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Rex Mc Intosh 

Click Suite, Magician and Technical Wizard

Rex is one of the cofounders of Click Suite, a web design company established in 1994, specialising in creating interactive exhibitions as well as design.   Rex is the technical expert behind all the projects and has a passion for fun and magic. He also ensures that the company stays ahead of the industry by testing new technologies and in some cases designing world first, new technologies of his own.

Before Click Suite, Rex was already ahead of the game designing computer generated images on TV, sparking the interest of Steve Wozniak from Apple, who made a special trip to NZ to visit Rex at home, to check out just what on earth he was doing on his Apple 2 computer.  

Then followed computer generated 3D animations for the AMP advertisement, with the deckchairs and umbrellas. Many of his animations for TV commercials have won international acclaim.

One of the highlights of the Te Papa Exhibition “Gallipoli The Scale of Our War” is the 3D skeleton which illustrates the impact of different weapons on the body. Rex’s attention to detail and perfectionism is ably represented by the reaction of the hand, which automatically moves to try to futilely deflect a hand grenade about to explode. 

Taking the Gallipoli Exhibition, one step further, Rex has created a 360-degree video viewable in a cardboard box that enables overseas museum visitors to use their phones and have their own virtual experience right there. 

  The inventive thinking is not just confined to work. Rex has no hesitation in coming up with a new device, whenever there is a need. When he wanted to enhance his golf and find out just how far away, he was from the hole, and how he could record his score – did he purchase an app? No. He made his own. Rex admits his golf is no sharper but at least he has a good record.

With his wife Emily, he has a boutique vineyard, which like other vineyards is susceptible to frost damage in the spring months. Naturally here was another opportunity for a challenge. An old air conditioning unit spotted in the scrap yard, courtesy of the Beehive, provided an interesting possibility. With the help of Rob Waugh, our local engineer, it has now been converted into a quirky frost machine. Rex adds, “Coming from the Beehive you could say it was used to producing hot air.”

Lyle Griffiths