Nahau te rourou
Naku te rourou
Ka ora ai te manuhiri

“With your basket of knowledge
and my basket of knowledge
the people will prosper”

– Māori proverb



Hi, I’m Tom,
I am a designer with a background in the arts and education. Presently I am working as a web producer in Pōneke, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Prior to this, I taught design, art and digital technology at Takapuna Grammar School, where I also worked on the development of Te Wāhi Auaha (a school maker space and innovation space).

My experience in making learning more accessible and equitable across a range of students from different backgrounds and abilities built the foundation of my human-centered design practice. Anything I make or work on is guided by these set of values.

Previously I studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts, where I also briefly taught the first and second year studio programme.

Find me on are.na, Read.cv, Merveilles. Sometimes, I am on IRC as @tomupom on Libera Chat and Rizon networks. You can also find me on Urbit as ~worbur-dorneb.

I have accounts on other popular social media sites, but rarely use them.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partners in Aotearoa New Zealand. I pay my respects to the mana whenua who are the original and continued rightful stewards of the land that I love and on which I work and reside.

I would also like to acknowledge the many free and open source that this website, along with many of my other projects, take advantage of. For a full look at the different libraries and packages used to power this website, take a look at the GitHub repo.

Education

UX Design Program, CareerFoundry GmbH Berlin, 2021-2022 Foundations of UX Design, Google + Coursera, 2021 Grad Dip Teaching (Secondary), The University of Auckland, 2019 BFA (Hons), The University of Auckland, 2014-2017