Starting off with a Oscar Wilde quote

Grier kicks off our kōrero with a quote he found online by Oscar Wilde, he explains, this best describes his career journey thus far. 

“If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.” - Oscar Wilde

Grier elaborates a little more and says, to him, this means, you can never be classified. 

For Grier, his artistic side sparks his curiosity which has led to a lot of self taught skills, which has, ultimately, landed him work!

For example, he’s a self taught carpenter, this led him to run one of the largest commercial carpenter businesses in South Africa for 15 years. This also enabled him to make his own surfboards from scratch. He’s also a keen photographer, and has won awards for his work - but he would never call himself a Photographer - it’s just a skill he has, like the carpentry - it doesn’t define him. 

Grier and his whānau moved back to Aotearoa from Cape Town after a 28 year hiatus. As fate would have it - they arrived a week before the COVID-19 Lockdowns kicked in! 

After the lockdowns, work dried up, and so Grier planned to get back into carpentry, but there’s a lot more red tape and compliance regulation in NZ compared to South Africa he tells me. This made it virtually impossible to continue to pursue, so he pivoted and moved into architecture. 

How Renderrite came to be

It was through this career change that Grier met Chayse (the other half of Renderrite!) at an architecture company they both worked at. 

Late last year, having since left the company independently, they caught up over a coffee and the idea for Renderrite was soon born. 

Grier described Chayse as ‘The Designer’ and himself as ‘The Technical one’. 

Another reason why Renderrite happened when it did was Grier's prior mental health deterioration. Leading up to Grier quitting his role with the architecture company, he found he was not in a good place with his own mental health. He  saw his GP, was diagnosed and prescribed antidepressants. Soon after, in his own words - he went “bush” with his dogs in the Coromandel. This gave him an opportunity to disconnect (no Wi-Fi and mobile phone coverage) - instead, reconnect and recharge with nature.

Since returning to ‘real life’, as he puts it, he is keen to look after his own mental health. He’s disciplined with his daily schedule, allotting an hour to specific tasks. Breaking his day down like this enables him to carve out time to reconnect - so it’s not all work, work, work!

He’s also currently studying for a diploma in architecture to enhance his technical knowledge, and add another string to his bow. 

What is Renderrrite?

In a nutshell - Renderrite brings architectural drawings to life! They give architectural drawings a realistic look creating photographic-like images from their designs. They can take 2D designs and turn them into 3D designs  - as if you have a GoPro camera to walk around the space. They can even create a virtual reality experience with a head set for you to ‘walk through’ a space. 

This gives clients a greater sense of spatial awareness and how the design will look in reality, ultimately giving people a better visualization of something that doesn't exist yet.

One of the examples Grier gives for why this is important is if you are designing a gym; it means you can see how the equipment works in the space - understand the flow and where there might be bottlenecks. Essentially, you can play around with the layout in advance before committing.

They also have the ability to change the design - don’t like the colour or texture, no problem, Renderrrite can change that in an instant. 

Currently they are targeting architects, property developers in the commercial, industrial and residential space. Although their main focus is the New Zealand market, they are booked in to attend a design expo in Sydney later in the year and expand their reach to Australia. That’s the beauty with digital products, Grier tells me, they are easy to export!

Challenges and opportunities so far 

Grier shares that last year they managed to get two clients off the bat without even trying - just through word of mouth, it was hugely encouraging for them. Grier explains that success currently is a lead. He shares that they are working on building relationships and trust with customers and the market. He also adds, as it’s just the two of them, it doesn’t take much to keep them busy. 

At the moment, the main challenge for the team is getting people to connect with them, Grier admits he is spending a lot of his time cold calling. 

Grier and Chayse currently occupy a double office on our ground floor. As part of the giveaway, they get 10 weeks in the space for free. 

If you are interested in office space for yourself or your team, get in touch. You can find us at 148 Durham Street, Tauranga - we are open from 8:30am - 5:00pm or, you can drop us an email at info@basestation.nz or give us a call on 0800 000 577