PARALLEL UNIVERSE: THE ART AND DESIGN OF ROY GOOD

Director: Craig Ray
Duration: 80 mins
Year: 2026
Documentary, local

From the 1960s onward, while much of New Zealand art was preoccupied with landscape, identity and regional narrative, Roy Good pursued something more radical—an international language of geometry, colour and space. Influenced by Bauhaus principles and the clarity of De Stijl, he saw no boundary between painting, design and architecture.

Born in Timaru in 1945 and trained in Christchurch, Good moved to Auckland where he built a parallel career that would shape New Zealand’s visual culture. As a set designer for landmark television programmes such as C’mon and Happen Inn, he brought op art rhythms and modernist spatial thinking into living rooms across the country. Later, as a graphic designer, he created nationally recognised logos, embedding abstraction into everyday life.

But beneath the commercial success was an unwavering commitment to non-objective painting. At a time when realism dominated, Good aligned himself instead with Mondrian, Malevich, Frank Stella and Bridget Riley. He joined a small circle of Auckland abstractionists—artists more interested in transcendence through form, than any nationalist symbolism.

Through archival footage, studio access and reflections from peers, it situates Good within a distinctly New Zealand context while revealing his international reach.