Tony Drawbridge

co owner-director

Tony is a born and bred Wellingtonian, from Island Bay on the wild South coast.

From an early age, Tony enjoyed creating things with his hands, using materials from his parents’ studios (Father: John Drawbridge, painter, printmaker and educator, and Mother: Tanya Ashken, Sculptor and silversmith)

At age 14, Tony made his first piece of silver jewellery, a small pendant, which he wore to school and immediately started taking orders from his friends.

After secondary school, Tony attended Whitireia Polytechnic, where he spent two years completing a national certificate in Craft & Design.

Tony then went on to study Product Design at the Wellington School of Design, in which he gained a Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design, 1995.

After working briefly at the Museum of New Zealand, Tony went to work for Richard Taylor at Weta Workshop. In those days Weta consisted of about 10 contractors, working on Peter Jackson’s film ‘The Frighteners’ and various creatures and effects for the TV series ‘Hercules’ and ‘Xena the Warrior Princess’.

As a creative, with a diverse skill set, Tony made his mark in the workshop, working with various materials, from leather to steel, plastic to clay.

After a stint working at Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment, under Dan Hannah, Production Designer, Tony secured a position in the hero props shop, for the production company set up to create the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Three Foot Six Ltd.

In 2001, Tony and his family moved to London, where Tony worked on a range of projects, from making effects for a children’s TV series, Home on their Own to designing and fabricating furniture details for Madonna.

Back in New Zealand, Tony returned to work for Wingnut Films Productions Ltd, as a props designer and maker. His role involved turning the Bag End film set lights (candle powered), into electric lighting.

In 2004, Tony and the other members of Izzat Design, joined forces again, as the hero prop makers for the Peter Jackson remake of ‘King Kong’. Again, lighting was a major aspect of the job, making New York street lamps too art deco wall lighting in the Empire State Building.

In May 2005, Tony, Jake, Simon and Chris set up Izzat Design in a water front workshop in Miramar.