Best of the Best: Our picks of the Best Awards 2011 finalists

By Deirdre Robert, August 8, 2011 @ 6:32 pm

Humane possum traps, a home brewing system, a typography installation, a remote controlled skateboard, an interactive New Zealand army video game that utilises small scale models and a user-controlled camera, and Auckland International Airport’s departure area. Put these together in a sentence and you might struggle to find a common theme, but throw in "Best Awards" and the picture becomes a whole lot clearer because these are just some of the newly announced finalists for the 2011 round of awards, coming to you courtesy of The Designer’s Institute of New Zealand.

We’ve had a good ‘ole peruse through the finalist entries in all four categories — Graphic, Interactive, Product and Spatial — and the experience has left us seriously gobsmacked at the amount of design and innovation goodness pouring forth from Kiwis.

With over 100 finalists in contention for an award at the ceremony, which takes place on October 7, we’ve decided to share some of our favourites from each category. Deep breath:

GRAPHIC

Clemenger BBDO: 'Sounds Like Us' Posters

Clemenger BBDO: ACC Fabric Scooters

Massey University College of Creative Arts: Urban tales shadow typography

Clemenger BBD): REAL New Zealand Festival

INTERACTIVE

Aim Proximity: Crash Test Eggs

Shift: The New newzealand.com

Strategy Design and Advertising: Share an Idea

PRODUCT

David Trubridge Ltd: Tipu

Massey University Auckland School of Design: Carve3

Auckland University of Technology: Fisher and Paykel MR 850 respratory humidifier

Design Build Listen Ltd. The Wand Tonearm

Burroughs Pilcher Design Limited. WilliamsWarn Brewer

Massey University: Minotaur Fire Nozzle

SPATIAL

Running with Scissors: Running with Scissors
Unitec: Urban Campground- Fort street, Auckland city, New Zealand

Horrockses Design . Re-purposing the Villa

Cheshire Architects: Cafe Hanoi

Stack: Air New Zealand - Aviation Institute

And if that hasn’t satiated your design appetite quite enough, head along to the Best Awards website to check out the remaining finalists.