Alt Group Make D&Ad Annual Cut

MEDIA RELEASE
May 1, 2009

Alt Group Make D&Ad Annual Cut

Auckland based multidisciplinary design firm, Alt Group, has yet another excuse to toast its 2009 successes, with the company’s work for Wellington based online accounting software company, Xero, being selected for inclusion in the UK’s prestigious D&AD Annual.

Just 717 entries out of the more than 20,000 pieces of work received in the D&AD Awards were bestowed with an In-book honour and selected for inclusion in the 2009 Annual, which showcases the world’s best work in advertising and design from the past year.

Alt Group took home an In-Book honour for an innovative direct mail piece designed for the online accounting software company that was founded in 2006 by successful technology entrepreneur Rod Drury and has TradeMe founder, Sam Morgan on its board.

“Our brief was to develop a direct mail piece to act as a general gift that supported Xero’s product and positioning,” said Dean Poole, creative director at Alt Group.

“Our solution was a bottle of wine which had the bottom line in mind.”

To draw attention to their client’s area of expertise and operations – accounting – and to emphasise that their software would assist companies to improve their bottom line, Alt Group cleverly emblazoned the words Profit and Loss across the front of the wine bottle, separated by a simple white line.

Short, sharp and snappy copy formed a key part of the promotional gift’s design, with the reverse side of the wine label simply reading: “With the world’s easiest accounting system, you’ll know when it’s time to drink the profits and commiserate the losses.”

News of Alt Group’s inclusion in the Annual comes just weeks after the company’s work was selected for inclusion in the UK’s Creative Review Annual. In February, the company was awarded a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club in New York. They were also finalists in the Editorial Category of the UK Design Week Awards and The Australian Creative Review Magazines Hotshop Awards.

The D&AD Annual will be published in August.
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For further information or images please contact:
Pauline Ray/Sarah Collier or Dean Poole/ Ben Corban
Dock Street Group Alt Group
+64 9 377 2907 + 64 9 360 3910
scollier@dockstreet.co.nz

Notes to Editors:

About Alt Group
Alt Group is an Auckland based strategic design company, established eight years ago by directors Ben Corban and Dean Poole. With a team of 18, the company’s long term vision is to be recognised as a boutique design firm that just happens to be based in New Zealand.

Major clients include New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, Farmgate Wines, Formway Furniture, and law firm, Hudson Gavin Martin.

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.

About the D&AD Awards
The D&AD Awards are the most internationally respected and prestigious creative awards for the design and advertising industries.

They encompass 29 disciplines, spanning all aspects of creative communications from writing and art direction to product design, graphic design, music videos and photography.

Every year over 20,000 entries are submitted from internationally leading agencies and design groups, clients, in-house studios, architectural practices, as well as film and post-production companies of over 58 nations.

The D&AD Awards offer the creative community the opportunity to be judged by its harshest critics – its peers. Nearly 300 eminent creative practitioners selected for their expertise in their field look for great ideas that are well executed and relevant to their context.

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