ALT Group Wins Grand Prix At World’s Premium Design Awards
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.”
ENDS