Scarfies Uncovered

Ever wanted to know what’s happening in the grotty student flat next door?

Now you can find out with a copy of ‘Tales from Kowhai Drive’, a fly on the wall look into six students flatting in Dunedin, the student capital of New Zealand.

This craftily written little book is the creation of two Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Design (Communication) students, Craig Scott and Simon Horner.

Since February this year, Craig has been writing a week-by-week account of student life for Genesis, Milton’s School & Community newspaper.

“However, half-way through the year the flat sort of went down-hill which made for really interesting reading, but it got pulled by the newspaper for being inappropriate,” Craig says.

Undeterred, he continued writing the week-by-week accounts in the hope of one day publishing the collection and his opportunity came much sooner than expected in the form of a second-year communication design project.

“Craig proposed the idea to me,” Simon says, “and I thought it was a great opportunity to further develop our skills in print media.”

However, these two second-year communication design students were faced with a huge challenge - producing and printing an entire book in just three weeks!

The students’ organisational, time and stress management skills were pushed to the limit as they proofed and edited 80 pages of content, created an overall design, organised the printers and took care of all the other million-and-one details that come with making a book.

Craig says, “As the design transformed before our eyes it took on a ‘grunge flat-feel.’” To further enhance this ‘grunge flat-feel’ they also produced a large number of badges and stickers to go with the books.

They believe Otago Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Design (Communication) programme gave them a solid foundation in design which prepared them for this project.

Simon says, “Obviously, without this programme we wouldn’t have been able to achieve any of this.”

So what started off as a classroom project has turned into a page-turning book spread over 80 full colour pages. ‘Tales from Kowhai Drive’ is filled with tears, tantrums, laughs, drunkenness, inevitable hangovers and much, much more!

“What I’ve noticed is that there’s still a market for books like this. There’s a fear that things are becoming more digitalised and web-based these days. There are always people interested in projects like this, and the production of books like this will help keep the market vibrant,” Simon says.

Both Craig and Simon think the book is a good representation of Dunedin student-life.

“I’m sure there’s worse stuff that happens,” Craig says, “We were pretty quiet in some respects; I mean we weren’t drinking every weekend!”

“And if you want to find out more you’ll just have to read the book!”

So far just one-hundred books have been printed and the cost was covered by Craig’s savings. These limited edition books are retailing for $39.95 and Craig hopes to recover some of the money.

“It’s more about making the book and having it produced then getting the money back but it’s cool to just get back a wee bit to recover  some of the costs.”

When asked about the target readership for the book Craig believes it’s aimed at parents as well as students.

“It’s for parents that want to find out all the goss that happens in a student flat, its priceless information that they’re never really privy to.

“And students will definitely be able to relate to the things that happen and re-live their own student experience.”

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book contact craig_scotthotmail.com