ALT GROUP WINS DESIGN OSCAR IN NEW YORK

Auckland based multidisciplinary design firm, Alt Group, has beaten off stiff international competition, scooping a coveted Gold Cube Award at last Thursday night’s (April 30) influential Art Directors Club (ADC) Awards in New York.

Alt Group was the only New Zealand design company to pick up a prize at this year’s ADC Awards.

Established in 1920, the ADC Annual Awards competition identifies and honours the best work of the year in print and broadcast advertising, interactive media, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration.

Alt Group received a Gold Cube for their work for Auckland based law firm Hudson Gavin Martin, a boutique legal practice specialising in intellectual property and technology law that was formed last year by the firm’s three partners - Wayne Hudson, Mark Gavin and Simon Martin.

Based around the concept that “all good things come in threes,” the 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 one in February from the Type Directors Club in New York and the supreme Graphic Stringer at the 2008 Designers Institute of New Zealand’s BeST Design Awards.

In April, the company also announced that their designs for the legal practice were among just 98 selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of the UK’s internationally acclaimed Creative Review Annual, which showcases the finest creative work produced worldwide in 2008.

In addition to being awarded an ADC Gold Cube at this year’s 88th ADC Awards, Alt Group also took home two Bronze Awards – one in the Packaging Design: Entertainment category for their work on NZTE’s New Zealand New Music Series and another in the Package Design: Food/Beverage category for their work for Hawke’s Bay winery, Farmgate Wines.

They were also awarded an Environmental Design Merit for the Hudson Gavin Martin Corporate Art Collection.

Dean Poole, creative director at Alt Group, said the company was “stoked” with their win.

“The ADC Awards are seen as being one of the highest accolades in the industry, so for our work to have taken home a Gold Cube against leading international firms is a real achievement for New Zealand design.”

Touted as the Oscars of the design world, the ADC awards are notoriously difficult to win, with entries strenuously and scrupulously judged by a panel of the world’s foremost creative experts, which means that earning a Cube is a true accomplishment.

“The polished, heavyweight ADC Cube is an enduring symbol of creative leadership and innovation,” explains the ADC.

“Winners take their place in the industry’s revered archive of the best work ever produced in advertising, design, photography, illustration and interactive media.”

All winning work will be documented in the Art Directors Annual (the longest running archive of leading creative work in global advertising, design and visual communications) and will be exhibited at the ADC Gallery in New York.

The top winners’ work will also be included in a multi-city worldwide tour that will travel throughout North America, Europe, Asia and South America.