Ed: Sorry this Vocalize event has now been postponed til further notice due to unforeseen circumstances. We'll let you know when something new is sorted.



Our friends at Vocalize are putting on a party & we'll be there with tees from most of our collections if you want to have a browse, try or chitchat : )

Please come and celebrate the launch of the new PhotoSpace Studio with us! We have heaps of treats and freebies lined up including a free cocktail and goodiebag upon arrival, a whole lot of spot prizes to give away and a celebrity host for the day - Geraldine Brophy from Second Hand Wedding!
As part of the launch party we will be holding a fundraising art/clothing exhibition where a percentage of all sales will go to Vincent's Art Workshop, Wellington City Mission, World Vision and the Mental Health Foundation.

So please get your friends together and come celebrate with us by supporting local artists, designers and musicians.

Booking slots are hourly from 12pm - 8pm and tickets are $15 each. You can pre-purchase by emailing rsvp at vocalize.co.nz. Please select a booking time below. Please note that numbers are limited, so make sure to pre-purchase your ticket asap! Limited door sales only.

Booking times:
12.00 pm - 1.00 pm
1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
2.00 pm – 3.00 pm
3.00 pm – 4.00 pm
4.00 pm – 5.00 pm
5.00 pm – 6.00 pm
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm
7.00 pm – 8.00 pm
8.00 pm – 9.00 pm.

Hope to see you there!

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a global annual charity event held during November. Clean shaven guys get a month to grow and “groom” their Mo while raising money to benefit men’s health.

Our charity partner, Mental Health Foundation, is one recipient for the funds raised this year!

So email your best Mo photo to info (at) thehinitiative.com and at the end of the month, they’ll be up for public vote of Mo’st Memorable Mo on our website. Winner scores one of our Mental Health tees (the one with the Mo of course!) and one other t-shirt of their choice.

It's Mental Health Awareness Week!
I can't believe it has been nearly a year's full work to get to this part of the year and so many have helped it making this happen.

The second t-shirt collection was released on Saturday and is now available online (our shop re-opened on 1 October!) and at selected stockists.

The first few online customers AND lucky customers at some of our retail stockists also receive a very cool little Mental Health Awareness Week magnetic poetry kit.

Mental Health Foundation are running a Magnetic Poetry Competition too - send them a photo of your favourite magnetic poem or message using the Mental Health Awareness Week magnetic poetry kit, and they will put the best up on their website for the world to see your global handprint, making a mark for mental health. Their favourite will also receive a $50 book voucher! Click here for more details on their website or see some examples here.

I've recently found out about New Zealand's DineAid:

Dine out at a participating restaraunt during November and December 2008, and at the end of your meal you will notice a voluntary donation of just $2 per table has been added to the bill. (separate to any other gratuity or tips you may chose to leave). Participating restaurants send the donations back to DineAid at the end December and then distributed to those who may need a bit of a ‘helping hand’ during the festive season. Wellington City Mission is one of the charity beneficaries!

The beauty of StreetSmart is its simplicity. It is an innovative, easy fundraising scheme which works during the holiday months when people begin to think about those less fortunate than themselves.

At participating restaurants, with the benefit of a tablecard, or a reference on the menu, a voluntary £1 is added to the table bill at the end of the meal during the months of November and December. At the end of each month, the restaurant passes on the total money raised to StreetSmart. We then use all of those £1s to support reputable charities in that city. So participating London diners are helping out London organisations, and Newcastle diners are helping organisations in the North East.

And remember: since all StreetSmart's running and operational costs are generously paid for by our sponsors, every penny in every £1 raised goes directly to the people who need it!

Back in May, we mentioned that Jennifer Santiago had found out about us and wanted to get our t-shirts on screen during her new Travel Channel documentary.

We've been emailed this video still of her wearing one of the Mental Health Foundation "Talk, Just Talk" t-shirts in the army green. That's the MHF logo behind! We've yet to see the full documentary on screen - need to find out when it hits New Zealand screens!

Hey folks, pop along to our new website thehinitiative.com! Our .co.nz site is past its best before date and all packed up. There's only one cardboard box left behind telling people our new site address : )

There has been lots of hard work behind the scenes to get the .com going (on top of everything else happening) and it looks quite different to the .co.nz. Hopefully easy to navigate too!

It's still very much about continuous improvement, so you may see some tweaks here and there. The big thing that is yet to be launched is our online shop / catalogue - it will be completely different, plus, there will be brand spanking new tees up for the 2008 Mental Health Foundation t-shirt collection.

Shop's meant to be up & running by 22 September (fingers crossed) - we'll let everyone know by email when it is.

P.S. Feel free to leave any comments here about what you think of the new .com so far : )

Introducing Laura Cibilich, winner of the 2007 World Vision Art4Aid competition t-shirt category, designer of the Freedom Dove t-shirts!

What have you been up to recently?

I've just recently got married and have come back from my honeymoon in beautiful Fiji and the Gold Coast. So I'm just getting back into the swing of things at the moment. I've got a few ideas in the pipeline so watch this space!

How did you first get started in design?

I've always been creative and had a love of art, so I guess it progressed from that. I took Design in my last year at high school, then did a design diploma, and just went from there.

How would you describe your style?

I try not to get stuck into one kind of style, but generally my designs use quite solid lines and I often like to experiment with different textures and backgrounds. At work I'd say my style is quite corporate, so I like to break out of that a bit in my personal work.

What inspires your work?

Anything and everything. I'm a great believer in anything you do, see or have experienced in your life inspires and influences you somehow. It often depends on the project, but I'm constantly inspired by my husband Raymond, and cat Prince, as well as great photography, words, books and much more.

Why get involved with thehinitiative?

To help out a worthy cause in a way that I can - through design.

How did it feel to have your designs made into tees?

Pretty cool - its always nice to see the finished product, and great to see other people wearing it.

And my favourite ice cream flavour ever is...

I've just come back from a trip to Australia where I got addicted to 'Cold Rock' where they mix up your own ice cream flavour. My fav mix was coconut gelato, with mashed up bounty bar, mini
marshmellows and chocolate brownie pieces mixed through it - yum!

Thanks Laura! (and the ice cream sure sounds yummy!)