The finalists of the annual Best Design Awards, organised by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, have been announced and are now available to be viewed online.
Handpicked from over 1000 entries, the finalists represent the best graphic, interactive, moving images, spatial and product designs for the past year.
Sydney-based designer and guest judge of the Graphic category, Paul Garbett said it is dedication to the craft and precision work that differentiates the NZ design industry. “The best examples answer the client brief and do so with surprise and delight. I appreciate work that zigs when others may have zagged,” he said.
The winners of the Best Design Awards 2016 will be announced at a high profile awards ceremony at the Viaduct Events Centre on Friday, October 14, 2016 but in the meantime here is a selection of finalists in the FMCG sector.
Smartass Toilet Paper by Design Dairy
Innocent Packaging strives to revolutionise the packaging industry by leading the way with sustainability-based products. Partnering with studio, Design Dairy, they decided to lose the typical ‘green’ connotations already associated with eco toilet paper, instead opting to use light humour, and thus smartass was born. The toilet paper is made from 100% renewable and fast growing sugar cane and bamboo fibres, free of bleach, inks, dyes and perfume. It was decided that smartass should have a mascot as an advocate for the message to be used on a wrap so Design Dairy briefed local artist Marita Hewitt to create an illustration of a dapper donkey who now champions sustainable toilet paper.
Nice Blocks packaging by Fuman
Nice Blocks are a dairy-free fair-trade ice block made with natural organic ingredients. Inspired by the ‘sprinkle explosion’ of 1980s, each Nice Blocks flavour received its own pairing of loud colour and energetic pattern design, with each pattern characterising an aspect of the product. “We wanted to find a look that would create a sense of nostalgia among adults while also looking fresh and exciting to a younger audience,” the designers said.
Strangelove packaging by Marx Design
Strangelove is an Australian based organic craft mixer company. The brand is built around mankind’s inner-conflicts such as the evolutionary desire for self-preservation on one hand, with the self-destructive yearnings we experience during a liver-destroying Friday night on the other. The colour palette is inspired by the cocktail hours of the 1950s as a metaphor for the brand – intriguing and classy from the outside, but slightly sleazy on closer inspection. “We made Strangelove’s newest range of tonics as strange and intriguing as the brand that created it,” says the NZ based design studio Marx Design.
Lumojo honey packaging by Alt Group
Lumojo is a premium New Zealand honey sold in reusable stoneware pots. Alt Group designed the form of the pot to communicate an idea — ‘honey made by bees, ceramics made by hand’. Most honey on the market is either manufactured in glass or plastic but the idea here was not to follow the conventions of shelf presence, but table presence. “The result is a handmade vessel that you would leave out,” according to Alt, “shifting away from glass jar to honey pot, mass production to hand production, plastic to stoneware, and from throwaway to reuse.” Each honey varietal is matched with a custom glaze reflecting the origins of the flower in honey production such Kamahi pink or Manuka white.
