So, what’s TIWICO then?

You know when people ask what you do and you pause for a second because the real answer is a bit complicated?

Yeah, that’s us with TIWICO.

We’re Lew and Nilly – been together since 2006, been solving creative problems together just as long. Started as this thing we did without really thinking about it. He’s got this incredible way with metal fabrication and design, proper Kiwi ingenuity thinking. I’m over here pursuing my creative projects, occasionally helping people’s dreams find their actual shape, and community building side quests.

For 18 years, we’ve been each other’s creative wingman. I help him see his technical genius for what it really is – not just “drawing things” like he says, but solving complex problems that make steel fab things fit perfectly the first time. He brings that same precision thinking to my wildest creative ideas.

It started with me flying by the seat of my pants getting my journal business off the ground, cursing at patterns that wouldn’t fit, about to waste a whole skin of leather because I couldn’t figure out how to get the most out of it. Lew walks in, takes one look, and goes “You good?” then proceeds to nest those patterns like he’s laying out steel plates. Saved the collection, saved my sanity, and probably our rent that month.

That’s been our dance ever since. His CPD work helping technical design teams get their act together, my dream midwifery with Founders who don’t know they’re brilliant yet. Somehow leather journals, steel fabrication, and community building all make perfect sense when you’re doing it together.

Just doing good work with people we actually like, building projects that matter to us, and treating it all with the care it deserves.

After nearly two decades of this creative partnership, we figured it was time to make it official. Document the journey. See what happens when you stop pretending you’re just “helping each other out” and start calling it what it is.

Creative futures by design. That’s what we’re about.