infonews.co.nz
INDEX
BUSINESS

Alt Group wins Grand Prix at World's Premium Design Awards

Monday 14 December 2009, 12:33PM

By Alt Group

868 views

On stage at red dot awards in Essen, Germany are Professor Dr Peter Zec, president of red dot awards, Dean Poole and Ben Corban, of Alt Group with grand prix award, and international juror, Michel de Boer, from the Netherlands.
On stage at red dot awards in Essen, Germany are Professor Dr Peter Zec, president of red dot awards, Dean Poole and Ben Corban, of Alt Group with grand prix award, and international juror, Michel de Boer, from the Netherlands. Credit: Alt Group
Hudson Gavin Martin corporate identity brochure.
Hudson Gavin Martin corporate identity brochure. Credit: Alt Group

Ben Corban and Dean Poole of Auckland multidisciplinary design company, Alt Group travelled to Essen, Germany last week to collect their major haul of four red dots at the world’s premium design awards, but arrived home in the weekend with a grand prix also in their luggage.

The red dot: grand prix, the first to be given to a New Zealand design company, is awarded for the best work in a category and the multi award-winning design company won the grand prix in communication design for their identity work for Auckland law firm, Hudson Gavin Martin. Only six grand prix were awarded out of 6,112 entries in the 2009 red dot awards, one of the design industry’s largest and most prestigious international competitions.

The Hudson Gavin Martin project - which saw Alt Group designing everything from the firm’s branding, corporate artwork, print advertising and collateral - has already won the company a bevy of national and international design awards, including a Silver at the 2009 Cannes Design Lions, two Pencils at the One Show Design Awards and a Gold Cube at New York’s ADC Awards.

Hudson Gavin Martin is a boutique legal practice formed by three partners, who advise on intellectual property and technology law and Alt Group devised the identity for the legal practice as an ongoing conversation about how good ideas come in “threes.” This was extended into the total office environment: where a custom made carpet welcomes clients with a Hop, Skip and Jump message; and with various text based artworks and brochures which emphasise the trilogy of business – Friends, Family, Fools; Beg, Borrow, Steal; Equity, Assets, Liabilities

As well as the grand prix, Alt Group brought home two highly esteemed ‘red dot: best of the best’ (best of category) awards for their work for Hudson Gavin Martin, and also iconic New Zealand furniture manufacturer, Formway.

The ‘red dot’ quality label was also presented to Alt in Essen for their work for Hawke’s Bay based Farmgate Wines and their Hudson Gavin Martin ©h®is™as project.

Last week’s win caps off what has been a hugely successful awards season for the Ponsonby based firm, which has seen them pick up 58 international and local design awards in 2009.

Alt Group creative director, Dean Poole, said that winning a grand prix award was a great achievement for New Zealand design.

“This award validates our whole team’s commitment to design excellence and is a great endorsement for New Zealand on the international stage.”