Alt Group shines at one show design awards in New York

Auckland based multidisciplinary design firm, Alt Group, is having to expand their trophy cabinet after winning two coveted Pencils (a Silver and a Bronze), and two Merit Awards at the prestigious One Show Design awards, which were held in New York this morning (New Zealand time). Alt Group was the only New Zealand company to take home a Pencil at this year’s awards.

The One Show Design awards, now in their ninth year and part of what is widely regarded as one of the advertising industry’s most prestigious international awards programmes - the One Show awards - is a highly respected worldwide competition that recognises and rewards true excellence in design.

Alt Group beat off thousands of other entries from around the globe to take home the two lauded Pencils – a Silver in the Corporate Identity – Campaign category and a Bronze in the Collateral Promotion section - for their work for Auckland based intellectual property and technology law firm, Hudson Gavin Martin.

Based around the concept that “all good things come in threes,” the Hudson Gavin Martin project - which saw Alt Group designing everything from the law 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 Design Stringer at the 2008 Designers Institute of New Zealand’s BeST Design Awards.

Mark Gavin, one of the three partners at Hudson Gavin Martin, said their brief to Alt Group was “not to feel constrained by what they would traditionally do for lawyers and to test our boundaries.”

“They took ‘what we do’ from a one hour brainstorm, coupled it with what we wanted for our new firm - quality work for quality clients but with a sense of fun internally and externally - and created “the firm”. What they developed was spot on; we loved it from the very first iteration and if there was a debate (if you can call it that) it was over fonts!”

The concept of “three” (which among other things, reflects the firm having three partners – Hudson, Gavin and Martin) was a major feature of the corporate identity that Alt Group devised for the boutique legal practice.

“Colloquial wisdom has it that all good things come in threes,” said Dean Poole, creative director at Alt.

“Culture and customs offer up all sorts of threesomes – humorous and otherwise. With Hudson Gavin Martin we began a witty and engaging conversation that reveals ‘ideas’ that come in threes. The three wise men, Hudson, Gavin and Martin are ‘cool, calm and collected,’ they advise on clients’ ‘assets, equities and liabilities,’ and are ‘ready, willing and able.’”

In a clever use of relevant symbols, the identity uses the copyright, trademark and registered symbols to directly reference the firm’s core business – copyright and intellectual property law.

The concept of three was also carried through into Alt’s other Pencil winning project – the Christmas gift pack they designed for the law firms’ clients.

“The concept of three is such an integral part of the Hudson Gavin Martin brand, so it was important we continued to emphasise it. The word Christmas was used three times and the gift itself comprised three parts – wine, a rolling pin and a candle – all the ingredients for a celebration or three. A holy trinity if you will.”

The copyright, trademark and registered symbols were again a key feature, with Alt innovatively incorporating them into the design, transforming the word Christmas into ©h®is™as.

Ben Corban, managing director at Alt Group said that the One Show Design wins have “capped off what has been a great start to the 2009 award season”.

Already this year the company has won 17 major international accolades. Last week, the company won a coveted Gold Cube, two Bronze Cubes and a Merit at the ADC (Art Directors Club) Awards in New York, and their work was selected for inclusion in the UK’s Creative Review Annual earlier in the month.

In February, the company was awarded a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club in New York, and were also finalists in the Editorial Category of the UK Design Week Awards and Australian Creative magazine’s Hotshop Awards.
“This really is the icing on the cake for us. The One Show is a benchmark competition for our firm and these awards are a great endorsement for New Zealand design on the international stage,” said Corban.

Corban said a combination of having a “brave and trusting client” and a “talented and committed design team,” contributed to the success of the project.

In addition to picking up two One Show Design Pencils, Alt Group was also awarded two Merits – one in the Package Design – Campaign category for their work for Hawke’s Bay based winery Farmgate Wines, and another in the Environmental Design section for the Hudson Gavin Martin corporate art collection.

The One Show Design awards – one of the three programmes that make up the One Show Festival Week - were held on Monday, May 4 at the landmark IAC Building in New York City.