Choosing Movember felt like my way of supporting them, as well as the other men in New Zealand

I’m a 22 year from Christchurch currently studying towards my Masters in Business Management at UC. Since high school, I’ve spent a year living & working in the UK, before moving up to Welly to get started on a design degree. I finished the final year of the degree back home in Christchurch at Ara.

Switching design for business has meant not always spending the time I would like designing, but I always try to keep a few things on the go, mainly as a hobby. Good as Gold was for sure my favourite store while living up in Welly, and their comp came at perfect timing in the thick of lockdown.

In a time where most things around us were pretty negative, the brief of ‘Positivity’ was a cool chance to make something that was a bit of fun. The prize of choosing a charity to donate profits too fitted into the theme of positivity perfectly, so I thought I might as well give it a crack. 

The design came about when I pictured how it looks to be happy, at a super-simple basic level. I didn't want to over-complicate the illustration with detail or too much colour because overall the idea was just simple. A happy star, whistling down the street. 

I've always seen Movember as a charity I look up to, but have had a closer eye on the things they do in recent years after my sister's friend Tori unfortunately had her father take his own life.

In the wake of everything Tori, along with my sister Bella and two friends, set out to run a marathon around Mt Cook on the one-year anniversary of his death, fundraising for Movember. It was an epic thing to do, and the girls not only raised awareness for men's mental health but a good chunk of money to donate.

Choosing Movember felt like my way of supporting them, as well as the other men in New Zealand. Plus I'm still waiting for my Mo growing ability to kick in.

*Edward's tshirt design was 1 of 4 selected from over 100 entries. To get your tshirt and support our men's health programs just go to this link: 'The Whistler' By Edward Eaton for Movember

To see more designs from Ed just visit: https://www.instagram.com/by.woods/