabilities A–Z

Advertising creative*
Brand design & collateral
Content strategies
Copywriting*
Customer Value Proposition (CVP)
Customer Experience (CX) design
Investment collateral
Market research & collateral
Marketing creative
No-code website development
Photography*
Podcast production*
Presentation graphics & documents
Sales collateral & assets
Social media content design
UX & UI design
Video & motion graphics design
Visualisation & graphics
Workshops*
Zoom backgrounds
*Not available as part of a monthly subscription

Brands we’ve worked with

AA insurance
Air New Zealand
AIM Proximity
AMP Insurance
ANZ Bank
Aotea Ventures
Auckland International Airport
Auckland University of Technology
Auckland Transport
BCG2
Being AI Group
Bigpipe
Boxer
Cadbury’s
Carl’s Junior
Colenso BBDO
Cookie Time
Consortium
Datacentre220
Derq
Fonterra
Gallagher
H2Go
iSport Foundation
Jane & Friends
Jockey
Karearea
Lightbox
Lotto New Zealand
McDonald’s
Mediaworks
Merck
Mercury New Zealand
Mister Civil Ltd
New Zealand Skills & Education Group
New Zealand Certified Builders Association
Nextspace
Owned & Earned
RabbitHawk
Rainbow Youth
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers
Send Global
SKY Television
Sovereign
Spark New Zealand
Squealing Pig Wines
Tourism Holdings Limited
Tribal DDB
TVNZ
Tymestack
University of Auckland
Vero
Visa Entertainment
Vodafone New Zealand
Volkswagen
The Warehouse
Westpac
Yealand Wines
Yellow
Zespri

Experience

In early 2008, T somehow lucked out and got a job at AIM Proximity—at the time, ranked as the #2 direct marketing agency in the world.

It was his first job after having just arrived in New Zealand, and with no formal education, he had no business working with some of the most talented creatives in the world. It was the start of a career in direct and digital marketing now approaching the two decade-mark.

The pivot from agency to in-house creative happened gradually, but has meant helping organisations—and startups in particular—with more long-lasting, more deeply integrated, design solutions.

Agency
AIM Proximity
Colenso BBDO
Tribal DDB
RAPP Tribal
Consortium
Wave Agency
Aotea Ventures
In-house
Vodafone New Zealand
AA Insurance
Suncorp Group
LocalCover Group
Nextspace
Being AI Group