Prominent Wētā Workshop designer Andrew Thomas grew up in Palmerston North

Wētā Workshop senior creative director Andrew Thomas has great memories of growing up in Palmerston North.

Andrew Thomas spends his working days making imaginary worlds a reality.

He’s been in the news as part of the Wētā Workshop team working on the visitor experience for the new New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata in the French town of Le Quesnoy.

The museum will open in October and tells how Kiwi soldiers liberated Le Quesnoy by ladder during World War I.

Thomas was born and raised in Palmerston North, attending College Street Normal School, Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School, and Palmerston North Boys’ High School.

His parents are well known and still live in the city - former head of botany at Massey University Roderick Thomas and former French teacher Jean Corbin Thomas.

He enjoyed growing up in Palmerston North. He had great friends and loved biking home from school.

Growing up, Thomas says he was fortunate his parents were interested in art. It was while doing bursary art he started thinking of a creative career.

When he left school he worked at Centrepoint Theatre as an assistant to set designer Bob McMurray. This allowed him to get a portfolio together for design school at Wellington Polytechnic, where he completed a three-year diploma in visual communication design.

He then got a scholarship through the Arts Council, now Creative New Zealand, to learn from theatre designer Raymond Boyce at Downstage Theatre. Thomas says he learned a lot about set design and theatre in general.

He then worked at the Dowse Art Museum as the exhibition officer designing and curating exhibitions.

He also did work for the National Museum of New Zealand, the National Art Gallery and Te Papa.

Get Thomas talking about the long list of projects he’s been involved in and you are taken north and south, east and west. The 58-year-old knows he talks a lot about design.

Andrew Thomas says visitors to the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy can expect a mix of cinema, sculpture and archival experiences.

He joined Wētā Workshop in 2018 and as senior creative director set up a new division - Location-Based Experience.

It’s about taking the world you see on the big screen and bringing it into real-world experiences, he says.

The main project when he started at Wētā Workshop was one of three expo pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Alif - The Mobility Pavilion is designed to break down the divide between the physical and digital worlds and remains a popular tourist destination. The architect was Norman Foster, a key figure in British modernist architecture who founded the practice Foster + Partners in 1967.

Thomas says at Wētā there is an extraordinary amount of talent under one roof and he enjoys being able to use all his skills at work.

Before joining Wētā Workshop, Thomas teamed up with Workshop e and did a lot of museum design.

There was Blue Water Black Magic at New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland, Toitῡ Otago Settlers Museum, Te Kōngahu Waitangi Museum, and Whales Tohorā for Te Papa that toured the United States.

Thomas, who has made Wellington home since leaving Palmy, led the concept design for Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom in Foxton. It was a great project to work on and as it is a community place it was important residents were heavily involved in decision-making, he says.

Thomas spent several months in China last year working on a design at the world’s largest duty-free shopping mall, Haikou International Duty-Free Shopping Complex. Haikou is the capital of Hainan, an island province in the South China Sea.

Wētā Workshop designed the mall’s location-based experience, The Forest at the Edge of the Sky. It fills the five-storey high and 50-metre-wide atrium and showcases the story of a fantastical Hainan.

He’s also creative outside work. When he feels he has got some energy he makes soundtracks for films.

Music was a big part of his life growing up. He played the flute in the school orchestra and chamber music groups and was also in also rock bands with friends.

In 2018, Thomas’ sculpture Lightwing was installed at the Seaview roundabout in Lower Hutt.

Thomas says people sometimes think there is not much going on in Palmerston North but it is quite the opposite. Anywhere in the world is what you make it.

His teenage years were pre-internet so probably wherever in New Zealand one lived they thought they were missing out on the world. The key is having good friends who share your interests so you can feed off one another.

Thomas says budding designers need to be brave and show people their work. Knock on doors, network, be assertive. There are always opportunities even if it seems impossible at times.

As you go through life you are not stuck on a straight line and can step to the side and head off on another path at any time.