In Residence with

Kayla Jurlina

Exploring instinct, authenticity, and unexpected ideas with creative director Kayla Jurlina.

Kayla Jurlina is the kind of creative who makes you look at things twice. Her mid-century home in Te Atatu Peninsula feels like an extension of her mind: considered, quietly worldly, full of things that have a story. She lives here with her husband and two children, a household that hums with creativity.

Her career has never followed a straight line. Seven years designing for Trelise Cooper. A side venture that became something more, when a discovery of 150 pairs of vintage earrings and a love of '80s power dressing gave rise to Homage, her own project-based brand. Then, after stepping back to be present for her young family, a return to work just over a year ago has quietly, quickly, become something remarkable.

Today, Kayla runs her own creative consultancy, and the brands finding their way to her door are the ones with something real to say. She's become one of the most sought-after creative directors for brands that want authenticity over aspiration, relevance over polish, and someone with the instinct to find the unexpected angle every time.  Her work spans creative direction, art direction, styling and design, and she brought that same sensibility to the reopening of the BAYA Auckland Showroom with the BAYA HOME event, and was the creative force behind our own recent campaign, Crafted for Living.

We visited Kayla’s home in Tāmaki Makaurau to talk about what it means to build a career entirely on your own terms, and why the best ideas so often start somewhere unexpected.

Seven years at Trelise Cooper is a real creative education. What did that time give you that you couldn't have learned anywhere else?

It gave me a full-circle understanding of the fashion industry. I wasn’t just designing, I experienced every part of the creative process, from fabric fairs in Shanghai and Paris while adding on inspirational buying trips which sparked my love for sourcing.

Coming back home and designing the ranges to production fittings through to cookbook & campaign shoots. I would dip into sales to help tell the story of the inspiration of the collection to wholesalers occasionally.

Being exposed to all of this within the fashion industry at such a young age gave me an understanding that would have taken years to achieve on my own or been very limited by other brands within NZ. It taught me how every detail contributes to the final outcome and gave me a real connection to the art of storytelling, the inspiration or creative process and bringing that through to the shoot and capturing a moment of meaning.

You stepped away from work to have your children, and came back just over a year ago - to what has become a really significant moment in your career. Did the time away change how you work, or what you wanted from it?

I actually never fully stepped away. I worked right up until I gave birth to my son, Rome, continued consulting throughout that time, and fell into my second pregnancy quite soon after… Bringing my daughter Marni along to photoshoots in a front pack when she was 4 weeks old. It was more of a sacred time. I didn't need to publicly show it.

Being home with my children was a really profound period in my life. At times it was difficult because I felt like I was being left behind by the industry, but it completely shifted what I valued. It made me appreciate the small things: making a morning coffee, cooking again, creating a beautiful home, and finding joy in the everyday details, from coffee cups and teaspoons to towels and hand soap.

"It also made me realise how much the feeling of home matters when you’re raising children. I found myself constantly weighing up the big experiences versus making everyday life beautiful."

That appreciation for the small moments has naturally flowed into my work. A lot of my projects now are about helping people slow down, connect with everyday rituals and find beauty in the moments that often go unnoticed.

Mid-century bones, all this greenery outside, everything in your home feels like it belongs. Did it come together intuitively, or was it a slow edit?

It has definitely been a slow edit and a lot of moodboarding!

We wanted to honour the original architecture, so I went to Auckland University to find the original Group Architects drawings and researched the family who had commissioned the house.

Our goal was always to restore it back to its original intent, while making small, thoughtful updates that suited modern family living.

It’s also been a huge collaboration. My dad is a builder, one of our close friends, Trent, is a landscaper. Even though we have done a lot, the list keeps growing…

The brands coming to you now seem to be chasing something specific - authenticity, real-life relevance, the unexpected. What do you think they're recognising in your work?

I’m not actually sure if it’s something they’re seeing in my work itself, or whether it’s the connections I build with people. I’m not particularly great at posting or constantly sharing my work online.

Since having children, I care much more deeply about the people behind the brands and genuinely helping them. I think clients feel that. Building relationships and understanding what they’re trying to achieve has become just as important to me as the creative itself, and I think that creates a level of trust that naturally leads to stronger work.

You and your husband seem to share this genuinely worldly outlook. A design literacy that goes beyond references. Where does that come from, and how does it shape the way you move through life together as a family?

I think we’ve always both had really big dreams and high hopes for ourselves, and that’s probably what attracted us to each other in the first place. Meeting someone who dreamed as big as I did made those goals feel more achievable together.

Creativity isn’t just part of our jobs, it’s how we’ve chosen to build our family life. We bought a mid-century home knowing it would require an enormous amount of work, time and money to restore, but we believed creating a beautiful, thoughtful environment would shape the way our children experience creativity growing up.

Andrew also runs Blink, which is a creative agency that creates everything under one roof, from concepts, graphic design through to the execution of printing, laser cutting & 3D printing. We share a lot of clients and creativity is something we both live every day, and it naturally flows through our home, our work and the way we’re raising our children.

When you're at the start of a creative idea, what does that process actually look like? Where do you begin?

The beginning is actually my favourite part of the whole process. I always leave a client meeting or briefing feeling full of momentum, and my mind immediately starts racing with possibilities.

I begin by researching the industry, looking at competitors and seeing what’s already being done. I use Pinterest, Substack and social media as research tools. I’ll spend a couple of days simply collecting imagery without forcing an outcome.

After that, I go back through everything I’ve saved and look for common threads. Somehow patterns always begin to emerge, and I start recognising the themes I’m naturally drawn towards. From there, I develop different creative treatments and directions.

Colour is a huge part of my process. I always return to the brand’s existing colours before developing complementary campaign palettes that help bring a campaign to life visually. I also work with Japanese Pantone books throughout this process.

"Once the creative direction is established, I document everything thoroughly."

I explain every stage of the thinking, build mock-ups using the client’s products, and create visuals that allow them to see exactly what they’re getting before we ever shoot a campaign or produce an event. I want clients to be able to fully visualise the final outcome before we begin, and then I present the complete creative treatment back to them.

You're a mother of two, running your own consultancy, living in a house that feels like a mood board brought to life. Is there a version of you that separates all of those things, or is it all just one continuous creative life?

For me it’s all one continuous creative life. I honestly feel like I moodboard everything. I moodboard my bathroom, our bed linen, the gardens, paint colours.

Moodboarding is a real visual language for me. It’s how I think, how I process ideas and how I make decisions. It doesn’t stop when work finishes, it’s just part of how I live every day. 

Kayla's Rug

Norfolk in Olive