Auckland company's designs selected as one of the world's best in prestigious UK design awards

Auckland based strategic design company, Alt Group, has received its second major international accolade of the year, with its graphic design work for Auckland based law firm, Hudson Gavin Martin, selected for inclusion in the internationally acclaimed Creative Review Annual 2009.

The Creative Review Annual - published by the UK’s Creative Review magazine (the world’s leading monthly magazine for visual communication) - showcases the finest creative work produced worldwide during the past year across the categories of advertising, graphic design, digital media, illustration, music videos and packaging. It is the only title in the world to cover all of these areas.

Judged by a selection panel of leading industry figures, thousands of entries from throughout the world were submitted for inclusion in this year’s Creative Review Annual, with just 98 designs selected for publication.

The Hudson Gavin Martin project - which has already won Alt Group a number of national and international awards (including one in February from the Type Directors Club in New York and the supreme Graphic Design Stringer at the 2008 Designers Institute of New Zealand’s BeST Design Awards) - made playful use of concept of “three”, with words such as Lock, Stock and Barrel; Equities, Assets and Liabilities and Ready Willing and Able, used on everything from artwork placed throughout the law firms’ offices to its print advertising and collateral.

Dean Poole, creative director of Alt Group, said the company was honoured that its work for the law firm was selected for inclusion in the prestigious design publication, alongside designs produced by some of the world’s preeminent design companies.

“We feel privileged that our work has been recognised as one of the world’s best designs of 2008. For our designs to be published in the Creative Review Annual, alongside designs from leading international design companies such as Pentagram and The Partners who we really admire, is a real testament to the commitment and talent of our team.”

Poole said that the inclusion of the firm’s work in the Annual was not only good news for the company, but also for promoting the New Zealand design industry.

“Having our work published in an international publication of this calibre helps show people around the globe that while New Zealand may be situated at the bottom of the world, we are creating world-class designs that are on par with what is being produced internationally in places such as New York and London.”

In addition to receiving this recent accolade, Alt Group was also recently named as a finalist in the design category of Australian Creative magazine’s Hotshop Awards, for their work on NZTE’s New Zealand New Music CD series (the award was subsequently won by high profile Sydney firm Toko).

Australian Creative’s Hotshop Awards recognise companies who are creating truly innovative solutions by pioneering fresh styles, techniques and strategies across a range of design disciplines.

Judges on this year’s Hotshop design panel described Alt’s work as “strong, diverse, solid and original” and referred to the company as “original thinkers”, with one judge commenting that they would be following Alt’s progress keenly.

Last year Alt Group won a total of 55 international and national awards, in their most successful year to date since the company was formed eight years ago.

The Creative Review Annual 2009 will be published in the May 2009 issue of Creative Review magazine.