Time to create something new.

After almost four decades as an owner, creative director and CEO of New Zealand’s preeminent brand strategy and design practice Designworks, Sven has launched Sven&Friends to apply his extensive experience and expertise to new collaborations with clients around Aotearoa and beyond - a new kind of creative consultancy dedicated to fostering kiwi entrepreneurship and creating new value for New Zealand through a unique combination of strategic logic and creative magic.

The launch of Sven&Friends sees its’ principal return to what he loves doing most - working with passionate people to inspire the new and fuel the creative leadership of positive change.

Sven&Friends is a virtual collective that focuses on delivering new value through a combination of entrepreneurial ambition, strategic clarity and creativity.

Sven can bring together smart people from a broad range of disciplines who have worked together over the years and achieved excellence in their respective fields. We aim to produce work empowered by strategic clarity and brilliantly executed design thinking. We are friends who love to collaborate and believe that together, and alongside our clients, we can create the new and do amazing things for New Zealand.

Sven Baker
Founder

One of the Australasian design industry’s most influential and awarded creative and strategic thinkers. Sven was the CEO of Designworks, a multidisciplinary strategic design, branding, digital and customer experience practice, up until 2016 and then Chairperson from 2016 to 2020. Sven also held the positions of Managing Director - New Zealand with WPP AUNZ from 2017 to 2020 and Non-executive Chairperson until May 2020.

Sven has established himself as a leading strategic and creative director on both sides of the Tasman and has been heavily involved in the Strategic and creative transformation of many of Australia’s most high profile brands. A persuasive thinker and passionate believer in the power of well deployed Strategically informed design to transform brands and businesses, he advocates using customer and data driven insight to drive creativity, not as a mere adjunct to the communications and marketing functions but rather as a strategic business tool to help revitalize the customer experience.

He has a significant catalogue of design awards to his name – including two New York Art Director Awards for Typography and Corporate Identity, two Best Awards ‘Stringers’ and numerous Best Award Gold and Purple Pins for his work. He also led the Designworks team that won the 2012 Supreme Award at Vero’s Excellence in Business awards. In 2013 Sven was awarded the much coveted Designers Institute of New Zealand Black Pin in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contribution to the design profession.

As well as working with some of the region’s largest companies, Sven has a passionate interest in supporting business start-ups, including as an investor and mentor in a number of new-breed technology companies including: Parrot Analytics, Area 360, 8i, Pairtree, ZeroC World, Enroller, 1Centre.com, Quantiful, Magic Ike and Realeasy.