Alt Group wins metal at One Show Design

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.

Alt Group won 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, saidtheir brief to Alt Group was “not to feel constrained by what theywould traditionally do for lawyers and to test our boundaries.”  

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

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

“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 andotherwise. With Hudson Gavin Martin we began a witty and engagingconversation that reveals ‘ideas’ that come in threes. The three wisemen, Hudson, Gavin and Martin are ‘cool, calm and collected,’ theyadvise 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 corebusiness – copyright and intellectual property law. 

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

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

The copyright, trademark and registered symbols were again a keyfeature, 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 ShowDesign wins have “capped off what has been a great start to the 2009award 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 aMerit at the ADC (Art Directors Club) Awards in New York, and theirwork was selected for inclusion in the UK’s Creative Review Annualearlier in the month. In February, the company was awarded aCertificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club inNew York, and were also finalists in the Editorial Category of the UKDesign Week Awards and Australian Creative magazine’s Hotshop Awards.

“This really is the icing on the cake for us. The One Show is abenchmark competition for our firm and these awards are a greatendorsement for New Zealand design on the international stage,” saidCorban.

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

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