2011-08-08 18:32:05 // Deirdre Robert
// The Idealog Blog
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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. We’ve had a good ‘ole peruse through the finalist entries in all four categories and the experience has left us seriously gob-smacked at the amount of design and innovation goodness pouring forth from Kiwis.
2011-03-03 06:00:00 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
A few weeks ago the Designers Institute of New Zealand announced entries for the 2011 Best Awards will open April 1st (no joke). Now, with everyone hungry for more information, the institute has also revealed entries will close mid-July and with Awards taking place in October.
2010-11-08 16:54:36 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
In the last of our video interviews from the Best Design Awards, Brad Knewstubb, winner of the Purple Pin for spatial design, talks about twisting environments and distorting perceptions. He tells us why not taking the piss out of the American culture was a point of difference in the stage set creation of interactive production Apollo 13: Mission Control.
2010-11-04 06:55:02 // Vicki Holder
// The Idealog Blog
No big, fat Japanese wrestlers but Oh No Sumo push the boundaries. Taking home silver and gold awards at this year's Best Design Awards for their Paper Sky project and the Cupcake Pavilion, they unleash their unconventional creative thinking and tell us why they'd like to splash themselves in paint.
2010-11-03 09:12:36 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
Tim Hooson of Jasmax, honoured with a black pin for outstanding achievement at this year’s Best Design Awards, was stoked and rather humbled by his win. He tells us why society needs to understand the relationship between design, the environments we live in and our performance as individuals.
2010-10-26 12:00:10 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
Alt Group’s award sweeper Dean Poole talks about a maturing design culture and tells us why New Zealand is on par with any other design culture in the world. And what’s with his t-shirt?
2010-10-20 09:47:28 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
Having won several Gold awards in the past, this year’s Best Design Awards resulted in a first for Studio Alexander, with the team taking home the overall graphics award for their three-dimensional safety installation for Fletcher Construction. The secret to their winning success? Well for starters, it helps to have a young and talented team, and a courageous client who’s open to new ideas. But, as Grant and Kate Alexander tell us, the challenges of the project extended beyond the realms of design.
2010-10-19 10:12:54 // Fraser Gardyne
// The Idealog Blog
Emotive weapons are being brought even more to the front and centre of design than before, Fraser Gardyne tells us. The creative director at gardyneHOLT design and convenor of graphics judging for the Best Design Awards, takes stock of this year's awards and the emerging trends in design.
2010-10-18 16:31:56 // Vicki Holder
// The Idealog Blog
Normally bland and impersonal, gynaecologist’s offices don’t often make the cut for design awards. But this warm, playful and seductively curvaceous solution in Auckland, by Tim Dorrington of Dorrington Architects, breaks the mould to make potentially anxious clients feel more relaxed. It gained highly commended for an interior fitout in the New Zealand Timber Design Awards 2010 as well as a bronze for ‘Spatial Design—Rooms’, in the Best Design Awards.
2010-10-14 12:58:10 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
Possessor of the “best job in the world”, Cathy Veninga talks to Vincent Heeringa (it’s almost poetic) about why this years Best Design Awards are “rad” and shares her favourite moment of the night.
2010-10-12 16:49:23 // Design Daily Team
// The Idealog Blog
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Before they ventured to the bar, Vincent Heeringa managed to sneak a moment with the young and old of Sons & Co—winners of the Purple Pin in the interactive design category at this years Best Design Awards, for their website design for Christchurch Art Gallery. Charged with presenting over 5700 artworks, 500 multimedia files and 900 archived exhibitions on the one site, they tell us which poor soul was left with the task of scanning the works and also give us their take on the design industry heading forward.
2010-10-07 13:35:09 // Deirdre Robert
// The Idealog Blog
Eleven years ago four young men started a conversation that eventually led to the super power in creativity that we know today as Alt group. Having collected about a gazillion awards since its inception (roughly speaking), Alt's creative director and co-founder Dean Poole took the company's success another step further by snapping up the highly prestigious John Britten Black Pin award—for an individual who has made a major contribution to design nationally and internationally—at Friday’s Best Design Awards. So does winning this grandiose award change anything? No—life is as crazy as always he says. And he still can't cook.
