It’s that time of year again down in the Southern Hemisphere, the best of the best are on parade courtesy in New Zealand’s national design awards, Best. With the usual suspects notching up a handful of nominations each it’s also great to see some new smaller agencies coming through, along with, for the first time, a number of recognised names from over the ditch. With the awards beginning to develop a following overseas it would be great to build on this awareness in the Australian industry and leverage Best onto the global stage. That’s the future anyway, let’s now take a look at the present and partake in a little crystal ball gazing. Who’s going to pick up the gongs within the Graphic section come 11th October? I would hazard a guess the following beauties might have a good shot…
Graphic Arts
Gingeralla — Special Group
This little gem has been popping up in cafes and bars recently. A great commercial example of graphic arts in action.
Best Effect (Effectiveness award)
H2Go — Unified
While the illustrators are the heros here you have to give a running high five to the simple idea of ‘making water look cool’. I’d hazard a guess that H2GO have shifted a fair few bottles since this artistic invasion took hold.
Corporate Communications
OzHarvest — Frost Design
A lovely pieces of corporate communication, a strong brand look and feel, simplicity and a great tone.
Editorial and Books
Issue 3 — Studio Magazine
A cheeky little plug for a winner of a project I have contributed to. Studio Magazine offers a rare insight into the world we work within with a nifty combo of fresh design and insightful content (if I do say so myself!)
Environmental
B&F — Supply
I love this piece of environmental work because it really embraces the medium. Rather than just making something that looks good, Supply have taken this idea to the next level and created a truly interactive experience.
Identity Development (Large Scale)
Sovereign — Designworks
To be honest this category is the least impressive for me. Creativity and ideas seem to be down unfortunately. Designworks’ work for Sovereign caught my attention from a photography perspective, nice to see a client invest in adding warmth to their brand through imagery.
Identity Development (Small Scale)
Antarctica New Zealand — BRR
This one has done the rounds of the blog-o-sphere. Its now high time my friends over at BRR picked up a worthy gong for a great conceptual piece of branding.
Nga Aho (Maori Award)
Ora — BRR
This award is an interesting one, celebrating true collaboration between designers, clients and cultures through a representation of New Zealand’s indigenous heritage. With only three finalist BRR have a good shot at this one too.
Packaging
Popchips — Marx Design
This one is a favourite of mine. Great to see designers rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck into a truly hand crafted approach — with great results!
Selp Promotion
Like Stamp — Saatchi and Saatchi
A bit of a cliche I have to say but you’ve got to hand it to them, this really does encapsulate the simplicity we all strive for in self promotion and is a winner when it comes to nailing the ‘stay on the clients desk’ mission.
Student
Chuan Tea — Anny Yuan
Great to see some nicely executed packaging making it’s way into the student category this year. A discipline often overlooked in the study-sphere, this gem shines through the sea of publication design. Great work.
Visual Communication
Ecoya — Special Group
This one is a winner for me. Fantastic idea for a truly arresting piece of visual communication beautifully executed. What more could you want?!
That’s a wrap folks. Check back post October 11th to find out who went home with the gold.
Tw: @bestawards