Gold. Silver. Purple.
DNA scored a unique double success at the annual Best Award. DNA’s work with Powershop was rewarded with a Gold Pin in the new Best Effect award and our rebranding of the New Zealand Childcare Association won silver in the Nga Aho award for ‘Aotearoaness’, also new.
These successes along with finalists in several categories reflect the breadth of DNA’s practice.
Both the new awards are open to entries spanning the four traditional disciplines (Graphic, Interactive, Spacial, Product) – with many of the entries, particularly in the Best Effect award – involving the integrated application of multiple disciplines.
DNA’s practice – shaping the whole customer experience – is likewise multi-disciplinary and we believe this is an important driver for the design profession. The quality of the total customer experience is the difference between the ordinary and the special, the cheap commodity and the high value niche offering. Designing the physical and digital spaces where customers interact, the products and services they consume and the communications wrapped around those is what we do and what the new awards focus on.
The Best Effect award is itself the result of a DNA initiative to make the Best Awards more truly reflect the commercial reality of the profession. It is judged not by designers but by business leaders. Return on investment and significant results are the criteria for success.
Best Effect, ‘Aotearoaness’ and the already established Sustainability Award together provide a sound blueprint for design in New Zealand. For NZ to succeed on the world stage and be the country we want to be we must move our goods and services up the value chain – integrated design of the customer experience is critical to that. Applying that design in ways which are sustainable, uniquely reflect our culture and our place in the world, and provide superlative returns is our profession’s contribution to that economic and social quest.